one "strong" AP vs multiple smaller

[leonb]

Ive heard the argument that it doesn't help putting in one hi powered AP to cover the whole house, since the wifi connection also depend on the client device submitting a signal back to the AP, and these are normally much weaker.

Is this correct?

Does the signal of the AP and client device meet somewhere in the middle, or must the client device submit signal all the way back to the physical AP device?

Second scenario doesnt seem right to me. If I e.g. connect my gsm phone to a tower 15km away, Im fairly sure the signal from my phone will not travel all the way back (15km) to tower?

 

[irBosOtter]

Ive heard the argument that it doesn't help putting in one hi powered AP to cover the whole house, since the wifi connection also depend on the client device submitting a signal back to the AP, and these are normally much weaker.

Is this correct?

Does the signal of the AP and client device meet somewhere in the middle, or must the client device submit signal all the way back to the physical AP device?

Second scenario doesnt seem right to me. If I e.g. connect my gsm phone to a tower 15km away, Im fairly sure the signal from my phone will not travel all the way back (15km) to tower?

Yes, obviously it has to send the signal back all the way.

And your gsm cellphone can connect to gsm towers up to 50Km's away, so yes, they do send the data all the way back.

 

[D4N_CPT]

Yes, You need to communicate with the source. If you meet someone halfway on a journey, it does not mean that you have reach your destination for said journey.

Anyhow, to answer you question; It depends on the size of the house. If the area you are trying to cover is to small, you will loose quality due to the individual APs generating noise for one-another. This is not always the case, for example if you implement Fast Roaming (802.11r if I recall correctly) then all your APs will run on the same Channel.

But I am drifting off-topic here, to get back to your question, more than one device will give you some redundancy and better coverage in a multi-story environment, but depending on device manufacturer will most likely require you to at least set the Channels manually. A phone with WiFi Analyser will help determine which channels to use.

If you live in a mansion, maybe best to ask your on-site IT Department , or rather invest in a multi device mesh setup that does all the hard work for you (something like the Ubiquiti Amplifi or similar, many manufacturers have similar devices now, just saw the Amplifi on MBB home page recently and I have often made use of there Unifi APs for work).

 

[leonb]

How likely is the client wifi to be the limiting factor when installing a single AP that boosts signal to cover a large area, multiple walls etc

 

[irBosOtter]

How likely is the client wifi to be the limiting factor when installing a single AP that boosts signal to cover a large area, multiple walls etc

Very likely, most client devices can't handle going through 2 brick walls

 

[D4N_CPT]

Very likely, most client devices can't handle going through 2 brick walls

Especially 5GHz