Apart from great organisation, speakers, and coffee, conference delegates generally rate WiFi connectivity as one of the most important needs at a conference. So, while the word spread that the number of registered Net Prophet delegates (Net Prophet is a South African conference we sponsor) was fast approaching the 900 mark, we were meticulously plotting how we were going to provide free WiFi; whilst trying to figure out exactly how many devices would be connected on the day, and at any given time.

From last year’s conference (400 delegates), we learnt that balancing the load across eight 1mb/s connections was simply not going to cut it this time. We needed to find something that would allow 900+ delegates to freely tweet, upload, download, check emails, send emails and chat to their friends who were missing out on the conference.

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/mikestopforth/status/13910019982"]
 

Some of the challenges that face conference WiFi are:

1. Providing enough back-haul Internet capacity
2. Limiting per user download and upload speed
3. WiFi coverage within the venue
4. Wireless interference
5. Wireless Access Point congestion

Net Prophet takes the form of a one day conference held in a large conference facility. We calculated that we would need an Internet back-haul link total with the capacity of about 20Mb/s down and 10Mb/s up to give the largely tech crowd a great experience. We provisioned this directly from our Data Centre in Cape Town via 2 5.8Ghz point to point wireless links to the roof of the conference venue.

Inside the venue we set up a Linux firewall to provide DHCP along with per protocol queuing to ensure that no single user was able to abuse the service and slow speeds down for others.

Quality of service needed to be assured and our techs set up a few ‘queues’ on the router. The router would evaluate traffic and put it into the relevant queue (email, Web traffic, torrents, and ‘other’), which we monitored throughout the day, allowing us to adjust the queues accordingly should any latency be experienced. We also prioritised bandwidth to websites we knew would be accessed during the day by most users like Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic, Bitly and a few others.

To cover the venue in a WiFi blanket we used technology from Xirrus in the form of 16 access points each, with the radio turned down to 50% and with a sectorized antennae to focus the signal. Due to the constraints of the 2.4Ghz technology it is important not to overload individual access points but rather try to spread the load across as many access points as possible.

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/smagdali/status/13919804313"]
 

When conference delegates arrive in the morning there is usually a surge in usage, as everyone turns on their laptops, iPhones and iPads. To manage this and ensure all delegates got a reasonable connection, we rate limited each wireless connection to 2Mb/s. During the morning session, there were on average 132 devices connected and we were downloading approximately 2Mbps – 4Mbps (30% of which was for email). After the first tea break, news obviously spread about the free WiFi connectivity, so we removed the limiting. The number of devices connected immediately increased to 165. Continuous downloading on the link then jumped to between 5 Mbps – 8Mbps (90% being Web traffic) with the maximum being 14.9 Mbps, but as much as 10Mbps for extended 5 minute periods.

Towards the end of the conference, Web traffic decreased to 4Mbps, email traffic virtually disappeared, and ‘other’ traffic increased. Interestingly enough, the lowest traffic – less than 2Mbps – was recorded during Richard Mulholland’s presentation (Social Media: The side effects), just proving that we all “Stopped. Listened and took thing in.”

Of the 900+ delegates in attendance, only 1 person made an attempt at a torrent, but that was only for about 20 minutes before we stopped him (or her). Other than that, it was a very responsible crowd!

The event, which is hosted by the RAMP Foundation, brings together the most innovative / successful / creative / ambitious thinkers and entrepreneurs in the local Internet space, to share their stories, ideas and predictions for the future. The event is not just for people within the tech industry, but is beneficial for anyone who has web-based business interests.

This year’s event is a celebration of digital success in Africa, and also answers burning questions such as: How connected is South Africa and Africa? What are we doing with these online capabilities? Can we teach the world a thing or two about innovation? And what does a company need to do to tap into this opportunity?

The speaker (Prophet) line-up features an interesting mix of big industry names, innovators, international tech commentators and the tech rock stars of tomorrow:

• Stephan Ekbergh – Travelstart
• Arthur Goldstuck – World Wide Worx
• Erik Hersman – Ushahidi, AfriGadget, TED Fellow
• Patrick Kayton – Bright Sparks & Cognician
• Sarah Lacy – TechCrunch.com
• Vinny Lingham – yola, Clicks2Customers, Lingham Capital
• Stefan Magdalinski – moo.com & Mocality
• Richard Mulholland – Missing Link & Thunk!
• Stephen Newton – Google South Africa
• Stuart Ntlathi – Stuart Ntlathi Institute of Science and Technology
• Adii Rockstar – WooThemes

Joining the party is Richard Hardiman from KFM, who will be hosting a panel on ‘International trends and opportunities that local entrepreneurs can tap into’.

Net Prophet 2010 promises to be one of the biggest tech events of the year. We hope to see you there. For more info, please visit www.netprophet.org.za

Delegates of Net Prophet 2009

Feedback from the NetProphet conference has exceeded all our expectations. Originally planned as a 100 delegate conference, then 200, it quickly expanded to 450 registered users, so much so that registration had to be closed! On the day an extra row of chairs had to be put out to accomodate all the delegates.

The speakers were fantastic, they also managed to keep the topics less technical and more informative so it wasnt just another geek event. The appeal was across industries, not just IT. They shared insights into what they do with real world examples of their experiences and advice on how to build your own web-enabled business. The content from the event will be posted with video and slides on the Netprophet website to allow more people access to the excellent content.

Some comments: Arthur Goldstuck said “I have never seen so many people at an Internet Conference before”, Peter Flynn said “All software will ultimately be web-based” and Mike Stopforth – “How conferences in SA should be run”

RSAWEB was one of the headline sponsors to make NetProphet possible, along with sister company WhiteWallWeb and the Innovation Fund. There is talk that Cape Town has become the “Silicon Cape” – the Silicon Valley of Africa and NetProphet has helped enable that!

Twitter was also a major success factor in the conference, with a twitter fountain pulling up all the #Netprophet tags. We managed to ‘trend’ into the Top 10 and got to be the 2nd most talked about topic on twitter in the world for over 2 hours.

NetProphet was conceived by the Directors of the RAMP Foundation and is a new initiative created to inspire creativity and the flow of ideas among entrepreneurs and stake-holders who operate in the internet-tech space in Africa & South Africa.

If you missed the event this year, go and register now on the Netprophet website for updates around the next event.

Net Prophet essentially provides a platform to introduce South Africa’s true ‘Net Prophets’, a host of industry experts who will help delegates get a handle on where the industry is headed, the technologies and companies investors are interested in, hot new trends to follow and practical ways to extract maximum business value from the Internet.

Net Prophets speaking at the event include Herman Heunis, CEO of Mixit, Arthur Goldstuck, owner of World Wide Worx, social media specialist, Mike Stopforth, Hannes van Rensburg, founding member of Fundamo, Dave Duarte of Huddleminds and Peter Flynn, MD of White Wall Web to name but a few.

Topics to be discussed include:

• Why the Digital Going is Good in Bad Times
• Harnessing the Social Web for Brands
• Successfully Integrating Web and Mobile into Your Media Mix
• Software as a Service
• The Entrepreneur’s Perspective on Vulture Capital
• The Art of Making the Transition to Transacting Online
• Opportunities for Entrepreneurs Looking to the Mobile Web

The conference is hosted by the non-profit RAMP Foundation and is FREE to attend (delegates must register at www.netprophet.org.za in order to attend).

To find out more, or register for this event, visit www.netprophet.org.za.