Beacon and SSID overhead calculator
Every SSID broadcasts beacons that eat airtime before a single client connects. See how much yours cost.
Estimate your beacon overhead
- Beacons per second
- 40
- Airtime per beacon
- 2.27 ms
- PHY
- DSSS
Approximate model: preamble + frame transmission time + one DIFS, per beacon. Excludes probe responses and other management traffic.
Why beacon overhead matters
Access points beacon every SSID on every radio at the lowest mandatory basic rate, many times a second, whether or not anyone is connected. Stack up too many SSIDs, or leave the basic rate at 1 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band, and management traffic alone can consume a real slice of airtime, slowing every client on the channel.
How to cut it
- Consolidate SSIDs. Each one multiplies beacon airtime across every radio.
- Disable low basic rates (1, 2, 5.5 Mbps) so beacons go out faster.
- Lengthen the beacon interval where roaming and power-save allow.
Related WiFi tools
Too many SSIDs to manage?
Multi-tenant venues often sprawl to one SSID per tenant. Purple consolidates onboarding behind a single SSID with per-tenant PPSK and isolation, so you keep the segmentation without the airtime tax.
Talk to a WiFi expert