
Super Bowl to handle 30,000 Wi-Fi users, sniff out “rogue devices” - iProject
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/super-bowl-plans-to-handle-30000-wi-fi-users-at-once-and-sniff-out-rogue-devices/
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diminoten
I feel like 30,000 concurrent users is _woefully_ underestimated. The article
says "During the Super Bowl, the network will be able to handle up to 30,000
simultaneous connections, which should be enough." but I wonder where that
estimate came from.

I would double that, in my estimates, given the kinds of people even capable
of securing Super Bowl tickets. W're not talking about a fair sample of the US
population here, we're talking about 80k at-least middle class fans, which I'd
imagine raises the likelihood of a wireless-capable device being in their
pockets significantly.

Again from the article: "As long as 100 percent of the people in there don't
take out their cellular device and switch it to the Wi-Fi network, it should
be fine."

Given the fact that it's an open network, why do these people even need to
take out their device at all? Many phone will jump onto an open network if at
all possible, won't they?

I'd be interested in a post-mortem after the event to determine the
effectiveness of the Wi-Fi plan.

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GigabyteCoin
Just because 100% of the audience is capable of using wifi doesn't mean that
100% of them will be using it _simultaneously_.

Tickets cost a minimum of $2,000 on stubhub.com for nosebleed seats.

This event only happens once a year.

People _really_ want to see this thing live.

With a drink in one hand, popcorn in the other, and a smile on their face, I
would be surprised if more than 10% of the audience was glued to their phone
at any one given time.

~~~
nicw
The article points out that during the 3 hours of the Superbowl, only an
average of 11 minutes is actual playing time. That's a lot of downtime where
fans in those $2,000 seats will be watching replay videos, uploading their
own, and checking stats.

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ImprovedSilence
Better not use that microwave in your luxury box, the Mercedes-benz-superdome-
FCC will be on your ass in a hot second.....

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trout
For the curious, this is a small scale map of what they'll be viewing:
[http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5755/p...](http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5755/ps6301/ps6386/images/0900aecd806364db_null_null_null_05_03_05-3.jpg)

I would be really curious to what the wireless spectrum looks like at an event
like that. Most football fans won't bring more than a phone, but with 80,000
people there will be some outliers. Maybe someone decides to bring a walkie
talkie set that works over the 2.4 Ghz band, lots of people with bluetooth
headsets, or other odd bluetooth devices. Wireless cameras can ruin Wifi on
the same bands.

Monitoring 'rogue' devices is actually a requirement of all parts of a
business that handle credit card transactions (PCI). It's to prevent card card
data from leaking out of a planted wireless device (small device plugged into
bag of a register/pc, etc). That's one of the main drivers for this technology
existing beyond anything else.

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StevenXC
> Well, maybe not. The NFL manages to spread 60 minutes of clock time across
> three hours in a typical game. What with time running off the clock between
> plays and the typical play lasting about four seconds, an average game ends
> up with only 11 minutes of action.

Setting aside the fact that this entire paragraph was irrelevant to the point
of the article, it always irritates me as a (college) football fan when people
cite this statistic. There are far more than 60 minutes of "action" from
kickoff to the final play. Most of American football is actually about
strategy - if you're completely ignoring what happens between when the play is
whistled dead and when the ball is snapped next, you're going to be very
confused, and I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't enjoy it.

But we can all agree that TV timeouts suck when you're in the stadium.

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newman314
I wonder how many people are going to be sniffing the open network.

~~~
pokoleo
As a percentage, I'm calling 2%

~~~
youngerdryas
I think that is wildly optimistic. I'd be surprised if 2% were not drinking,
though there may be some overlap.

~~~
mirkules
The only thing more dangerous than bored hackers is _drunk_ bored hackers.

Bur seriously, with only 11 minutes of action in a 3-hour event, 2% may be
realistic.

~~~
heartbreak
The 11 minutes number assumes that you don't consider the formation (and
constantly changing formations) before the actual play is run to be
interesting.

Although the Super Bowl isn't known for attracting "true" fans, I would hope
that "true" football fans would appreciate the intricacies that take place
before and after the plays are run.

Edit: And honestly you think 1,400 people are going to be trying to sniff the
WiFi from within the Super Dome?

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rdtsc
Is the issue interference or they want to stop people taking pictures and
sending them or offering free hot spots?

~~~
mikestew
They don't want some rogue devices screwing it up for everyone else. The
stadium is offering free WiFi, so there's no attempt to block communications
and there is no need for kind souls to offer free WiFi.

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mprovost
Is this even legal? Aren't the frequencies used by wi-fi explicitly set up to
be unregulated by the FCC? Can a private company force you to turn off a
device legally operating on those frequencies?

~~~
mikestew
They don't make you turn off anything. You simply can't bring it in. Just like
you can't bring in your own food or drink. The FCC and radio spectrum
legalities don't enter into it.

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Benferhat
One person with WifiKill[0] is going to spoil it for everyone.

[0] <http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1282900>

~~~
amalag
They claim to have spectral analysis solutions. Does that mean they are going
to zero in on the offenders? It is probably technically possible.

~~~
haakon666
It's a Cisco setup so they will be using their CleanAir feature to identify
and triangulate sources of interference.

<http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1070/index.html>

