Hi TshegoP,

I was with your train of thought (or at least I thought I was!) until you wrote "...how many access points do we need and what type of access device will allow for the most effecient throughtput?"

So now I am thinking you don't want to select a vendor of access products, you want to model how many access points are needed and the type of access point.

Please confirm.

Based on the assumption that you want to model numbers and types of access points to determin the best combination for what you describe as "effecient throughput", then you must first declare what "efficient throughput" is: what will measure it in and what value equates to success. Example: "effecient throughput" might be "1,000 employees within 10 minutes have registered their physical presence on the site."

You will need to define an "efficient throughput" for each element of the locations scope of your project which looks like being "Main Entrance; Gatehouse Building; Change Room; Lamp Room; Offices; Lab"

Once you know the units you are calculating "efficient throughput" in and the target value you want to achieve, you can now start to build a model in (for example) an excel table that has for each row a column of

1. "type of access point"
2. "time taken for one employee to pass through access point"
3. "no of emplyees"
4. "number of access points"
5. the results of multiplying column 2 by column 3 and divide re result by column 4 to give "total access time"
6. target access time
7. the result of column 6 minus column 5 to give "success rating" where 0 = success, any positive number is better than success and any negative number unsuccessful

Alternatively, you could just declare to venodrs that you need to be able to get 1000 employees on to the site in 10 minutes so how many access points and what type of access device would they suggest.

By the way, I would challenge your statement that the "daily estimate - any number" as this could include (to pick a stupid example) the current population of the Earth (around 7 billion). In other words, you can (and should) put down the maximum number that the solution needs to support. This number is what the solution is designed to to work up to, not to say it won't work with greater numbers, just to say it has been designed with a particular maximum in mind that you stakeholders agree is realistic and reasonable.

Guy