It didn't help that the centre's walls were thick concrete to keep out the noise from the nearby airport.

The solution was installing a commercial grade wireless local area network (WLAN). The lesson isn't new: Network managers need to carefully watch what's being added to their networks and whether devices will meet expected needs.

At the International Centre, Wi-Fi access was added as an adjunct to the site's main business. That's why a handful of access points designed for homes and small businesses from D-Link Corp. and the Linksys division of Cisco Systems Inc. were installed in the exhibition and conference spaces. To keep control, users are charged CDN$6.95 for daily access.

But as the number of Wi-Fi enabled devices expanded to smart phones and netbooks, so too did the demand for access by show attendees. Then the bits hit the fan. "It was pretty hectic," says Seebaran. "We could only handle a certain number of people in certain areas."

Not only couldn't the WLAN handle the load, the access points interfered with each other and competed for channels and bandwidth.