Clear To Send: Wireless Network Engineering

Hot off the press, an episode recorded in front of a live audience at WLPC Prague. We join WiFi Ninjas and Wireless Banter Show after a day of sessions at WLPC in Prague. This was Rowell’s first time attending WLPC, which was an amazing experience. As usual, this was a rare in-person event for Rowell and François. Even rare to have multiple wireless podcasters in the same room. We had a small audience of other wireless professionals in the room. We recap some of our favorite presentations on a Wednesday evening. Some of the topics discussed and guests joining in on the conversation: * Andrew McHale’s Effects of 802.11kvr presentation* Gjermund Raaen‘s amazing Wi-Fi 6 Airtime Calculator* Keith R. Parsons on his talk about troubleshooting* Wireless analysis with Gits* Joel talks about the creation of his Packet Potato badge* CTS – State of Wi-Fi 6 presentation On the first night, we asked others to join our Wi-Fi 6 party by bringing their own Wi-Fi 6 devices. The turnout was big! It’s so cool to see everyone come together to do frame captures and spectrum analysis in an effort to catch OFDMA in the wild. Here's a short video of #WiFi6 OFDMA in action at #WLPC @cleartosend Thanks for organizing the Wi-Fi 6 party pic.twitter.com/tKmUuXcUFw— Dennis Klein (@WiFiDennis) October 8, 2019 Thanks to the various hosts from @WirelessBanter, @cleartosend, and @WiFiNinjas for allowing me on your joint podcast at #WLPC pic.twitter.com/asMzJCZCIT— Keith R. Parsons (@KeithRParsons) October 11, 2019 Great backstage live podcast with @cleartosend @WiFiNinjas and @WirelessBanter at #WLPC. With special guest @KeithRParsons.Congratulations guys! pic.twitter.com/RYwlP8Zty8— Daniel Finimundi (@dansfini) October 10, 2019

This is a unique episode of Clear To Send. We did a joint recording with the Wireless Banter Show. The recording only has 2/3 of the Wireless Banter Show, Jussi and Jerry. In the beginning we have a little bit of banter, because why not. The episode was recorded with as much wireless technologies as possible. Jussi joined Rowell at WeWork in a small conference. We brought in François via laptop on WeWork’s wireless network. Jerry was brought in via WhatsApp and connected via bluetooth to the mixer. Surprisingly, it went very well! We start off the show talking about podcasting, a background of the Clear To Send show and the birth of the Wireless Banter Show. Check them out! Adoption Rate of Wi-Fi 6 and CBRS Thank you Jussi for flying in from Finland to talk about data he was able to share from Ookla. With millions of people using Speedtest.net, they are able to collect different data points on device connectivity. One of those data points is visualizing the adoption rate of iPhone over time. iPhone Adoption over time. Image provided by Jussi Kiviniemi. Data by Ookla. Why is this important? It can give us a glimpse of how quickly the latest iPhone 11 will become mainstream. If you’ve been living under a rock, the iPhone 11 supports Wi-Fi 6 and CBRS. The popularity of the iPhone can help us predict when we can identify the breaking point of seeing the efficiencies of Wi-Fi 6 and the pick up of CBRS. When considering an upgrade of your wireless infrastructure, this data may be able help you determine if you should upgrade now or wait. Check out the episode and let us know in the comments below, when do you think we’ll see mainstream adoption of Wi-Fi 6?

Helge Keck, the creator of WinFi comes on the show and talks about his new application. The new Wi-Fi scanner for Windows is already very popular and over 50 thousands people have downloaded the free tool since Helge publicly released the beta version, 1 month ago. Join us on the show to hear Helge talk about some of the behind the scene stories. He shares his process of creating such an application and you will learn what was challenging for him! Here are a couple of useful links if you want to follow Helge and download his application (WinFi): * Download WinFi from the Microsoft Store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/winfi-lite/9pfrnjrf22f1?SilentAuth=1&wa=wsignin1.0&activetab=pivot:overviewtab* Download WinFi from Helge’s website: http://www.helge-keck.com/* Follow Helge on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelgeKeck* Helge’s YouTube channels where he creates small videos of WinFi features: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbgUGW8ZLSnJlpnrux3TPQ

Metageek is back! It’s been awhile since we’ve heard of Metageek at any Tech Field Day events. It was very nice and refreshing to hear from them and hear them present what they have been working on. If you want to catch back with the presentations and watch them, here are the links you need: * MetaGeek Light as Air: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354064768* MetaGeek Integrated App that Remember and Share: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354065251* MetaGeek Client Traffic Analysis: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354066229 For more insights from the other delegates, please read the following articles: * Metageek Plus Pro and Rampart by Jake Snyder: https://todsfromds.com/2019/09/03/metageek-plus-pro-and-rampart/* I Spy a Wi-Spy: https://thewlan.com.au/2019/09/03/i-spy-a-wi-spy/ You can also read the blog post written by Adam from Metageek where he talks about his experience at Mobility Field Day: http://blog.metageek.net/2019/08/rampart-client-traffic-analytics-and-air-viewer-new-awesomeness-brewin-metageek-for-mfd4/ Presenters from Metageek: * Ryan Woodings – Chief Product Officer (@RyanWoodings)* Adam Miedema – Product Manager (@ARMiedema) Improving the User Experience They talked to a lot of customers and found out that customers didn’t like to always have to take their “big” laptop out to be able to use their applications. So they started to see how they could leverage mobile devices. A new product came out of this: the Wi-Spy Air. This device can be connected to a mobile device (iOS, Android) and collect Wi-Fi information. They actually working on a new application called Air Viewer. It is a Wi-Fi scanner that discover Wi-Fi networks (similar to InSSIDer but for mobile device). Advanced features: * You can select the channels you want to scan. * Client details* Client Roaming events* Channel health including spectrum data* Context based scanning However, this is not new! The Wi-Spy have been released back in February. Now, let’s talk about the new stuff

WiFi Monitoring & Assurance Using NetBeez Wireless networks get blamed a lot for today’s network issues. Any sort of hiccup leads to users creating tickets describing slow or poor performing WiFi. Enterprise organizations rely on WiFi. Central network operations centers must monitor multiple sites and quickly determine what issues may be potentially impacting business operations. It’s more important than ever to carefully monitor your WiFi networks to get ahead of any issues. One way to assure this is by leveraging sensors on the network close to the users. You can check out our CTS public NetBeez dashboard to see what we’ve been working with. Learn more about WiFi monitoring at https://netbeez.net/wireless-monitoring/ Why Use Sensors? When it comes to monitoring the network, we have the wired side of things capturing metrics, creating alerts, and knowing what the problem may be. On the WiFi network it often seems unknown what the issue is. And today, any sort of issue appears to be a WiFi issue. To get an idea of what is happening from a client’s perspective, WiFi sensors can be deployed and configured to perform scheduled tests. A sensor can gather important WiFi metrics such as RSSI, BSSID, transmit and receive rates, and test metrics. Rather than relying on users telling you incorrect data, a sensor can collect enough data for an IT member to take action on. NetBeez calls these sensors Agents. Check out more resources at https://netbeez.net/resources/ Learn More About NetBeez If you’d like to find out how you can better monitoring your WiFi networks using NetBeez, click the button below for the special CTS page. Request a Demo Three reasons why we like NetBeez WiFi Sensor The sensors are placed near the users to provide you a client’s perspective. A more realistic view of client health will help eliminate false issues. Other sensors are placed inside the access point. Distributed Sensors do not live inside an access point. The sensors can be deployed anywhere & managed from the cloud. With this simple management platform, configuring sensors for multiple sites is easy. Scheduled Tests Within the dashboard, various tests can be assigned and scheduled to all or specific sensors. Overtime, a baseline is developed & spotting deviations will be brought to light by configuring alerts to the team. Panos Vouzis, from NetBeez, joins us in this episode to discuss how they help IT teams get ahead of WiFi issues by being proactive. Panos is the Co-founder and COO at NetBeez. By utilizing WiFi network sensors, an IT team can schedule tests against the WiFi network and be notified immediately when there’s an issue or a deviation from a baseline. The distributed nature of the sensors gives an IT team a holistic health status of the WiFi network. Unlike other monitoring solutions from the big vendors, this view of WiFi health is seen from the client’s perspective. A NetBeez sensor can be deployed near the users and can perform tests to simulate client traffic. WiFi Monitoring

NetAlly WAS the secret company. We tell you all about it in this episode. If you want to catch back with the presentations and watch them, here are the links you need: * NetAlly Company Introduction: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354018315* NetAlly Technology Perspective: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354018633* NetAlly Product Portfolio: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354021245* NetAlly Product Update: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354021719 For more insights from the other delegates, please read the following articles: * NetAlly’s AirCheck G2 gets a facelift with version 4.0 firmware from Timothy Dennehy: http://justdowifi.blogspot.com/2019/08/netallys-aircheck-g2-gets-facelift-with.html* NetAlly- a Familiar Line of Networks Tools Reborn from Lee Badman: https://it.toolbox.com/blogs/leebadman/netally-a-familiar-line-of-networks-tools-reborn-081919* New Coverage: So The MFD4 Secret Company Is NetAlly from Haydn : https://thewlan.com.au/2019/08/27/so-the-mfd4-secret-company-is-netally/* Say Hello to NetAlly- a New Old Friend from Lee Badman: https://wirednot.wordpress.com/2019/08/14/say-hello-to-netally-a-new-old-friend/* New Coverage: Welcoming netAlly from Scott Lester: https://blog.theitrebel.com/2019/08/14/welcome-netally/ New Company! Mike Parrottino is the CEO and the new company has been announced the week of Mobility Field Day. The new company is a new curve out of the old parent company Netscout. Employees and products are coming from Netscout. Some of them were even already there when the company was still under Fluke Networks. They want to take advantage of being smaller and more flexible in order to propose new products and be more entrepreneurial. Core values of the company: simplicity, visibility and collaboration. Does this mean a new Air Magnet Solution? Three avenues that they are exploring: * Build a brand new product using their R&D resources* Acquire a company and partner to bring a solution to the market* A true partnership, provide something unique and not have too much overlapping We talked about it on the podcast! What else are they working on? James Kahkoska, CTO talked on a lot of different technical subjects in his 1h presentation. Along the way, he was sharing some screenshots showing us a glimpse of they are working on. So it looks like they are working on a product that would fully embrace their core values (simplicity, visibility and collaboration). Simplicity * Tool or application looks very easy to use* View the status of a device on one screen* View of the channel map to include retry %* It fe...

Recently, we hosted a webinar for our CTS listeners. We wanted to provide a way to give back to our community and interact with them on an intimate level. Usually, you hear us on a pre-recorded episode. This time around, we all get to interact with each other. You get to ask questions and we answer them based on our experiences. Here is a link to the PDF slide deck. You won’t get much out of it other than the questions we displayed. The full video will have the content. And here is the video if you wanted to watch the webinar instead.

Cisco decided to join the party and also present something at Mobility Field Day 4 this year. They talked about their new wireless Catalyst line of product, IoT and OpenRoaming. If you want to catch back with the presentations and watch them, here are the links you need: * Cisco Catalyst Access Expansion to Wireless: https://vimeo.com/353900415* Cisco IoT with Next-Gen Wireless Stack: https://vimeo.com/353901671* Cisco OpenRoaming to Better Bridge Between Mobile and Wi-Fi Networks: https://vimeo.com/353902434 In this episode, we give our point of views on the different topics Cisco presented on. For more insights from the other delegates, please read the following articles: * The Network is Code: Cisco at MFD 4 by Lee Badman: https://wirednot.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/the-network-is-code-cisco-at-mfd4/* Decoupling the WLAN by Scott Lester: https://blog.theitrebel.com/2019/08/21/decoupling-the-wlan/* A New Way to Onboard by Scott Lester: https://blog.theitrebel.com/2019/08/15/a-new-way-to-onboard/ The Wireless Catalyst Offering Cisco has decided to build a new line of wireless products based on their IOS-XE code instead of updating their legacy AireOS platform. We first heard about it late last year. Since then, we have seen a new series of WLC and Access Points being announced by Cisco. At Mobility Field Day, they talked about all the wireless Catalyst product they have released yet. On the AP side, they talked about the Wi-Fi 6 access points: * Catalyst 9115* Catalyst 9117* Catalyst 9120 On the WLC side, they talked about the following options: * Catalyst 9800-80* Catalyst 9800-40* Catalyst 9800-L (The new member of the family)* Catalyst 9800-CL The Catalyst 9800-L has been announced at the beginning of August 2019. It is a smaller controller aim to target environment with a lower number of Access Points. It comes in 2 different form factors (one with copper interface for the uplink interface, and the other one comes with fiber modules for the uplink interface). For smaller sites, a customer can now have the option to install a controller on a VM or on a Cloud (Catalyst 9800-CL) or install an appliance on site if they want to (Catalyst 9800-L). I believe the cloud option is very attractive for smaller sites. However, it is nice to be able to offer the onsite solution when customers have special requirements. The IOS-XE platform is very flexible and future proof. Openconfig models can be found on all the Catalyst equipment. The latest version of the OS is 16.12 and Cisco told us that it will be the next MD release. This new version (16.12) is ready for WPA3, it supports both 802.11ac and 802.11ax APs, it talks to DNA Center (of course), ISE, Prime and CMX. On the AireOS side of things, version 8.10 will be the next MD release. IoT is making it to the enterprise space I personally really enjoyed the IoT discussion this year at Mobility Field Day. I wasn’t expecting much of it and was happy to see what the vendors are doing to face our upcoming challenges. IoT devices are being installed in the enterprise space.

Mist is now regularly presenting at Mobility Field Day. They often like to talk about some of their success stories and update us on their “travel to the self-driving network” (i.e. how their Artificial Intelligent system is evolving). This year was no exception! If you want to catch back with the presentations and watch them, here are the links you need: * Mist System AI-Driven Customer Experience: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/353864386* Mist Systems Mist AI for AX – Wi-Fi 6 : https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/353864681* Mist Systems Microservices to the edge: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/353864744* Mist Systems Location: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/353864791* Mist Systems Marvis 3.0 – Wired Health, Marvis Actions: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/353864467* All videos from Mist website: https://www.mist.com/resources/mobility-field-day-3-2018/ In this episode, we give our point of views on the different topics Mist presented on. For more insights form the other delegates, please read the following articles: * Code, Heal Thyself: Mist Systems Brings Something Badly Needed to WLAN Market from Lee Badman: https://wirednot.wordpress.com/2019/08/15/code-heal-thyself-mist-systems-brings-something-badly-needed-to-wlan-market/* Intelligence in The Mist from Tom :Hollingsworth https://gestaltit.com/exclusive/tom/intelligence-in-the-mist/ Wi-Fi 6 I was personally very pleased that they had a Wi-Fi 6 AP running when we showed up in the morning for breakfast. They even had a live view of the spectrum analyzer on the projector show casing OFDMA. I thought that was pretty kool! After adding a couple more Wi-Fi 6 devices to their network, we worked with the guys from Mist (Wes and Robert) to generate even more traffic on the channel. Here is a look at it: Later on, Wes Purvis presented a few slides on their new Wi-Fi 6 AP-43. We also got to hold and see it in person. Hopefully, we will get to test it out soon. One of the key takeaway for me is that Wes showed us how to validate that the AP is using OFDMA. You have to look out for a frames with a frame control of 0x2400 ;). Update of the Mist AI We talked a little bit about it with Bob Friday when Rowell interviewed him for the podcast a couple of episode ago (https://www.cleartosend.net/20-years-of-wifi-bob-friday/). During Mobility Field Day, Bob Friday and Sudheer Matta gave us even more details on how the Mist AI is evolving. Mist developed, what I would called a virtual assistant named Marvis that help their customer in managing, monitoring and troubleshooting their infrastructure. The principle is easy, you just ask Marvis a question (very similar to Alexa, except that you have to type it for now), and Marvis uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to give you an answer.

François was a first time delegate for Tech Field Day, attending Mobility Field Day 4 (MFD4). Since MFD4 was held in Santa Clara, we were able to record in-person together. We found an outdoor location called Santana Row. We apologize for any extra sounds you may hear because of that

Rowell’s post: https://rowelldionicio.com/deploying-cisco-catalyst-9800-controller-on-vmware-esxi/ François’s post: https://www.semfionetworks.com/blog/setup-cisco-catalyst-9800-controller-on-your-laptop Cisco introduced the new Catalyst 9800 Wireless LAN Controller: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/index.html One of the main new features was the fact that they released a cloud version (escentially a VM) that you could install pretty much anywhere you want: * On a private Cloud* On a public Cloud (AWS)* Locally on a computer or server They call it the C9800-CL. Benefits: * No need to maintain a physical controller. Gives you access to the advanced features without having to install hardware.* Could be used for lab and quick testing.* Easier to scale. Start small and scale up as required.* Take advantage of the advantage of a public cloud infra. We went through the setup process two different ways and wanted to share our experience: * Installing on a local mv on your laptop (vmware fusion)* Installing on a small local esxi server Hardware Required * To install it on vmware fusion, you don’t need anything apart from your laptop* To install it on a local esxi server, we used* Intel NUC with an Intel Core i7 processor (Important)* 32GB or RAM* 500GB of internal SSD* 8GB USB SanDisk Cruzer Fit for ESXi VMWare Setup * Could be tricky if you have never done it before* We detailed the process on how to do it in our articles. Cisco also released a deployment guide that you can use: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-8/b_c9800_wireless_controller_virtual_dg.html* You will need to download the proper C9800 image from Cisco’s website* For VMWare Fusion: the iso file* For ESXi: the ova file* You will need an ova tool to import the ova file to vmware esxi.* Challenges* Configuring the network interfaces of the VM* Had to manually change configuration files of vmware fusion* Easier to install it on the ESXi I would say C9800 Initial Setup and Configurations * The zero day config might not be the best way to go if you want to learn how to configure the controller later on. It could be the easy way to go for a quick deployment.* Was easier to set it up via CLI the first time and then HTTPS into it* Configure the IP address, route, country code, user, management interface and generate a certificate to establish DTLS connections with the APs* Then you can open up a browser and connect to the C9800-CL via HTTPS Connect an AP * In order to have an AP connected to the controller, you will need some sort of DHCP server Note: VMotion is not yet supported.

Mobility Field Day offers the opportunity for vendors to present what they have been working on in front of a group of talented delegates. It usually generates really good conversations and interactions. This year, Mobility Field Day will be taking place in Silicon Valley from August 14th to August 16th . The event is organized by a company called Gestalt IT. Event website: https://techfieldday.com/event/mfd4/ Mobility Field Day List of Delegates * Dave Benham – @BaldWiFiGuy* Haydn Andrews – @TheWLAN* Jake Snyder – @JSnyder81* Jennifer Minella – @jjx* Jonathan Davis – @SubNetwork* Keith Parsons – @KeithParsons* Lee Badman – @WiredNot* Manon Lessard – @Mae149* Sam Clements – @Samuel_Clements* Scott Lester – @theITrebel* Tim Dennehy – @JustDoWiFi* François Vergès – @VergesFrancois List of Companies Presenting * Aruba HPE* Cisco Systems* Metageek* Mist Systems (Juniper)* Secret Company Note: we didn’t talk about Cisco on the show since we recorded this episode before we knew that they were going to be presenting. Our Overall Expectations * Talks around Wi-Fi 6 and its implementation* Talks around AI* Talks around ways to ease the monitoring and configuration of Wi-Fi networks* Hear about new products and solutions Expectations from Aruba (HPE) * Presentation of their Wi-Fi 6 APs* Hope to see some demos and see OFDMA in action (we have seen in on twitter) https://twitter.com/OguzhanEren802/status/1149378074309472256* Would love to hear about real-world deployments* Talks around the cloud-based solution* They released a new version of Aruba Central recently* It would be nice to hear more about it* Maybe talks around security* Clearpass to secure IOT* Clearpass to provide more visibility Expectations from Cisco * Presentation of their new Catalyst Wireless controller: C9800-L* Here is a video from wise TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=7nzBFhNZ1WE* Presentation of a new Wi-Fi 6? We know that they are working on the Aironet 3800 series equivalent. They might be ready to announce them* Talk around Wi-Fi 6* They just release their new controller code supporting OFDMA: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/16-12/release-notes/rn-16-121-9800.html#id_102180* Talk around WPA3 Expectations from Fortinet * Don’t really know what to expect from Fortinet.* Maybe they will come with something new?* Will we be talking about Single Channel Archit...

Did you know Wi-Fi turns 20 years old this year? It’s quite amazing that we’ve come to rely on Wi-Fi daily. From connecting to the Internet from our homes, watching 4k streaming videos, doing some of our important work, and connecting with family across the world. Bob Friday, CTO and Founder of Mist, joins the show to talk about Wi-Fi over the past 20 years. Bob has been in this industry for a long time. He’s a veteran Wi-Fi innovator, who has built solutions that you probably use every day. He also holds 15 patents! My early networking career I remember working on Cisco controllers. Bob Friday started a company called Airespace to help manage enterprise access points. Cisco ended up acquiring Airespace where he became VP/CTO of Cisco Enterprise Mobility. In 2014, Bob left Cisco to start Mist. His way of creating a big change in how we do Wi-Fi today. Mist was later acquired by Juniper Networks. Listen to this episode as we discuss Bob’s journey from where he began and how he got to where he is now. Some of the things we discuss: * What would help drive further adoption of 802.11k/v/r* What part of the past has impacted Wi-Fi today* What excites him about Wi-Fi today* How does AI impact Wi-Fi* What can be done better at the IEEE or Wi-Fi alliance* What will Wi-Fi look like in 5, 10, and 20 years from now?

These are our Wi-Fi best practices and guidelines based on our previous experiences. So if you want to find learn how we are able to successfully deploy Wi-Fi networks with every one of our clients, then you’re in the right place. Keep reading… Why do we not have one industry set of Wi-Fi best practices and/or guidelines? * Is it because every environment is different* There are differing configurations* Every vendor is different* Anyone can easily deploy Wi-Fi Can we look to the Wi-Fi Alliance or Wireless Broadband Alliance to help create these best practices? By the way, the WBA has a document on wireless deployment best practices and a Wi-Fi 6 Deployment Guideline. It’s what prompted this episode. It becomes a question of who’s best practices? Who’s deployment or configuration guidelines. There’s still a lot of proprietary configurations as well.  * Cisco RRM* Aruba ARM* High availability and redundancy The IEEE Standards leave a lot of room for interpretation. But is there a middle ground that we can come to? Possibly. 7 Wi-Fi Best Practices & Guidelines 1. Create a Design Based on Requirements2. Have an Optimal Channel Plan3. Have an Optimal Transmit Power Plan4. Understand Device Capabilities5. Validate Your Deployment6. Understand How Wi-Fi 6 Works7. Configuring Wi-Fi 6 Backwards Compatibility We both (Rowell & François) have our set of best practices/guidelines to follow. This is based on our experience. Why do we need best practices or guidelines? We’re continuing to see the amount of growth in traffic. Cisco VNI predicts “Nearly three-fifths of traffic (59%) will be offloaded from cellular networks (on to Wi-Fi) by 2022.” And “Nearly four-fifths (79 percent) of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2022.” Then there’s the future technologies such as VR or AR and the increasing amount of IoT devices. Across the board we’re seeing high density, higher capacity, and applications requiring lower latency. Our goal, as Wi-Fi professionals is to make the user experience better. These best practices, guidelines, and recommendations become an important point as Wi-Fi discussion takes place against 5G. 1. Create a Design Based on Requirements The first thing, prior to doing any deployment, is to gather requirements. This can be business, technical, and constraints. Determining the use case of the Wi-Fi network will help with the design process. Along with understanding what types of devices used and their application usage. Constraints could be something like conforming to aesthetics. 2. Have an Optimal Channel Plan In the design process, a channel plan can be created. While most environments probably use something like RRM, a channel plan can provide optimal channel reuse. Channel reuse is a goal for high density deployments which result in optimized Wi-Fi networks. The design can answer what channel width will be best for the channel reuse.

This episode was recorded at the Podcast Domain for Cisco Live 2019 in San Diego. In attendance is Rowell Dionicio, François Vergès, Gurpreet Singh, and Fred Niehaus. Fred has been with Cisco since 2000. Since 1993 Fred has been doing wireless. Gurpreet works for a VAR in Canada with all aspects of warehouses. Cisco Live Photos by Rowell Dionicio. https://rowelldionicio.com/clusphotos Wi-Fi 5 was all about very high throughput but had nothing to do with latency. Cellular buys frequencies for millions and millions of dollars and uses the spectrum efficiently. Two main features of Wi-Fi 6 are: * OFDMA, borrowed from cellular, cuts latency down* BSS Coloring which allows for channel reuse Fred says we’re ahead of 5G. What’s in 5G is available in Wi-Fi today At the top of Fred’s Wi-Fi 6 list are OFDMA and BSS coloring. TWT for scheduling will be very beneficial to IoT devices. OFDM vs OFDMA * Channel that’s 20 MHz size* If data is one little chunk it wastes the subcarriers* OFDMA takes multiple transmitters/receivers on each subcarrier for efficiency The new Wi-Fi 6 access points from Cisco are: * C9117* C9115* C9120   One thing to note, with the C9117 as an example, is that chipsets that were early to market did not support OFDMA in the uplink. Cisco went to Marvell and Cisco has asked for a custom chipset. But to meet meet customers’ needs you can build your own chipset or look to another manufacturer. Why would Cisco change the name to Catalyst? That’s because it is the best product line. Access points are redesigned to be smaller.  Comparing Wi-Fi 6 to previous generation * 9115 and 9117 those are like 1850 and 1830 series. Early to market and standards-based.* 9120 is more like the 2800 series. Has the RF ASIC, a custom ASIC that is software defined.  The RF ASIC can specifically create a signature for DFS signals. Potentially eliminated false positives with DFS hits. The benefit of the RF ASIC allows the other radios to service clients while using this 3rd radio. Unlike previous ASICs, the 9120 has the capability to transmit but it’s not configured to at the moment. When do you think we will see the actual benefits of Wi-Fi 6? Let us know in the comments below.