Clear To Send: Wireless Network Engineering

What frame exchanges are part of a device joining an SSID? CWS & CWT Book Giveaway We’re raffling off a two bundles of the CWS & CWT books from CWNP. Two winners will get a copy of each book. If you’re getting into Wi-Fi or would like to know the fundamentals so you can sell Wi-Fi then this is a good resource to use. All you have to do is fill out the form below. Meet Dustin Johnson Our feature wireless engineer for this episode is Dustin Johnson. We ran into him at Cisco Live by accident and he happens to be a listener of the show! Listen to the episode to hear him answer François’ 10 questions. 802.11 Authentication and Association How does the station (STA) and access point agree to this connection? We’re going to break down the steps and the frames that are part of a STA connecting to an access point. We have one STA connecting to an open SSID. The summary of it all is as follows: * STA is unauthenticated and unassociated * STA becomes authenticated and unassociated * STA becomes authenticated and associated * STA clears security requirements such as 802.1X, if required Beacon/Probe The STA begins the process by performing a passive or active scan. In passive mode, the STA is listening for beacons from an access point. The beacon frame contains the BSSID which is the MAC address of the radio sourcing from the access point. The beacon frame is a type of management frame defined in 802.11-2016. It includes capability information and parameters. A probe is sourced from the STA requesting to join a wireless network. This is a probe request management frame. The probe is responded by an access point using a probe response management frame. Authentication The probing/scanning phase is part of the unauthenticated and unassociated step. The STA has not authenticated with the access point and also is not associated with the access point. Think of authentication as plugging a computer into a port on a switch. The STA must be authenticated to the access point before it is associated. It sounds backwards. These are the two states in this phase and it must be done in this order. * Unauthenticated or authenticated. * Unassociated or associated. To begin the Authentication step, the STA sends an Authentication wireless management frame to the access point. The access point responds with an Acknowledgement frame. The access point will acknowledge the Authentication frame from the STA and upon successful authentication, the access point will send an authentication frame to the STA with an Authentication Sequence with a State of 2, for success. Access point sends an Authentication frame with a state of 2, for Successful. Association Once the STA is authenticated to the access point, the next step is to become Associated. The Association occurs after the Shared Key Authentication or Open System Authentication Algorithm. There cannot be a STA that is Associated but not Authenticated. If the STA fails Authentication, it does not move to Association. After the the access point sends an Acknowledgement to the STA’s Authentication Response, the STA sends an Association Request. The Association Request is Acknowledged by the access point which then sends an Association Response frame to the STA. If the association is successful, the access point’s Association Response frame will contain a Status code: Successful. The details within an Association Response include: * Capabilities Information such as

Get your basics of Wi-Fi starting with RF characteristics. Before we get into RF characteristics, we want to introduce our series of interviews we did at Cisco Live 2018. We interviewed many wireless engineers to get to know them better. We ask ten questions, we get ten answers. So meet Jason Beshara. We introduce him starting at minute 7:06. RF Characteristics RF is Radio frequency. When talking about Wi-Fi we are referring to unlicensed radio frequency in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrum. Wi-Fi is not the only radio frequency in the air. There are other frequencies such as microwave and AM/FM radio. A carrier signal is used to take AC signal from the radio to turn it into a waveform. Information is transmitted from the antenna on the carrier signal as an electromagnetic wave. Modulation is done to modify the signal to create the carrier signal which will carry the 1s and 0s. When defining a wave, we talk about its wavelength. It is the distance between two identical points in a wave. Higher frequencies have a shorter wavelength thus they get attenuated faster. Lower frequencies have longer wavelengths. Another characteristic of an RF wave is its amplitude. This is the power of the wave or signal strength from the transmitting device. As signal is propagated through the air it is received at a lower amplitude. Higher amplitude increases the chance of the receiver successfully demodulating the signal. Frequency is another characteristic. This is the interval in which the wave repeats or oscillates. A 2.4 GHz signal repeats 2.4 Billion cycles per minute. Higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths. Then we have phase. Phase compares two RF waves. If a device receives two copies of an RF wave, the phase can determine whether it is positive or negative. To make multiple RF waves positive, they would need to be in-phase. This would strengthen the wave or increase the amplitude thus increasing the ability to demodulate signals. If received signals are out-of-phase, the signals may cancel each other out if 180 degrees out of phase. How can RF be affected in the real world? We talk about some of the ways below and in the episode: Reflection When a signal bounces off an object such as a mirror or metal. It’s like aiming a flashlight onto a mirror and the signal bounces in a different direction. Absorption This occurs when RF goes through material such as a wall. Absorption will weaken a signal (attenuate). Material such as dry wall, concrete, doors, windows, etc. Each material has different attenuation values. Shine a flashlight through a white sheet and some signal is absorbed by the material. Refraction When signal goes through a different medium, such as water, the signal is bent. Take a glass of water, as an example, and notice how light shining through one side is bent leaving the other side. Scatter Signal that hits an uneven surface and reflected in multiple directions is scatter. Think of a disco ball or chain link fence. As signal hits these surfaces it is reflected everywhere. Diffraction Diffraction occurs when a signal goes around an object. Like a rock in the middle of a flowing river. Water flows along the sides of the rock. Directly behind the rock there is less of a current from the stream. With Wi-Fi, signal may not go through a concrete pillar but it will go around it. But a device directly behind that pillar will be in an RF dead zone or RF shadow. Attenuation Earlier we talked about absorption. Attenuation is when there is a decrease in amplitude and the signal is weakened or there is a loss of signal. This can commonly happen through absorption. Multipath Multipath is a result of scatter and reflection. A device can receive multiple copies of the same signal through multipath. Links and Resources *

Recorded at Cisco Live 2018 in Orlando, Florida. We speak to Mike Geller and Pramod Nair about 5G technology and what Wi-Fi professionals would know about. 5G Technology We’ve been hearing a lot about 5G lately. But do many of you what is involved with 5G? We just know it’s the next number up from 4G

We’re diving into a world where businesses and Wi-Fi network engineers have full control over their Wi-Fi infrastructure through White Box Wi-Fi. This episode is sponsored by Mojo Networks White Box Wi-Fi Rick Wilmer, CEO of Mojo Networks, got into the wireless industry through a CPE and core router company. He saw wireless networking being the next big technology. We start by asking him, what is cognitive Wi-Fi? It’s collecting a mass amount of data from a network. They use the data to predict what the network is going to do next. If that’s going to be a negative user experience, going to try to remediate that problem fast enough before a user knows they’re going to have a problem. Cognitive Wi-Fi works better with more data, thus Big Data. Machine learning is applied to that data to automatically remediate issues related to end user experience. What is the biggest value of white box Wi-Fi? It drives cost of enterprise Wi-Fi down. As the cost of the solution goes down, volume goes up. Mojo Networks is about to ship their 500,000th access point. With the more APs out there in production, the more it feeds Mojo Networks’ big data. Rick Wilmer says functionality and design is moving to the chipset vendors. Hyper scale companies are scaling out large data centers with compute but in their own way without relying on big vendors. That’s how Rick Wilmer found his way to the Open Compute Project (OCP). OCP drives open standards around hardware which drives the trend of applying it to Wi-Fi. Nothing new is invented. Just as applying what was done to servers and switches but now into Wi-Fi. This focuses Mojo Networks towards developing more of the software side. If the AP is defined by the chipset and all the chipsets are largely coming from Broadcom and Qualcomm, that hardware platform is essentially going to be the same as far as core functionality. Does that mean hardware doesn’t matter? Hardware is still important. It is important in a design and manufacturing stand point. But it’s driven by sophisticated original design manufacturers (ODMs). Which verticals can take advantage of white box Wi-Fi? Wilmer says, higher education, enterprise, retail, and many more. What’s driving the need for white box Wi-Fi? Generation 1 of the white box Wi-Fi is making APs available to customers at a price they come out of the factory. There’s no mark up or margin. Hardware comes from one vendor and software comes from someone else. It’s a disaggregation model but Mojo Networks obfuscates the process for the customer. Generation 2 white box Wi-Fi is when the industry gets to a point where APs from different Wi-Fi vendors interoperate. Think about a light bulb. Any light bulb from any store can plug in and work. “I can buy any brand of light bulb from any store, bring it home, plug it in, and it’s going to do what I expect it to do, which is light up my room. Wouldn’t it be amazing for the customer if access points worked that way.” – Rick Wilmer What is the impact to firmware support. Wilmer says APs have been qualified to work with Mojo Networks cloud. Software has been certified with hardware, such as Edgecore access points. We will see innovation moving away from hardware and into Cognitive Wi-Fi. What are the basic requirements of a white box AP and what are the basic features we can expect to see? Wilmer says we will see full parity on the Mojo Cloud. This has already been put into production with Edgecore and Mojo Networks APs at the Open Compute Summit which was held in the San Jose Convention Center. Mojo Networks provided the guest Wi-Fi for the summit. Edge Core APs were running Mojo Networks’ code.

Ensuring the stadium Wi-Fi implementation goes according to the design. Stadium Wi-Fi Implementation Chris Reed joins the show to follow up on his stadium Wi-Fi design episode to discuss the implementation portion. He joined us back on Episode 123 where he went into the design of Wi-Fi within large public venues or stadiums. A wireless network is more than just Wi-Fi. Improperly sized, configured, or issues will cause “The Wi-Fi isn’t working” Doesn’t matter if you don’t own these, understand their layout, and ask the questions to make sure it’s not going to bite you. Understand the associated network functions that go into a proper network implementation, beyond the Wi-Fi. Things such as Internet bandwidth, wired infrastructure, DNS, and DHCP. Documentation is always a critical piece of the design and implementation. You should have the output from your design software to hand off and to use for your validation. This includes some sort of visualization of different install models for cable installers. Walkthroughs are a must for stadium Wi-Fi implementation. Walk through with your installer, every space. This is their chance to speak up, ask questions, and for you to get things clarified. It’s up to you to make sure installers are following your standards. There are lots of bad Wi-Fi engineers, and these installers may have been working with them. You can find these at badfi.com. Run through the “why?” of your design. Why is it important the angle is right, why is it important they aren’t near the DAS antenna? And also very important, where are the antenna leads supposed to be connected to? When it comes to configuration, are you still using the GUI? Let’s assume 1,400 APs, and there are 5 settings / functions to configure – name, description, channel, antennas, power. Assume a 1% error rate (you’re pretty good at this). You’re going to get 70 configuration settings wrong Oh, and now the customer wants to change the naming convention. Have fun

We took Anders Nilsson away from a party during Cisco Live and asked him to talk about Eduroam. Eduroam Anders Nilsson joins us on the show to discuss the basics of eduroam, how it works, and why higher education institutions decide to deploy the eduroam SSID on their campus. Anders is from Sweden and you may know him through the Wi-Fi Moose. https://twitter.com/HerrNilsson2/status/1007630629272457216 Anders does work for the Swedish education network and is technically responsible for eduroam in Sweden. That makes him today’s subject matter expert for this topic. If you’re from a higher education institute you may be familiar with eduroam already. Or maybe you’re thinking about deploying eduroam or you don’t fully understand how it works. Anders provides a thorough introduction to eduroam which was started around 2003 in the Netherlands. The goal was to provide a better way for guest students at a visiting university to access Wi-Fi. In it’s early days, eduroam was implemented as an Open SSID with an access list that allowed VPN only. They quickly realized this method wouldn’t scale very well and went for the 802.1X solution instead. eduroam is WPA2 Enterprise based with a federation of RADIUS servers. This means an institution will peer its RADIUS server(s) to the eduroam federation RADIUS servers. When a visiting user wants to join the eduroam SSID but authenticate back to the home RADIUS servers, the local institution will forward the authentication requests up the eduroam chain. This allows for a seamless, convenient connection for the global academic community by using a single SSID, eduroam, at any participating institution. In the old days, a visiting user had to get ahold of the local IT department in order to gain access or use a visitor SSID. Since eduroam is implemented using WPA2 Enterprise, it is strongly suggested to start with using EAP-TLS. Although, other EAP methods are allowed to be used, the table below features the common EAP types deployed with eduroam. EAP-Type Native Supplicant Support Pros Cons EAP-TLS Windows (XP, Vista, 7), Mac OS X, Linux, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Android (v1.6+) • Validates client as well as infrastructure • Reduced risk of being Phished • Blocking user access is via certificate revocation • PKI infrastructure is required • Users must configure supplicant to use certificate* • Identity may be exposed in TLS exchange depending on contents of certificate EAP-TTLS Windows (8, 10), Mac OS X, Linux, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Android (v1.6+) • No native supplicant support on Microsoft Windows XP or 7 • Potential for Man-in-the-Middle attacks* EAP-PEAP Windows (XP, Vista, 7), Mac OS X, Linux, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Android (v1.6+) • Works on many platforms • Potential for Man-in-the-Middle attacks* • Identity may be exposed during Phase-1 of exchange Links and Resources Follow Anders on Twitter – @HerrNilsson2 Learn more about eduroam Read the eduroam FAQ

We take a look at what resources are available to capture frames on Windows OS. 802.11 Frame Captures on Windows Back in episode 121, we spoke highly of Macbook Pros being perfect tools for wireless frame captures. But not everyone has a Macbook Pro. Even I still have a Windows laptop and need to do frame captures on that every once and a while. In this episode, we outline some of the resources we use for capturing frames on Windows OS. Both free and paid versions depending on how you’re trying to capture frames and how quickly you’re trying to accomplish the task. Budgets will vary widely with each resource so check for the most updated pricing online. Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional You can try out Acrylic Wi-Fi with a trial version free for 4 days. As of June 2018, a license is $39.95 one time fee (or $19.95 for 1 year). It has a built in 802.11 packet capture tool without requiring additional hardware. But it only captures beacon frames if your Wi-Fi NIC does not support monitor mode. The NDIS driver must be installed so your built in Wi-Fi NIC can be used in monitor mode.  If you want, you can use an external adapter to perform the capture. Acrylic recommends the following: * D-Link DWA-182 Revision A1 * Netgear A6200 * Asus USB-AC53 * List of compatible Wi-Fi NICs By default, it will be channel hopping. So don’t forget to set the channel on which you want to scan. We strongly recommend using a Riverbed AirPcap card if you are going to do anything professional. Some of the packet capture features include: * Display the Packet Tree view including the details of the Radio Tap Header * Displays the Hex and Binary view of the packet * You can export the frames into a pcap file and analyze them with another tool (Wireshark) * Integration with Wireshark * 802.11ac not there with AirPcap Nx Other Features: * Wi-Fi Scanner * Show Retry Rate when set to monitor mode * Displays the SSID detected (including the hidden SSID) * Displays some beacon details * Script editor built-in * Reports * Inventory Links: * https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wlan-wifi-wireless-network-software-tools/wifi-analyzer-acrylic-professional/ * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buMJ9NDCsGA * https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/blog/how-to-capture-wifi-traffic-using-wireshark-on-windows/ Microsoft Network Monitor This tool is free to use with your operating system. You can download the application from Microsoft and check out a full tutorial. You can find a Video Tutorial easily on YouTube.

Clear To Send is headed to Cisco Live Orlando. Cisco Live Orlando One of the largest conferences is headed back to the East Coast – in Orlando, Florida. If you know anything about Cisco Live then you know there are a plethora of sessions to select from. But we’re passionate about Wi-Fi which is what we’re going to highlight in a list here. These session’s we’re interested in attending and the ones you should keep an eye on. Even if you aren’t attending, most of the sessions will be made available weeks after the conference is finished. #CLUS Giveaway Participate in our Clear To Send Giveaway. Because François and Rowell are joining together for the first time for CTS episodes, we wanted to give back to our listeners. We’re offering two giveaways, a Ventev Mobile Device Accessory kit ($300 value!) and a Cisco Press book of the winner’s choice. Here’s how to enter: * Fill out the form below (United States entries only) * For an extra entry, find Rowell or François at CLUS, take a photo with one or both of them, and share it by tagging @cleartosend on Twitter. Contest is over! Live Recordings Come watch François and Rowell do a live recording of a Clear To Send episode. There are a total of three recordings: * Monday June 11th @ 1PM– WiFi Analytics with Christian Gauer at the Podcast Domain Booth #1059 in World of Solutions * Tuesday June 12th – Cisco Live WiFi Meetup at 6:30pm – RSVP and Location here * Wednesday June 13th at 4pm – 5G with Mike Geller at the Podcast Domain Booth #1059 in World of Solutions Wireless Session Quick List Monday June 11 * Securely Designing Your Wireless LAN for Threat Mitigation, Policy and BYOD * Defining Your 5G Architecture * Smarter, End-to-End Network and Application Performance Troubleshooting with Meraki * Deploying Fixed Wireless Access using 5G Technology Tuesday June 12 * DNA Wireless Assurance: Isolate problems for faster troubleshooting * Cisco SD-Access Wireless Integration Wednesday June 13 * High Density, High Capacity Network Design with Cisco Meraki Wireless * Get Greater Wireless Value with Cisco Indoor Location Services * Understanding RF Fundamentals and the Radio Design for 11ac Wireless Networks * Optimize your WLANs for Iphones and iPads (and welcome othe...

François Vergès and Chris Reed join forces on Clear To Send to talk about design principles of stadium Wi-Fi.  Designing Stadium Wi-Fi What are important considerations when designing Wi-Fi for very high density environment such as stadium? Of course the tools come to mind such as Andrew Von Nagy’s Capacity Planner and Ekahau Site Survey Pro. In the initial design, there are different types spaces in stadiums to consider such as bowl, concourse, suites, office space, and event space. The details are discussed in the episode. Fundamentals are always important. But they are often missed in many deployments. Things such as getting the AP as close to the client as possible, minimizing co-channel contention, transmit power, attenuation, etc. Another consideration, but often difficult to plan for in stadiums, are client devices. An challenging aspect of stadium Wi-Fi design is AP placement. There are different ways to approach this such as overhead, railing, and underseat. Which one is best for the design and what the pros and cons. Links & Resources * Capacity Planner * Designing Very High Density Best Practices & Test Results * Superbowl 50 Analytics * Aruba Very High Density 802.11ac Networks Validated Reference Design * BEI Networks * @TheCMReed

Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh certification is meant to bring interoperability between vendors for mesh networking. Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh Mesh networking helps bring coverage in homes where one access point can’t quite do it. The Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh enables interoperability across access points from different vendors. The term given to an access point is Multi-AP. The Multi-AP has two logical entities: * One Multi-AP controller * One or ore Multi-AP agents The Multi-AP agents report measurements and capability data to the Multi-AP controller. A controller interface is defined between the Multi-AP agents and the controller and/or between agents. Having a controller in the home is an interesting idea coming from the enterprise space. Essentially, this would be located in the residential gateway. The controller will manage roaming and load balancing between APs. The method in which Multi-APs join the controller will be a mandatory method of Push Button Configuration (PBC). There is also a backhaul station on-boarding procedure via AP-Autoconfig for discovery. Network Operations There are various configurations managed from the Multi-AP Controller: Capability Report Multi-AP Agents report capabilities to the controller such as the number of radios, channel width supported, PHY protocol supported.  Channel Selection Channel configuration is performed by the controller. By default the maximum Tx Power is used but the controller can decide to lower it down to improve system signal conditions. The controller sends a Channel Preference Query message to each Agent. The EasyMesh specification does state DFS support so we’ll see many more channels available in the home. Link Metric Collection Client devices can convey link metric information related to the network. Agents also leverage 802.11k beacon report measurements to report metrics about the quality of the links between the agent and the clients. Client Steering The controller sends control messages to the agents to steer clients. Client supporting 802.11v BSS Transition Management will experience faster transitions. Optimizing Connection Between Agents Controller select the best path to connect the agents together. Thoughts It will be interesting to see if vendors will get together on this specification to improve home networking. Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh looks aimed for ISPs to provide home mesh networking for their customers. With a gateway from an ISP, they can control the other APs in the home. This helps them reduce the number of customer calls about poor Wi-Fi and reduces the number of truck rolls. We can see ISPs partnering with specific AP vendors which are EasyMesh certified to sell a solution to the customer. But without more spectrum (6 GHz) and 802.11ax, we won’t see much improvement in home mesh network in environments where it is highly dense. Links and Resources * Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh * EasyMesh Specification

Capturing wireless frames is a must know skill for any Wi-Fi network engineer. Capturing Wireless Frames with a Mac The Macbook Pro is an excellent tool for capturing wireless frames. The built-in wireless adapter can be used to sniff wireless frames in the air. As I like to say, the best troubleshooting tool you can have is the one that’s with you. Since I have my Mac with me all the time I tend to capture frames wherever I go. There are many pros with capturing frames. It’s a great way to learn how Wi-Fi works. This is how I got started. Understanding how Wi-Fi communication works through frame captures gives you an upper-hand. One example is learning about the 802.11 State Machine. When it comes to troubleshooting complicated issues, frames don’t lie. Not too long ago, my laptop had a difficult time connecting to public Wi-Fi. It frustrated me so much I decided to capture some frames. Within minutes I found out why. Just take a look at the screenshot below. Tools * Macbook Pro * Airtool * Metageek Profile * Metageek Profile for Wireshark * Mojo Packets How To Capture Frames * Install Wireshark * Install the Metageek Profile * Unzip the file * Copy directory to /Users/user/.config/wireshark/profiles/ * Enable the profile in Wireshark by clicking on the bottom right of the open application. See screenshot below. * * Install Airtool * Select channel & channel width to capture on * * Start the capture and stop after a short time * * Analyze with Wireshark or Mojo Packets Links and Resources * Airtool * Wireshark * Mojo Packets * Metageek Wireshark Profile * Automating Wi-Fi Packet Analysis with Pyshark

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi in a warehouse environment can get complex. We outline 6 tips to help you out.   6 Warehouse Wi-Fi Troubleshooting Tips Warehouse environments are tricky. They’re complex. Many factors can limit how well Wi-Fi works. There are tall racks which go as high as 30 feet or more. Depending on what kind of material is stored in those racks it can change the characteristics of the Wi-Fi signal. In this episode, we talk about 6 Wi-Fi troubleshooting tips you should know when working in a warehouse: Client Care Wi-Fi clients need more love. They aren’t handled as careful as they should be in these harsh environments. Many devices are rugged at all and could affect Wi-Fi connectivity. Give these devices a physical look over for any damage. Devices also have a longer life cycle in warehouses. You’re not always working with the latest and greatest technology. Client Configurations Keep aware of the feature sets of the client devices. Each type of device will have different roaming thresholds or triggers in their configuration, if any. Many devices in warehouses are sensitive with the real-time application that’s being used. One thing to always look out for are the firmware versions installed. Directional antennas Because of the high ceilings and tall racks, directional antennas are highly recommended. With omnidirectional antennas, it may not penetrate the materials in the rack. This creates connectivity issues for scanner guns and any other type of devices used in between racks. Find out what type of material is sitting on those shelves to get an idea of attenuation. Ensure antennas are mounted properly and not on top of a rack. Operating a Skyjack Someone has to get up to the ceiling and install an access point or antenna. The important part here is to be aware of any licensing you may need to acquire or training you need to attend before operating a skyjack. Safety is very important in a warehouse, for yourself and others. Don’t forget any other equipment you may need such as a hard hat, safety vest, safety glasses, harness, steel toe boots, etc. Hardware failures Harsh environments have a negative affect on equipment. The environments, indoor or outdoor, can lower the life of a device. Be sure to do a physical check of hardware. You may seen an antenna hanging from a device because it was knocked off while on the move. There may be some failed equipment because it was in a freezer and didn’t hold up to the freezing temperatures, etc. Retry Rate Legacy 802.11b/g clients do not hold up well in warehouse environments relying on Wi-Fi. They don’t handle multi-path very well. This is why we recommend using updated client devices but we know it’s not always an option for a company to spend lots of money on updating aging equipment. We’ve seen up to 50% retry rates in warehouses. But with newer clients it decreases since they can handle multi-path. You may need to change your APs and/or antennas to tune for the client device in these complex environments. Link and Resources WLPC Warehouse talk Warehouse Wi-Fi Episode 077 Ekahau Webinar

Coming off the Cisco Champion Radio podcast, François and Rowell share their RRM experience.   Our Cisco RRM Experience We use Cisco RRM on a daily basis and in most of the environments we configure and manage. It’s come a long way since it’s introduction but we’re both still learning so much about Cisco RRM. For a large environment, RRM is a useful tool. But when changes are done on the WLAN, RRM needs to be reset and settled. In this episode, we talk about our experience using RRM. What does it mean to design with RRM in mind? How does one use RRM with high density, capacity, coverage, etc while keeping ensuring it meets requirements. We touch upon using design tools such as Ekahau Site Survey and how you use those design tools with RRM. Can it be done? And what do we think about those who don’t think RRM works at all? We touch on that just a little. Take a listen to the episode and share your experience in the comments below. Links and Resources * Cisco DCA * Cisco NDP * Warehouse Wi-Fi via Semfio Networks * Difficult Wi-Fi in Warehouse and Manufacturing Facilities via Ekahau

Rowell had the pleasure of meeting with Quantenna at their headquarters in San Jose, CA. Quantenna Just around the corner from my own home is the headquarters of Quantenna, in San Jose, CA. Their sign is prominent from the street and I drive by it several times. This time, I find myself sitting inside one of their meeting rooms where I am speaking with Ambroise Popper, VP, Strategy and Corporate Marketing, and James Chen, VP of Product Management. Quantenna is a Wi-Fi chip company. Or better described as a fabless semiconductor company. They went IPO at the end of 2016 and have about 400 employees. Revenue in 2017 was around $175 million. That should give you the scale of this company. They are worldwide, designing chips in-house for a number of manufacturers. Their focus is on high end Wi-Fi, building a chipset for home gateways or set top boxes. That means they work mostly with carriers. But that’s not the only market they are in. One company I am familiar with in the Bay Area is Mimosa. They are a customer that uses Quantenna chipsets in their hardware. Providing Wi-Fi chipset and surrounding software to carriers is their biggest market. What Quantenna has been working on is wirelessly distributing high quality on-demand TV throughout the home without being in the proximity of a coax jack. This is where Quantenna saw 4×4 radios, where Quantenna started, as an optimal usage scenario but they do have solutions beyond 4×4 such as 8×8. Where James says the product shines is where Quantenna is on both sides of the wireless link. Recently, Quantenna released their cloud system, ViSiON. It’s a cloud application used for remote monitoring, real-time monitoring, reporting of devices that use Quantenna chipsets. An example of monitoring could be identifying if too many reboots are happening, if boxes are seeing too many dropped packets, etc. Where does Quantenna see the future going? People moving towards 8K video. We may not see it here in the United States, but Ambroise says go to Japan and you’ll be surprised. There’s the explosion of IoT devices, sofisticated use of audio and video in gaming and VR/AR, and there’s the usage of cloud and the synchronization of devices. And lastly, Fixed wireless and 5G technologies where companies like Mimosa can take advantage of their chips. All of which raises the demand for more bandwidth and speed. Links and Resources * Quantenna * Quantenna Blog  

What’s coming up for Wi-Fi with developers and how can we learn to automate our Wi-Fi day-to-day? DevNet Create 2018 I was expecting to be amongst the developers but I left feeling inspired about what we can create while working with Wi-Fi. This was my first time attending DevNet Create and it certainly won’t be my last. The event was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It’s not too far from Googleplex so I could already smell the scent of developer..just kidding. This small event had maybe around 300 attendees. Each workshop was held on in a large room where the presenter spoke to a small crowd. Very intimate. DevNet Create had an interesting agenda line up. I was primarily interested in the workshops which had to do with Wi-Fi. The sessions I joined in on were: NetDevOps Engineer Everyday Skills Gabriel Zapodeanu | Cisco, Global Partner Organization Do you want to learn how to write simple ChatOps apps for IOS XE network devices? This session will explore a few IOS XE device programmability capabilities to help you create your first ChatOps application using NETCONF, RESTCONF, and Guest Shell. Planning to join the workshop? Indoor Location-based Services Using Wi-Fi Mathieu Gerard | Mapwize In this workshop, we will build a simple mobile application allowing users to view the map of the building, see their position provided by the Cisco CMX or Meraki infrastructure, and get directions across multiple floors. Automate your Network with Python and Meraki Colin Lowenberg | Cisco, Meraki George Dorsey | Cisco, Meraki You only need a basic understanding of programming and Meraki to complete this quick lab. Take Cisco’s own internal training on Python for network automation. We will walk through the setup on your laptop and use a pre-written Python script to interact with the Meraki Dashboard API. Introduction to Meraki API’s Through Node Red Michael Chenetz | Cisco Meraki is intended to be an easy platform. So why not have any equally easy way to program interactions through the use of visual programming? In this talk I’ll introduce you to Node Red for Meraki. Learn programming by combining objects to create applications. Planning to join the workshop? Anyone who attended the event had a chance to get a free Meraki switch with a 3-year license by just completing a Meraki challenge. You yourself can try out the challenge (minus receiving the free switch). Overall, I thought it was a great event. I was able to meet up with good friends and learn how automation and coding can help us in our day-to-day jobs. I feel very inspired about what I may be able to do in the near future. At the end of the conference I purchased my own copy of Learn Python 3 The Hard Way. Links and Resources * DevNet Create * FOXCONN buys Belkin * NYC Street Light Wi-Fi