Clear To Send: Wireless Network Engineering Rowell Dionicio and François Vergès

Fortinet has had a strong portfolio. They’ve been able to show all the solutions that are pertinent to a secure Wi-Fi network at every Mobility Field Day they’ve attended. This one is no different.







Their end-to-end solutions make it easy for any organization to select Fortinet.







It’s no shock that they’ve been able to develop a Wi-Fi 7 access point. But now they’re diving into Firewall as a Service while still providing the flexibility for any organization to migrate between the management method needed to grow and expand as required.







Check out the episode!







Resources









* Fortinet’s WLAN Vision







* Wi-Fi 7 FortiAP







* Fortinet Wi-Fi 7 and IoT with WPA3







* Fortinet’s LTE / 5G Gateway portfolio







* Wireless as a Service with FortiFlex

https://youtu.be/I6KASVEiCag









Rowell and Jussi discussed the integration and functionality of a new live view feature in Hamina. Jussi explained that the feature pulls data from the vendor, including details such as AP locations, maps, transmit powers, and more, to create a more accurate network coverage prediction. The discussion also touched on the system’s ability to account for environmental factors like wall attenuation, with Jussi noting that the system’s accuracy in this area will likely improve over time. Rowell expressed interest in understanding more about how the floor plan is incorporated into the vendor data.







Also discussed was the potential of using AP data to create detailed floor plans and site maps, which could be used for live troubleshooting and capacity planning. Exploring the possibility of pulling in client data into these heat maps to provide a more comprehensive view of the network. In the recording, Rowel and Jussi touched on the potential of integrating data from different vendors to create a more complete picture. However, that the ability to do so is dependent on what the vendors choose to provide via their APIs.







Check out the episode to see more!







Resources









* Hamina

In this episode, we’re speaking with Anil Varanasi – the CEO at Meter. He’s an engineer that set out to solve an infrastructure problem with his brother, Sunil.







Meter, founded in 2015, is a Network as a Service company that provides end-to-end networking solutions. From firewalls, to switches, and Wi-Fi – they provide the infrastructure for businesses so they can do what they do best.







Their purpose is to build great beautiful networking that combines products and services into a single solution.







Meter has also developed an in-house solution to help network admins procure ISP services for their offices – making it even easier to get up and running fast.













Meter scales to provide a single pane of glass for management of multiple sites. It’s simple to add firewalls, switches, and access points.













Anil provides his insight into how they position themselves in the industry and how they can help network admins with their day-to-day job.







And you might think, a Network-as-a-Service might not give you the granular configuration management or insight, but that is further from the truth. It’s built for network engineers with various knobs available for fine tuning.



















Check out Meter and the resources below to learn more.







Resources









* https://www.meter.com/







* How Meter works – https://www.meter.com/how-it-works

Live demos are awesome to see. And when executed very well it is impressive. Arista Networks came to Mobility Field Day 11 ready to wow the delegates.







With a Wi-Fi 7 access point in the room and a Google Pixel phone, they were able to show how MLO works in Wi-Fi 7.







From their dashboard, it showed how the phone was associated to both 5 GHz and 6 GHz channel on a single access point.







In addition to MLO, they also showed a demo of how puncturing would work. An interference source was synthetically created via software just to show one channel being removed but Wi-Fi still operating well.







Check out the MFD11 video and be sure to look at the pcap Rowell was able to capture which shows the MLO information elements.







Resources









* MLO information elements PCAP

https://youtu.be/nCLoqCq-1CM









Rowell was fortunate to be a delegate for Mobility Field Day (MFD) 11 which was located in Santa Clara, CA. Juniper Networks was the first presenter at MFD11 and just like in previous MFD events, there were many announcements and new features coming to the Mist dashboard.







A lot of the discussion does revolve around Marvis and the AI capability. Marvis Minis weren’t announce too long ago for access points and now they will be extended to providing testing for applications such as Zoom and Teams. With this comes new Application SLEs.













Providing insight into the user experience is a nice way to measure the impact of poor application performance. AI is used to take Zoom data merged with network data from wired, wireless, SD-WAN, etc to build models that can predict latency with up to +/- 9ms of accuracy.







When it comes to user experience, I would like to gather data closer to the device being used. That’s where the Marvis Client Agent comes into play. It will be able to provide more information to feed on layer 2 information and display within Client Insights on the dashboard.







Troubleshooting Wi-Fi is challenging. But the Mist dashboard is helping to bridge the gap by providing information that occurred in the past with Dynamic Spectrum Capture. We’ve known that intermittent issues have been difficult to track, especially RF interference.













And when you have to troubleshoot remote sites, it’s not easy to fly someone onsite to troubleshoot, especially when travel costs are involved. Juniper Networks brought Jussi Kiviniemi as a guest to display live troubleshooting and analysis using Hamina. It utilizes the Mist API to pull in RF data to get a live heatmap view on a floor plan within Hamina.













Like I said, Juniper Networks announced a lot of new features. Watch the full video for yourself!







Resources









* Mobility Field Day 11 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cr78UCc_OI&list=PLinuRwpnsHaf-E0qY3_JRbeuETzKnx42I&index=3

In episode 333 of the CTS podcast, your hosts François Vergès and Rowell Dionicio delve deep into understanding Wi-Fi channels and frequencies.







During the podcast, they discuss the intricacies of Wi-Fi channel operations and the science behind the frequencies used in Wi-Fi connections. This episode is a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of Wi-Fi operations in depth.







They also talk about the Automatic Frequency Coordination (AFC) in the context of 6GHz networks. For more details on this topic, listeners can refer to a previous episode, CTS-218: 6GHz PSD & AFC with Chuck Lukaszewski, available here.







Additionally, they provide an infographic that neatly summarizes DFS operations. This infographic serves as a handy reference for those wanting a quick overview of DFS operations and can be accessed here.







As a bonus, they also provide the CTS Channel List 2024 in PDF format. This list is an invaluable resource for those who want to delve deeper into the world of Wi-Fi channels.







Join François and Rowell in this episode as they break down complex concepts into easy-to-understand explanations. You don’t want to miss this comprehensive overview of Wi-Fi channels and frequencies.







Resources









* Episode on AFC: https://www.cleartosend.net/cts-218-6ghz-psd-afc-with-chuck-lukaszewski/







* DFS Operations Infographic: https://semfionetworks.com/blog/dfs-operations-infographic/









Bonus









* Channel List









CTS Channel List 2024.pdf