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

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

We’re headed back to the basics with a series of episodes focused on Wi-Fi fundamentals.







How do devices and access points communicate with each other? How does it work in varying environments?







A standards body defines how different vendors and manufacturers use a standard way to communicate over the air.







Since the inception of Wi-Fi, newer standards were created to build upon the previous versions – increasing data rates, efficiency, and more. New Wi-Fi protocols were born.







In this episode we touch upon the different Wi-Fi Standards and the technology that it is based on.







Resources









* IEEE Timeline: https://ieee802.org/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm







* IEEE 802.11-2020 Standars: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9363693







* MCS Table: https://mcsindex.net/









Bonus









* PHY Graphics updated: CTS 802.11 PHY Table 2024.pdf

Coming back from WLPC we feel highly motivated. But we also took the time to reflect on the conference, the content, and the people we connected with.







In this episode, we talk about the lessons we’ve learned from WLPC Phoenix.







Those lessons are:









* Not as many real world Wi-Fi 6E presentations







* Wi-Fi 7 is coming sooner than we think







* MLO seems to be the biggest feature of Wi-Fi 7







* You can transfer data through bananas and get PoE







* Lots of presentations from people that work for vendors.







* We need to ask more questions







* We need to listen more closely







* Hearing about different people coming from different perspectives can be really important







* Why having a community is really important







* More eyes on WLPC

https://youtu.be/YP_AQXx0nbo









In a big surprise to us, HPE has announced they will be acquiring Juniper Networks. We’ve been working with Mist Systems since Juniper Networks acquired them.







We’re hoping the acquisition doesn’t impact Mist negatively but we can see why HPE wanted the MistAI technology.







In this episode, we’re going to provide our opinions on the acquisition, what impact this has on the customers, and how partners navigate this acquisition in the coming years.