Clear To Send: Wireless Network Engineering

Containment of a WLAN is the act of shutting it down! We discuss how you can find out if you’re being contained. This episode is sponsored by Metageek WLAN containment is not a situation you want to deal with. The symptom you’ll see are devices dropping from your WLAN. When they are disconnected, they often stay disconnected. Sometimes those devices won’t be able to connect at all to your WLAN. What is happening? Another network is containing your WLAN. This happens by sending deauthentication frames to devices connected to your WLAN or by sending broadcasted deauthetication frames. You can troubleshoot this issue using the following tools: AirTool Wireshark WiFi Explorer NETSCOUT AirCheck G2 (optional) Troubleshooting WLAN Containment How do you know if containment is happening? Using Airtool, capture frames on your operating channels. After 5 minutes of capturing, open up the pcap in Wireshark. Use this filter to show all deauthentication frames: wlan.fc.type_subtype == 0x000c Take note of the source BSSID. You may get lucky and find out who is containing your WLAN. Copy the BSSID and paste it into WiFi Explorer. If that same BSSID is broadcasting beacons for its own WLAN you will see it. That’s how I used Airtool, Wireshark, and WiFi Explorer to find the source of containment. By looking at the RSSI within the frames in Wireshark, you can get close to the source AP of the offending frames. Another option is to plug the BSSID into the AirCheck G2 and use the Locate feature to find the AP. Here are some screenshots from my lab performing containment on one of my APs. Remember your regulatory laws regarding containment!   This Week In Wireless * Get 25% off CWNP WiFi Trek with coupon code: CTS17 * Ekahau Product Announcement * FCC Regulations

We provide our thoughts on Mojo Networks presenting at Mobility Field Day 2. Mojo Networks Mobility Field Day 2 went live with Mojo Networks on July 25th, 2017. We visited their offices in Mountain View to see what was new with Mojo Networks. First up on the agenda, CEO Rick Wilmer, talks about Mojo Networks’ participation in the Open Compute Project. Their goal is to bring Open Standards to access points. It’s a way for companies to use a vendor’s firmware on any access point hardware. It’s an interesting project because it would dramatically reduce costs of access points making it go the way of servers. There’s still plenty of work to be done but we should check in on the status often. The newest feature of Mojo Networks is Mojo Aware. A way to gain visibility into the client journey. It’s all about the user experience. We got insight into association and authentication statistics, baselines for the wireless network, and average statistics of the clients using your network. It seems like major vendors are adding this point of view into their products. Other topics we discuss on the episode: * Mojo Packets * Mojo Network’s 3rd radio Links & Resources * Mobility Field Day 2 * Wireless LAN Professionals Podcast * WLAN Pros website * Lending Library * WiFi Explorer Pro * CWNP Wi-Fi Trek Orlando

We recap the presentation Cape Networks provided during Mobility Field Day 2. It aired live on July 26th, 2017. This episode is sponsored by Metageek Cape Networks at MFD2 A company was born a little over 3 years ago. Their goal, to help network admins and MSPs to enable a great experience on their networks. But how exactly do you do that? They began creating a sensor that would be placed near the end users to collect metrics on the quality of the wireless network. That data would be analyzed in their cloud and presented in a simple user interface of red, yellow, and green lights. All to answer a fundamental question: how good is my network? The team hand humble beginnings, learning how to make hardware at scale. They moved to Silicon Valley to get funding for their idea and now they have their sensors across the globe. It was really great to hear the story of how they began to growing to where they are now. They have really made a big achievement. During Mobility Field Day 2, they announced new features to further enhance the capabilities of their wireless sensors. This includes: * Rolling packet capture * Splash Page Support Listen to the episode for our recap of the presentation and watch the videos from Mobility Field Day 2 below. Links and Resources * Cape Networks * Mobility Field Day 2 * Episode 74 – Wi-Fi Monitoring with Sensors

We recap Netscout presenting at Mobility Field Day 2 (MFD2) which aired live on July 26th, 2017.  This episode is sponsored by Metageek Netscout At Mobility Field Day 2 Netscout has a number of network and application tools but for Mobility Field Day 2 (MFD2) they brought out the AirCheck G2 and Link-Live. The greatest feature of the AirCheck G2 is not needing an expert to use it. You might not be able to have an expert on-site and a task will need to be delegated to a field technician, or a non-technical person. That’s where the AirCheck G2 comes in handy. Chris Hinsz, Senior Product Manager, presented in front of the delegates. In this episode, we talk about some of the features that stuck out to us on this presentation: * Auto Test * CCI/ACI * Network connection tests * Channel Utilization * Profiles * And others The AirCheck G2 gives you a lot of information from the start. You can see how many APs are contending on the same channel. In that same window you’ll be able to check for 802.11 and non-802.11 channel utilization. The Profiles feature allows you to create different settings based on the tests and environments you’ll be using the Netscout AirCheck G2. Profiles make it efficient for you to perform your work. You won’t need to spend time configuring the AirCheck G2 for the wireless network. An example is having to install 802.1X certificates. This can be configured ahead of time using the AirCheck G2 Manager. What do you do after the tests have been performed? How do you keep record of them? This is when Chris gave us a look at Link-Live. A cloud service that stores all your tests from various Netscout devices. Right away I saw this as a useful tool when working with many different field technicians. A test can be uploaded to Link-Live so other people can see the results. It’s an easy way to collaborate with other team members and get work done efficiently. Check out the recorded videos from Mobility Field Day 2 and let me know what you think about Netscout below in the comments. Links and Resources * AirCheck G2 * Link-Live * Mobility Field Day 2

Let’s welcome Andrew von Nagy of Revolution WiFi and Capacity Planner, Brandon Gilles of Ubiquiti, and Jeff Hansen also from Ubiquiti. They join us on this episode to inform us about the collaboration of Ubiquiti with Andrew’s latest version of Capacity Planner. Ubiquiti also goes into details about the FedEx Forum UniFi deployment to fill both high density and capacity. Sponsored By Andrew von Nagy’s Capacity Planner was released two years ago to the community. It’s goal is to provide education on capacity topics, help administrators improve and build better wireless networks, and help move the industry forward. For version 2 of the capacity planner, Andrew has partnered with Ubiquiti. The latest features and enhancements to Capacity Planner version 2 include: * Analysis graphs * Data to understand how capacity is used and where improvements can be made * Mesh planning * Improved visibility into AP load * 802.11ac Wave 2 and Dual 5 GHz deployment support (excluding MU-MIMO) So why did Ubiquiti decide to get involved with the capacity planner? * Education of community * Customer reach of Ubiquiti * Future deployment of a web-based version The Capacity Planner was also used as a sanity check for the deployment of UniFi APs at the FedEx Forum. Used for determining how many access points were required to maintain capacity, determine what their minimum rates were going to be and what utilization would look like. Within the FedEx Forum, capacity and frequency reuse were tightly coupled together. In the end, 86 APs were servicing users in the main bowl area. A large matrix spreadsheet was used to determine their channel plan and site surveys were used to see which areas heard which APs. All 5 GHz channels were used and there was close to reuse of 1.8x. The biggest attendance at FedEx Forum saw at peak, 4000 users using about 1 Gbps/sec. Also at peak. The geometry of the bowl created a lot of on-channel noise. Taking QoS and load balancing into consideration, airtime fairness saw a good improvement. Devices were getting about 50 Mbps of throughput without limitation. Eventually, devices were limited to 10 Mbps. Load Balancing played a role as the team revealed an excess of 200 users on a single AP. Most of the clients were actually 1×1 and 2×2 clients. UniFi features a soft and hard load balancing. An AP will reject an association to try and force a client to another AP but has intelligence built-in if a client continues to join the same BSSID. In the future, there are plans to integrate Capacity Planner within the UniFi user interface. Listen in on the episode to hear much more! Links & Resources * Capacity Planner * Ubiquiti

This is a recording from Cisco Live 2017 in the Podcast Domain. We had a few Cisco Advanced Services members join the podcast to discuss various topics about wireless. This episode is sponsored by Metageek. Podcast Domain at Cisco Live 2017 We were fortunate to have a dedicated podcast space at Cisco Live 2017 called Podcast Domain. Many thanks to Lauren for setting this up and scheduling Cisco engineers to speak with us. I am joined by a special co-host, Drew Lentz, who is a wireless professional and man who runs many businesses

Devin Akin joins us on the show to talk about using wider channels on wireless networks. What are the pros and cons, what should we know when configuring wider channel widths and how does it affect the clients? Channel Widths Devin Akin joins CTS to drop some knowledge on channel widths. Devin is the founder if Divergent Dynamics, a Wi-Fi consulting company. But before that he got his foundation in the military, where he started learning RF. After the military, Devin founded CWNP which has now grown to be the vendor neutral certification in the technology industry. He soon pursued other roles in different companies to further add to his experience as a wireless expert. In this episode, Devin talks to us about using wider channel widths in our Wi-Fi network. This episode is going to be very educational. We asked the question of how we got to using up to 160 MHz channel widths. So we get a bit of history into older wireless technologies, beginning with 802.11 prime. As the market chases the highest data rates possible, Devin begins educating us on how channel bonding is used. The discussion will make you want to test this out for yourself on your wireless networks. Frames such as management and control will use the primary 20 MHz channel widths. Channel bonding was introduced in 802.11n which gave us 40 MHz channel widths and higher data rates. But with this we increase the noise floor and require higher SNR. And we cannot forget about CCI and ACI which Devin definitely goes into. In our discussion we ask Devin how he approaches channel bonding in his design. What factors play into whether he’ll increase channel widths beyond 20 MHz. And probably one of the most educational moments of the episode is learning about OBSS and the affect it has on wireless networks. Listen in on this episode for much more and get ready to take notes. Links and Resources * Divergent Dynamics * WLAN Pros Compensation Benchmark * CWNP * MCS Index * Nuts About Nets

Check out some of the Wi-Fi apps I’ve listed for Android. This is the last episode in a series of Wi-Fi apps for different platforms. This episode is sponsored by Metageek Android Wi-Fi Apps Ekahau Site Survey Mobile Use this app with your Ekahau Site Survey Pro software. It can provide a perspective from the client side. Metageek InSSIDer Office Apparently, I cannot find this in the Google Play store. I know I’ve used it before but it is not there unless I am having a hard time seeing it. What do you guys think? Airo This is a Wi-Fi app for Android developed by Aruba Networks. It displays the network health in an easy to read format. The health is split into two areas, Wi-Fi and WAN. WiFi Analyzer This Wi-Fi app gives you information about the Wi-Fi networks around you. Displays in a graph of which channels are being used by which networks. It’s a tool you can use to determine which channels you can use for your network. Fing This app provides many tools inside it. Fing can be used as a network scanner to detect what is on your network. There’s a Wi-Fi scanner, a tool to detect what’s on your network, port scanner, ping sweep, and more.

Here are Wi-Fi apps we use under iOS. Although limited to the adapter, there are many good apps available to use for Wi-Fi purposes. This episode is sponsored by Metageek. Wi-Fi Apps for Apple iOS * Hurricane Electric * * Oscium * * Airport Utility * * Speedtest * * Nperf * * Speedspot * * Tamograph Throughput Test Client * * SSID Overhead Calculator * * Cisco Fast Traffic * * Cisco Wireless * * Cisco FastLane QoS * * Network Tools * Aruba BluConsole

We couldn’t do our work without the valuable apps used in the Windows operating system. That’s what we’ll discuss in this episode. Wi-Fi apps for Windows. This episode is brought to you by Here are the Wi-Fi apps for Windows that Rowell and I use regularly when we are working at client sites or for any other Wi-Fi project. We certainly have our favorite apps and there are some we use on special cases but take a look at the list below and let us know what you think in the comments. Metageek Chanalyzer Spectrum Analysis software (For more, listen to CTS066, CTS039, CTS073) Required a piece of hardware to feed spectrum information to the software Wi-Fi Spy dBx Cisco CleanAir AP (much better resolution) Simple and user friendly interface Different views Waterfall view Current spectrum view Ability to record spectrum analysis Can scan both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time (if proper adapter is used) Built-in Wi-Fi network scanner Present channel utilization Link to Chanalyzer Metageek Eye P.A. A different way to analyze a Wi-Fi network Very visual Ability to capture packets (if proper Wi-Fi adapter is used – Airpcap Nx) and display different valuable statistics How much the airtime is used? By who? You will see how much your neighbours affect you! Compare size of packets with amount of data transfered. Helps to visualize that Wi-Fi generate tons of management traffic Ability to import packet capture taken from other programs (Wireshark, AirTool, CommView…) Ability to see the packets With filter capabilities Great to visualize issue and present to customers Geat to gather statistics on how a Wi-Fi network is performing Side note: Great tool to use to learn more about Wi-Fi Link to Metageek Eye P.A. Ekahau Site Survey Swiss Army knife of Wi-Fi (for more listen to CTS069, CTS009) Site Survey tool (Design, validation, troubleshooting) Wi-Fi scanner Spectrum Analyzer Complete solution meeting the needs of Wi-Fi Engineers Updated on a regular basis Take advantage of the Wi-Fi community to improve the tool (#ESSRequest) Reference in terms of Wi-Fi design and site survey tool today Looks way way way better than AirMagnet Complete set of features 3D Wi-Fi design Reporting and Reporting customization Spectrum Analyzer macOS version (beta) Link to Ekahau Site Survey Metageek InSSIDer Office Wireless network scanner See what channels are used by other networks RSSI Data rates Protocol Plug in WiSpy dBx for Chanalyzer lite * Link To Metageek InSSIDer Office Savvius Omnipeek Heavy Duty Network Analyzer Use to troubleshoot Wi-Fi networks Capture packets and provide insight on the quality of the network (more than just Wi-Fi) Ability to drill down into the packets Ability to use multiple adapters to captures on multiple channels to analyzer things like roaming behaviours

Let’s face it, we enjoy our Wi-Fi tools and apps. This episode talks about the apps we use in macOS. So if you’re a Mac guy, this episode is for you. This episode is happily sponsored by Metageek Wi-Fi Apps for macOS Being a Mac user meant not having enough apps to do your job. As a Wi-Fi professional, we rely on many apps to help get our jobs done. Fortunately, we have developers who hear the cry for professional Wi-Fi apps on macOS. Here’s a list of apps Francois and I use on a daily basis. This is in no particular order. Wi-Fi Explorer Great app developed by Adrian Granados who was interviewed back on 007. Double 007! This is an excellent Wi-Fi network scanner that is simple to use and updated regularly. It has built-in search functionality so you can find the network you’re looking for. You have the ability to add different columns to fit your troubleshooting needs and you can see advanced details such as information elements. This is a paid application. Airtool Another powerful app from Adrian Granados. It’s a menu bar application capable of capturing Wi-Fi frames using the Mac’s built-in Wi-Fi network card. From the app you select a channel to capture frames from, select the channel width, and you’re off to the races. It can be used with Wireshark, Cloudshark, and Mojo Packets. This is the fastest way to capture frames using a Mac. One of my favorite apps to use. Also, it’s Free! Wi-Fi Signal Adrian Granados strikes again! This is a menu bar application used to easily check the status of the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to. It can display information such as quality of the received signal, signal in dBm, noise, SNR, and current channel. It can send notifications of when you connect/disconnect to a Wi-Fi network and even if you roam. Debookee We interviewed the developer, Thomas Baudelet, in episode 70. This is a great app with a wireless module which displays details of Wi-Fi networks, displays statistics such as retry rate and Tx and Rx throughput. This app makes it easy to analyze other clients’ performance. This is a paid app. iPerf A free application to test throughput of your Wi-Fi network. What else is there to be said!? Metageek InSSIDer Office (beta) Currently in beta, Metageek has a macOS application that can scan Wi-Fi networks around you. It contains a search functionality to get through all the networks on the list. If you plug in a WiSpy dBx you can get a lite version of Chanalyzer. This is a paid app. Terminal/iTerm2 Use this to SSH into your devices. You can build aliases and scripts to help you manage your network efficiently. TamoSoft Throughput Test Can operate as a server or a client. The server can be ran from macOS or Windows. The client can operate on macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS. It’s very easy to use and provides a visual throughput ...

How do you like to configure and maintain your Wi-Fi infrastructure? Do you use GUI or CLI? If both, when do you use CLI? When do you use GUI? How we are trained might affect the way we approach management. In this episode we discuss the pros and cons of using both GUI (graphical user interface) and CLI (command line interface). What are the pros of using the GUI? * Dashboards * Easier to configure multiple APs at the same time * Easier to perform multiple changes at the same time * Do you need a separate GUI system What are the cons of using the GUI? * Debugging * Not all commands are available * Can be slower * Has a connotation of being for a noob What are the pros of using CLI? * It’s kool

Cisco Live 2017 is coming up and there’s much to see. Clear To Send will be there to do a live recording. We will also be giving away Clear To Send stickers at Cisco Live if you can find us! Upcoming Cisco Live 2017 The Mandalay Bay will be hosting Cisco Live 2017 again in Las Vegas. The event begins on June 25th, 2017 through June 29th. I, Rowell Dionicio, will be in attendance from Clear To Send podcast. This is the second year in a row as an attendee for me. Learn more about last year’s experience from Episode 44. First Time Attendee? I highly recommend picking a hotel close to conference. If you can, get into Mandalay Bay or Delano. This year I will be staying at the Luxor which is next door. Other hotels may seem like an easy walk but trust me, in the heat you don’t want to be walking. Luckily, there will be a constant stream of shuttles to various hotels. Prepare an extra bag just for the swag. You’ll get a ton of it. I’ve heard of some bringing an extra carry-on just for the swag. Lots of cool toys, tshirts, and of course marketing literature. Wear comfortable shoes because you’re going to be doing a lot of walking. The Mandalay Bay conference center is very large. There’s also walking along Las Vegas if you’re up for it. That also means wearing comfortable clothes. When I attended Las Vegas 2016 it was a nice cool 110F. Wear light, breathable clothing. Within the conference center it will get very cold. It’s best to layer your clothing for Cisco Live. Cisco Live Sessions I’ll be attending mostly wireless sessions but will add in a few new technologies to keep myself up-to-date with what’s out there. My favorite speakers are Jerome Henry, Matt Swartz, and Jim Florick. Any topic from those individuals will be knowledge bombs. Check out all the sessions from the Cisco’s website. Here are a few interesting sessions to check out: CCNA Wireless, master the 802.11 protocols! By Jerome Henry (Tue 27th 8am 2h) Improve Enterprise WLAN Spectrum Quality with Cisco’s advanced RF capacities (RRM, CleanAir, ClientLink, etc) by Jim Florick (Wed 28th 8am 2h) Apple and Cisco: Fast-Tracking the Mobile Enterprise (Monday 26th 8am 1h) Be my guest! – Design and Deploy Wireless Guest Access that Works by Federico Ziliotto (Monday 26th 4pm 1.5h) High Density Wi-Fi Design, Deployment, and Optimization by Josh Suhr and Matt Swartz (Wed 8am 2h) Advanced Enterprise WLAN Deployment (full day seminar) Design and Deployment of Outdoor Wireless Networks by Kshitij Mahant (Thurs 29th 1pm 1.5h) 7 Ways to Fail as a Wireless Expert by Steven Heinsius (Ekahau Webinar) CCIE Wireless Techtorial by Carlos Alcantara and Santiago Lopez (Wed 28th 1pm to 5pm) CCNP Wireless – Candidate’s Choice (Mon 26th 8am 2h) Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) by Darryl Sladden (Thur 29th 8:30am 1.5h) 5G Radio Access Network Transformation (Cellular Networks) 5G Technology Updates (Cellular Network) Cisco IOT in a 5G World Deploying 4G/LTE for Enterprise and IoT Solutions Meet The Engineer Any attendee can schedule in a Meet the Engineer and I highly recommend it. Last year’s Cisco Live I was able to sit down with Matt Swartz and Jim Florick to talk RRM. It was a valuable discussion which gave me a few action items in the end. When you can talk directly with the engineers about any topic at hand you come out much smarter. Certification Exam Once you’re registered for Cisco Live you’ll want to...

When it comes to challenging environments, warehouse Wi-Fi makes it to the top of the list. Each warehouse is a different environment housing different types of inventory which affect how the RF propagates. François speaks about his experience designing for warehouses. Warehouse Wi-Fi François has done a few warehouse designs and deployments. He is going to share his personal experiences when approaching warehouse Wi-Fi. Below are some of the bullet point topics we talk about. If you have any questions, feedback, or would like to add to the show please leave a comment below. Safety * Always remember that you are working in someone else’s working space (true for any Wi-Fi, especially true for warehouses) * Skyjack use * Prep work about safety: * Ask the customer if any safety training are required * Am I going to need boots, safety glasses, hard hat, safety jacket * If you are going to drive a skyjack, do I need a licence for it? Do I have a licence for it? If yes, I will also need a harness * Once on site: * Always look around * Walk in the walking area whenever you can * Always give a visual to the lift truck drivers * Wear your safety equipment * Coordinate with the supervision to survey busy areas when they are less busy. (Especially the loading stations) * If you are handling your survey equipment for an AP-on-a-stick, be careful with it as well Design * Structure of the building * Ceiling height (Can vary from 1 warehouse to another). This is greatly going to affect your design * What is inside the warehouse? Is is Milk, Wine or is it wood, metal? * How high are the racks? Do I have different type of racks? What are their attenuation? How do you test the attenuation? * How are the employee using the Wi-Fi devices? Let’s talk about how advanced those scanner guns are

High density, capacity, BYOD, channel planning, etc. All terms you hear when lecture hall or auditorium style seating comes to mind in a campus environment. We are joined by Robert Boardman as our guest to discuss the challenges and solutions around lecture hall Wi-Fi. Lecture Hall Wi-Fi Robert Boardman is our guest to discuss how we take on lecture hall Wi-Fi. I decided to use the term lecture hall but this could be a large classroom or auditorium style seating. In summary, you have a large number of students condensed into an area which creates high density and the need for capacity. We know it’s high density because of the number of seats in a room. But how do we design for these challenging environments? Robert and I talk about designing these rooms using Ekahau Site Survey. While designing for high density is one thing to consider. We cannot leave out capacity. Students are doing much more on wireless during a lecture. Some are checking email, watching YouTube videos, and some are actually taking notes. Yeah, shocker. Professors are now engaging the students in something called interactive teaching. During a lecture, a professor will tell students to perform an action on their computers or mobile devices. This is where capacity plays a major factor. What types of applications are being used in the lecture hall over Wi-Fi and will our infrastructure hold up. In this episode, we talk about channel planning and utilization. It plays an important role for creating efficient airtime for each device. Other topics we delve into are: * RRM * Data rates * Aesthetics * Validation surveys * AP and antenna selection What is your experience with campus Wi-Fi in lecture halls? Let us know in the comments below!