Blog

• Tom Carpenter
• March 10, 2021
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The Value of Certification for Technology Professionals in 2021

IT certifications have existed for decades. I acquired my first certification in the mid-90s. It was a Windows 95 Support certification. Since that time, I've acquired many other certifications and have been heavily involved in the certification industry (obviously). Writing books for seventeen different certifications, creating elearning for more than sixty certifications and helping to set the direction for certifications at CWNP since 2012. In all that time, one question has surfaced most frequently. It is usually phrase, "Do certifications have value?" or "Do certifications matter?" Depending on your interpretation of the question, the answers may vary, but I will attempt to address them in this post.

• Tom Carpenter
• February 24, 2021
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Industrial Networking and Automation: Terminology, Part 3 (Control Systems, PLC, and DCS)

Control systems have been key to the development of industrial automation. A control system is used to control the output of a machine or other system to meet requirements based on a sequence of events or a specified condition. This article will address control systems in general and PLC and DCS systems specifically.

• Tom Carpenter
• January 20, 2021
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Industrial Networking and Automation: Terminology, Part 2 (Sensors and Actuators)

In this second part of the Industrial Network and Automation: Terminology series, we will look at sensors and actuators to understand the role they play in automation.

• Tom Carpenter
• January 14, 2021
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Industrial Networking and Automation: Terminology, Part 1

Those who work in the enterprise Wi-Fi industry may be less familiar with terminology used in the industrial networking and automation space. This is the first article in a series that will help you to understand common terms used within industrial networking. These foundational concepts will help you as you begin to work more with Industrial IoT (IIoT) in the coming years.

• Tom Carpenter
• November 18, 2020
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A Drivers License for Wireless Engineers (or Where Are My Gaps?)

In Europe, they have the ECDL (European Computer Drivers License), which evolved to the ICDL (International CDL). It specifies a minimum knowledge base (or body of knowledge) one should have to be an effective user of computing systems. ECDL has been around for more than 20 years. In Australia, they have the ACS (Australian Computer Society) Core Body of Knowledge for ICT (Information Communication Technology) Professionals (The ACS CBOK - 2016). This blog post provides an overview of both and asks, "As a wireless professional, how are you doing in these knowledge areas?"

• Tom Carpenter
• August 05, 2020
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RSSI - A Changing Definition - CWNP

If you search for RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) on the Internet, you will find 3.5 million results. The first several pages are filled with results defining and using RSSI in different ways. In this post, I will attempt to reveal the source of confusion and then do my best to clear it all up.

• Tom Carpenter
• June 30, 2020
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Python Utilities Using Piping from PowerShell or CMD.exe

Python is very powerful on Windows, Linux, or macOS. As network administrators, it is often useful to build your own utilities that can receive input on standard input (STDIN) and this brief post explains how to do it with Python.

• Tom Carpenter
• June 22, 2020
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The Bluetooth Advantage in the IoT Market

Bluetooth is positioned to make inroads into the general IoT market. With Bluetooth mesh and continued support for classic Bluetooth and BLE, the protocols are there to allow for many IoT use cases. In this brief post, I'll discuss the 2020 Market Update from the Bluetooth SIG and its implications for the future of IoT.

• Tom Carpenter
• June 21, 2020
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Project/Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Wireless

• Steve Harris
• June 11, 2020
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Is OFDM Wi-Fi 6’s Superpower?

Wi-Fi 6 offers key features such as capacity, throughput (bits per second) / higher data rates (packets per second), improved coverage, dense environment performance, and lower battery consumption/power efficiency. One of the key elements that is driving capacity, throughput, and performance in Wi-Fi 6 is orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA).