# LLM.txt - Website Content Structure # Generated: 2025-10-09T14:49:18.550Z # Source: https://www.cwnp.com --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/ Title: (CWNP) Certified Wireless Network Professional Certification | Wireless Certification Program and Training Meta Description: CWNP (Certified Wireless Network Professional) is dedicated to delivering the knowledge, learning tools and resources needed to achieve enduring success in IT and wireless networking training. Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/ ## Headings Structure: H3: STAY INFORMED H2: Security? Design? Analysis? IoT?Which CWNP certification is right for you? ## Main Content: H3: STAY INFORMED H2: Security? Design? Analysis? IoT?Which CWNP certification is right for you? Sign up for our Email Newsletter Today! Don't know where to start? We offer 6 levels of career certification for Enterprise Wi-Fi. Invest in your future today! Find the modules, exams, marketing materials and books that you need to complete the requirements for your certification. At CWNP, we offer enterprise wireless certifications for entry-level professionals all the way up to seasoned network experts. Each certification level is designed to benchmark your deepening understanding of RF technologies and applications of wireless networks. CWNP employs authorized training providers called CWNP Learning Centers to deliver instructor-led, video, and online LIVE training towards CWNP certifications. CWNP Learning Centers offer training around the globe using the official CWNP curriculum taught by CWNT certified instructors. CWNP publishes videos, white papers, blogs, and other materials that assist the networker in learning Wi-Fi technologies and preparing for CWNP exams. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/2017-review/ Title: 2017 Year in Review Meta Description: CWNP 2017 Year in Review Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/2017-review/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 2017: A Year in Review H2: 2017: A Year in Review H3: 0 Responses to 2017: A Year in Review H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 2017: A Year in Review H2: 2017: A Year in Review H3: 0 Responses to 2017: A Year in Review H3: Leave a Reply This year has brought a lot of change to CWNP. Here's our look back: You met our new President. Sean Stallings took the reigns in January 2017. He built a team to take CWNP and our Wi-Fi certifications to the next level and met many of our CWNEs and certification holders throughout the year. We've spent the last year refreshing our certifications and sharing relevant knowledge. We improved our CWNA certification with the release of the CWNA-107 after much research on job expectations and the updates to technology and standards since the last release. CWNP released an update to the CWSP study guide with the help of Lee Badman. We launched Certified Wireless Specialist (CWS) and Certified Wireless Technician (CWT). These certifications met the need for simple, entry-level wireless certifications in a truly engaging manner. We put on our best conference yet. You networked. You learned from experts in the field. You had the chance to take an on-site course and exam. Wi-Fi Trek Orlando had many of you saying: "Keep up the Good Work." We took you to the next level in your career. Over 2,000 individuals received a CWNP certification. This year, our CWNE Board of Advisors awarded our 250th CWNE. More than 10,000 unique jobs were posted on Indeed.com asking for a CWNP certification in the past six months. You joined us in our initiative to build community. We started a Twitter Chat, revamped our newsletter, showed up on social media, held countless webinars, and met you in person at several conferences. Here's to another great year! We want to hear from you; what would you like to see from us in 2018? Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/4-9-ghz-public-safety-band/ Title: 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/4-9-ghz-public-safety-band/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band H2: 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band H3: 0 Responses to 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band H2: 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band H3: 0 Responses to 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band H3: Leave a Reply Suppose that you had a Wi-Fi system that can use 4.9 GHz.  Nevermind where you got it...let's say eBay just for giggles.  Let's also say that this system can do 400 mW and you stumbled across a Ubiquiti SRC4 400mW 4.9 GHz card as well.  Now you have a generally invisible, mostly interference-free, completely illegal home Wi-Fi system that will significantly interfere with fire, police, and a dozen other public agencies if cranked up to max power.  Running a business on something like this would just be stupid, but what do you think the chances are of a home user getting caught doing this? Would this be expensive to do?  Somewhat, considering a single Wi-Fi card (or Access Point) for 4.9 GHz runs about $300 each new.  What would be even better might be a mesh system for your home that does 4.9 GHz.  Two 20 MHz wide channels, good range, very high power, excellent throughput, little to no inteference.  The only caviat is interfering with (though not completely hosing) public agencies.  Basically, you're just sharing bandwidth with them just like you would be sharing 2.4 GHz bandwidth with your neighbors in an apartment complex - only you don't have a license to do so in the case of 4.9 GHz.  I wonder how long it would be before the "FCC police" showed up at your door?  I wonder if you could get away with saying, "I was just doing some system testing, and I'm happy to cut it off immediately.  Having seen the FCC in action in a scenario like this, I know you'd have a few days to comply with their order to shut the system down.  That's easy enough, especially considering you're not exactly running a WISP with your home network.  If your wireles network components also functioned in 2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHz, then you haven't lost much by being made to change it. Another cool thought is what if the public at large started offering 4.9 GHz connections to authorized local agencies that are connected to the Internet as a community service.  It would be kind of like what T-Mobile is doing with providing services to converged phones over personal internet connections.   I know this is just so much rambling, but nobody ever talks about 4.9 GHz, and it's easy to get the equipment.  In fact, you can already decode 4.9 GHz using AirMagnet Laptop Pro.  You have to ask yourself, "what's a cool way I could benefit from this?"  ;) Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/40-mhz-channelization/ Title: 40 MHz Channelization Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/40-mhz-channelization/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 40 MHz Channelization H2: 40 MHz Channelization H3: 0 Responses to 40 MHz Channelization H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 40 MHz Channelization H2: 40 MHz Channelization H3: 0 Responses to 40 MHz Channelization H3: Leave a Reply When 40 MHz channels are used in 802.11n networks, two 20 MHz channels are bonded together.  The two 20 Mhz channels are designated as primary and secondary and are designated by two fields: (Primary, Secondary) where the Primary is the number of the primary channel and the Secondary is a positive or negative integer indicating whether the secondary channel is one channel above or one channel below the primary channel).  40 MHz channels MUST consist of immediately adjacent 20 MHz channels allowed within the regulatory domain. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/5g-reality/ Title: The Reality of 5G and CWSA Meta Description: Tom Carpenter gives a brief on how the new Certified Wireless Solutions Administrator (CWSA) track goes beyond Wi-Fi. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/5g-reality/ ## Headings Structure: H1: The Reality of 5G and CWSA H2: The Reality of 5G and CWSA ## Main Content: H1: The Reality of 5G and CWSA H2: The Reality of 5G and CWSA Tom Carpenter gives a brief on how the new Certified Wireless Solutions Administrator (CWSA) track goes beyond Wi-Fi. To find out more about the new CWSA certification, click here. And don't forget to register for Wi-Fi Trek 2019, where you can take the first CWSA classes this September! Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/5g-vs-wifi/ Title: 5G vs. Wi-Fi Meta Description: What you need to know about 5G (and what it could mean for the future of Wi-Fi) Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/5g-vs-wifi/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 5G vs. Wi-Fi: Battle Royale H2: 5G vs. Wi-Fi: Battle Royale ## Main Content: H1: 5G vs. Wi-Fi: Battle Royale H2: 5G vs. Wi-Fi: Battle Royale Every ten years, a new generation of cellular technology arrives. With the 2020s upon us, we're starting to see the deployment of the much-anticipated 5th generation cellular - better known as 5G. It will arrive in advancing waves, with each new update adding features as the decade rolls along. Here's what you need to know about 5G (and what it could mean for the future of Wi-Fi): What are the goals of 5G? What is the future of 5G? Right now, the goal for 5G is simply to work as a faster version of 4G. It will be used to boost data rates in mobile devices. In the coming years, however, the hope is that 5G's increased capacities and speeds will boost Smart City and Smart Agriculture solutions, as well as Industry 4.0 (automated manufacturing), gaming and health monitoring. These sci-fi-seeming technologies are only possible with faster links connecting more devices. What are the challenges for 5G? Any time a new technology comes along, it has to overcome some logistical challenges to replace the old one. The question right now isn't whether 5G will replace 4G; it's whether 5G will replace Wi-Fi entirely. Right now, most of the new technologies mentioned above depend on Wi-Fi rather than cellular. In order to replace Wi-Fi, 5G would have to overcome: These challenges will be addressed over time, but they represent a significant barrier now and in the near future. What will 5G look like in 5 years? CWNP's Tom Carpenter predicts the following developments over the next few years in the 5G/Wi-Fi face-off: What do you need to learn about 5G? For the training you need in the fast-changing world of wireless technology, visit CWNP now! Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/5g/ Title: 5G Explained | Is 5G Better Than Wi-Fi? Meta Description: 5G mid band is very close to Wi-Fi frequencies and will travel similarly. The main difference is that carriers can transmit at higher power levels and can use much weaker signals to a better effect than Wi-Fi can. The strategy for this band is city metro areas, city centers, and suburbs. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/5g/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Low, Mid, and High 5G Explained | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: Low, Mid, and High 5G Explained | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: LOW H2: MID H2: HIGH ## Main Content: H1: Low, Mid, and High 5G Explained | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: Low, Mid, and High 5G Explained | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: LOW H2: MID H2: HIGH In 5G, low, mid, and high refer to the frequencies used. RF travels in waves just like sound or light; technically, RF waves are nonvisible electromagnetic waves. Think of it like this: you are sitting on the beach, and the waves are hitting the shore. Now, count how many waves hit the shore in a minute, and that's the frequency. Now with RF we use seconds, but you get the point. In the graphic, you can see 5G low on the left, 5G mid in the middle, and 5G High on the right.Just like with the water, the higher the frequency, the more water is being moved. In RF, the higher frequency, the more data can be moved. The downside to higher frequencies is they are more challenging to receive and process at greater distances. The current strategy is to use the low band to provide nationwide coverage as it travels far but has lower data rates. We are currently in what's called NSA (non standalone) 5G. This means that it is using 5G down and 4G up. Until we get to SA (standalone), the advantages of 5G lowband will not be available. Keep in mind it will still be faster than your standard 4G but not the new gigabit LTE. The Mid band is the sweet spot. Its higher frequency allows us to see 600Mbps to 1Gbps speeds down, but we also get a decent range from it. Mid band is very close to Wi-Fi frequencies and will travel in a similar fashion. The main difference is that carriers can transmit at higher power levels and can use much weaker signals to a better effect than Wi-Fi can. The strategy for this band is city metro areas, city center, and suburbs. The high band is extremely high throughput. We could see speeds of 10Gbps. The issue is that it is such a high frequency that it travels very poorly. It is best with line of site, and most any obstruction will block the signal significantly, if not entirely. The current strategy for this is city centers, think of the carrier putting a high band (ultrawideband is one name commonly used for it) tower on the top of the tallest building in a downtown area, and then other buildings could put a W4005 on their roof that would have a clear line of site to the tower. Some names used for different bands by carriers Low= nationwide 5g, 5GMid= 5G, C band,High= Ultrawideband, 5G+ Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/5g_iot/ Title: 5G and IoT: The Future of Connectivity and Automation Meta Description: 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) are set to change the way we live and work by providing new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and automation. The combination of 5G's faster speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connections with IoT's growing network of connected devices will enable new use cases and applications that were not possible before. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/5g_iot/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 5G and IoT: The Future of Connectivity and Automation | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: 5G and IoT: The Future of Connectivity and Automation | CWNP - Guest Blog ## Main Content: H1: 5G and IoT: The Future of Connectivity and Automation | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: 5G and IoT: The Future of Connectivity and Automation | CWNP - Guest Blog 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) are set to change the way we live and work by providing new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and automation. The combination of 5G's faster speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connections with IoT's growing network of connected devices will enable new use cases and applications that were not possible before. One of the key advantages of 5G is its ability to support a larger number of devices and connections. 5G networks are designed to handle a much higher density of devices than 4G networks, which means that more IoT devices can be connected to the network at the same time. This will enable new applications such as smart cities, where data from IoT devices can be used to optimize traffic flow, reduce energy consumption, and improve public services. For example, sensors can be placed on street lights, traffic signals and waste bins to monitor the real-time usage of these services, this data can be used to optimize the usage of energy and resources. 5G will also enable the deployment of ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), which is a crucial requirement for many IoT applications. URLLC allows devices to communicate with each other with extremely low latency, which is essential for applications such as industrial automation, remote surgery, and self-driving cars. With 5G's faster speeds and lower latency, these applications will be able to operate more efficiently, safely, and effectively. For instance, in the case of remote surgery, the surgeon will be able to control the robotic surgical instruments with much more precision and accuracy, thanks to the low latency provided by 5G. Another important aspect of 5G is its ability to support edge computing, which enables data processing and analysis to be done closer to the source of the data. This is important for IoT applications because it allows data to be analyzed in real-time, which enables faster decision making and more efficient use of resources. With 5G, it will be possible to deploy edge computing capabilities to more remote locations, which will enable new use cases such as remote monitoring and control of industrial equipment and machinery. For example, in the case of wind turbines, the edge computing capabilities provided by 5G will allow the turbine operator to monitor the real-time performance of the turbine and make adjustments on the fly, increasing the efficiency and reducing downtime. 5G also brings new security challenges to IoT. The increased number of connected devices and the sensitive nature of the data being collected and shared, makes IoT vulnerable to cyber-attacks. However, 5G networks have built-in security features such as network slicing, which allows for the creation of multiple virtual networks within a single physical network, each with its own security protocols. This makes it possible to create a secure network environment for IoT devices, which will help to protect them from cyber-attacks. In conclusion, 5G and IoT are set to change the way we live and work by providing new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and automation. The combination of 5G's faster speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connections with IoT's growing network of connected devices will enable new use cases and applications that were not possible before. With 5G, it will be possible to connect more devices, reduce latency, and enable real-time data processing and analysis, provide edge computing capabilities, which will open new possibilities for the IoT, create new opportunities for growth and innovation while addressing the security challenges. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/5tipsfordeploying80211ac/ Title: GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/5tipsfordeploying80211ac/ ## Headings Structure: H1: GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac H2: GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac H3: 0 Responses to GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac H2: GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac H3: 0 Responses to GUEST BLOG: Up the Speed: 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac H3: Leave a Reply Karthik Krishnaswamy, Product Manager with Fluke Networks, AirMagnet Division, outlines top 5 tips for deploying 802.11ac Guest Blogger: Fluke Networks, AirMagnet Division Author: Karthik Krishnaswamy, Product Manager The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon is growing rapidly and creating capacity issues for enterprises that must now support more devices than ever. In addition, networks are already under strain from bandwidth-hungry applications like video and audio streaming. Given all the performance demands, anything that improves the capacity and end-user experience of wireless networks is likely to be embraced by network planners. The next generation wireless LAN (WLAN) standard — 802.11ac — is on track to be the answer to these bandwidth issues. While it's not yet ratified, the process is close enough that hardware vendors have already begun rolling out compatible access points (APs) and client radios. Now it's time for enterprises to start thinking about fully integrating 802.11ac into their networks. As with any network upgrade, careful planning will be necessary to properly deploy and take advantage of the 802.11ac capabilities without encountering any of the normal network renovation headaches. Top 5 Tips for Deploying 802.11ac 1. Design for capacity With an average corporate mobile device/user ratio approaching 3 (laptop, tablet, and/or smartphone), capacity has become a problem for wireless networks. Higher data rates introduced in 802.11ac can increase capacity and performance for clients, but only if the WLAN is carefully planned and deployed. Taking account of key performance factors such as increased channel width (80 and 160 MHz wide channels) and higher MCS is crucial to improving capacity. 2. Ensure backwards compatibility with 802.11 a/n devices Migration to 802.11ac will not happen overnight. There will always be a need to ensure 802.11ac deployment is backwards compatibile with legacy devices. Though 802.11ac is backwards compatible with 802.11n and 802.11a, performance for 802.11ac clients may be adversely impacted because of slower transmission rates by 802.11a/n clients. Identifying areas where legacy devices need to be supported and accordingly planning 802.11ac deployment will maximize performance for all clients. 3. Survey your site prior to deployment It'll take a proper survey to assess the coverage of your current network, which you'll need to do to determine if more APs are needed. Look for obstacles in the current environment when planning your update. Be sure to measure actual throughput of your existing network and assess if it meets your requirements. Is there a need to support bandwidth heavy applications in certain areas? Or is wireless access needed primarily for web browsing? Tool like Fluke Networks' AirMagnet 8.6 can help speed this process and provide insight into these issues. 4. Plan your network carefully, use survey results to limit rollout issues Based on your user base and pre-deployment survey, carefully determine the number of APs needed and their placement. Also determine areas where wider channels are needed to maximize throughput, and how they will be assigned to each AP to minimize co-channel interference and maximize performance. 5. Validate after deployment Determine how well your network is performing after deployment. Are there areas affected by poor coverage or channel interference? What about actual throughput? Determine 802.11ac network readiness based on your requirements. As always, the most important validation is a successful end-user experience. Real world performance for end users has to be a major consideration when designing a 802.11ac deployment plan. Put simply, end users care very little about how many bars they see on their Wi-Fi connection icon; they want the network to "feel" fast, for web pages to load quickly and video to stream smoothly. There are tools that allow network planners to see a graphical representation of their physical network environment and test various configurations of APs and network settings to see the likely impact on end user performance before any actual hardware is deployed. Up-front planning and scenario testing could be the difference between an 802.11ac rollout that goes smoothly and satisfies end users and one that requires a costly and time consuming post-deployment reconfiguration. For additional resources, please click here. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/61710/ Title: Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/61710/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) H2: Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) H2: Listen Before You Talk H2: Two Kinds of Listening (Carrier Sense) H3: 0 Responses to Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) H2: Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) H2: Listen Before You Talk H2: Two Kinds of Listening (Carrier Sense) H3: 0 Responses to Improving Marital Relationships (On the CWNP Blog?) H3: Leave a Reply It dawned on me the other day, “If I can learn to use the knowledge I have of 802.11 communications and apply it to my communications with my wife, maybe I can succeed in implementing a collision-free zone.” OK. It might be hard to remove all “collisions,” but we can certainly learn some important things about marital communications from the 802.11 standards. In this post, I will explain the first lesson I learned about married life from the 802.11 standard. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/6thingstoexpectfromax/ Title: What to expect from IEEE 802.11ax Meta Description: 802.11ax has been ratified. That means a number of changes as we move forward. David Coleman gives us his top six tips on how to approach this change. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/6thingstoexpectfromax/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 6 Things to Expect from IEEE 802.11ax H2: 6 Things to Expect from IEEE 802.11ax H2: 1. Improvements in Efficiency H2: 2. If You Build It, Clients Will Come H2: 3. Benefits for Legacy Clients H2: 4. Additional Power Requirements for Customers H2: 5. No Rush on the Upgrade H2: 6. Stay The Course and Maintain Good Design H3: Watch David's Wi-Fi Trek Talk H3: Other Top Blog Posts ## Main Content: H1: 6 Things to Expect from IEEE 802.11ax H2: 6 Things to Expect from IEEE 802.11ax H2: 1. Improvements in Efficiency H2: 2. If You Build It, Clients Will Come H2: 3. Benefits for Legacy Clients H2: 4. Additional Power Requirements for Customers H2: 5. No Rush on the Upgrade H2: 6. Stay The Course and Maintain Good Design H3: Watch David's Wi-Fi Trek Talk H3: Other Top Blog Posts 802.11ax is here. Now what does that mean for the wireless industry? Hardware vendors and implementors alike. David Coleman gives us his top thoughts on how this release changes offerings and approaches to come. If you're having trouble falling asleep, try reading the draft of the latest standard IEEE 802.11ax. David Coleman, CWNE #4 and Senior Tech Evangelist at Aerohive Networks, jokes that while the 682-page document isn't the most exciting read in the world, Wi-Fi experts should familiarize themselves with it. Why? So that we can discern and prepare accordingly for "what's in the amendment and what's in the real world," he said at CWNP's annual conference, Wi-Fi Trek in 2018. Otherwise known as Wi-Fi 6 or High-Efficiency Wireless (HEW), IEEE 802.11ax should be ratified sometime in 2019. While we've heard plenty of buzz about its benefits, Coleman wants to educate us on what we can actually expect from 802.11ax in real-world scenarios. Instead of trying to achieve bigger channels and higher data rates with PHY and MAC layer enhancements, as in previous standards like 802.11n/ac, 802.11ax is all about efficiency, with specific attention to better traffic management. Those efficiency improvements include the following: So, given that list, it sounds like we should be expecting a huge jump in speed, broader signal ranges, better performance in device-dense environments, plus increased power efficiency on top of all that, right? Well, not so fast. Let's break IEEE 802.11ax down into what we should really anticipate in the coming year. As you know, to take full advantage of 802.11ax, clients need to support it. They aren't here yet—but they are coming, according to Coleman. The following companies announced chips with 802.11ax support and devices slated to hit the market soon: While we're waiting for clients to jump on the 802.11ax train, we can also expect benefits for legacy clients. Although 802.11ax APs won't directly benefit legacy (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) Wi-Fi clients by improving their performance or efficiency, the new APs should enhance an overall system. As Wi-Fi 6 clients are added to the mix, airtime is freed up, and legacy clients will be able to take advantage of that extra airtime. What can we expect from 802.11ax about enhanced power efficiency? Well, not much. Instead, expect customers to need even more power. Power budgeting becomes more and more important as the 802.11ax APs come into the mix. The more-powerful processors need added power, as do the additional radio chains. PoE (Power over Ethernet) won't cut it, and PoE Plus should be the accepted future. Think added cable runs, as well. You don't need to upgrade everything in a hurry. No worries about replacing your old AP uplinks with 10Gbps models, as bandwidth bottlenecks are usually at the WAN uplink. And you probably won't need 2.5 Multigigabit (802.3bz) Ethernet ports for quite a long time. But, as your Wi-Fi 6 client population grows, vendors should (and will) have them ready for you. Coleman's best advice about how to prepare for 802.11ax is to keep designing for 20 MHz channels, for now. (Or 40 MHz, if that's what you do.) Although 80 MHz channels are a possibility, they're not a likely reality anytime soon. As he reminds us, 802.11ax, or any new Wi-Fi tech for that matter, doesn't mitigate bad design. Field testing will be vital with this new standard, and design and validation are still key. Learn more about David Coleman and his love for Wi-Fi tech by following him on Twitter @mistermultipath. Learn more: Slides can be found at cwnp.link/presentations Basics of MAC Architecture (Part 1 of 3)DHCP for Wireless ClientsCalculating RF Wavelengths Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-alphabet-soup/ Title: 802.11 Alphabet Soup Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-alphabet-soup/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Alphabet Soup H2: 802.11 Alphabet Soup H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Alphabet Soup H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Alphabet Soup H2: 802.11 Alphabet Soup H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Alphabet Soup H3: Leave a Reply Have you ever tried to recite all 802.11 amendments from 802.11-1997 to today's working drafts? Ever wonder what happened to the lost letters of the 802.11 spec like 802.11o? Let’s review, shall we? Note that I use intentional language throughout this list, as follows:“Defined” means the amendment either no longer exists or it was rolled into the existing (or prior versions) 802.11-2007 spec. “Defines” means it is a ratified amendment that will be rolled into 802.11-2011. “Will define” means it is a work in progress and not yet amended. 802.11-1997 (sometimes called 802.11 “prime”) — the original 802.11 specification included the base functionality along with FHSS and DSSS PHYs. 802.11a — Defined OFDM usage in 5 GHz with data rates up to 54 Mbps.802.11b —Defined 5.5 and 11 Mbps with HR/DSSS in 2.4 GHz.802.11c — Defined MAC bridging for 802.11. Was incorporated into 802.1D. 802.11-1999 rolled up 802.11 prime with new enhancements. 802.11d — Defined 802.11 operation in new regulatory domains.802.11e — Defined QoS802.11F — Recommended Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) for interoperability of different vendor products. Was not used by anyone and is now withdrawn. Note: A capital letter designates a recommended practice standalone standard (similar to 802.1X). A lowercase letter designates an amendment to a parent standard. Hence, 802.11F was designed to be a standalone document (and also happened to be a recommended practice), not a part of the full 802.11 standard. This is often a confusing topic in standards naming. 802.11g — Defined ERP PHY, which introduces data rates up to 54 Mbps in 2.4 GHz. 802.11-R2003 rolled up 802.11-1999 and prior amendments, excluding 802.11e. 802.11h — Defined Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) for radar detection and avoidance in some 5 GHz bands. Also defined Transmit Power Control (TPC) for managing client transmit power.802.11i — Defined security enhancements including TKIP, CCMP, and use of 802.1X with WLANs.802.11j — Defined 4.9 - 5 GHz operation in Japan. 802.11-2007 rolled up 802.11-R2003 with prior amendments. 802.11k — Defines radio resource management processes for RF data collection and sharing.802.11l — Due to potential confusion between an “l” (letter) and “1” (number), 802.11l was bypassed.802.11m — Was used as a maintenance amendment that updated inaccuracies, omissions, and ambiguities.802.11n — Defines High Throughput (HT) PHY with MCS rates up to 600 Mbps in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.802.11o — For similar reasons as 802.11l, 802.11o was bypassed. ‘Is that an “o” (letter) or a “0” (number)? I don’t know, let’s just skip it.’802.11p — Defines wireless access for the vehicular environment (WAVE).802.11q — Due to potential confusion with 802.1Q, 802.11q was bypassed.802.11r — Defines fast BSS transitions (fast secure roaming). Maybe one of these days we’ll use it.802.11s — Will define 802.11 mesh internetworking.802.11T — Specified a way to test wireless performance prediction. Remember, capital letters are recommended practices standalone standards. 802.11T was cancelled.802.11u — Will define internetworking with external networks, such as cellular.802.11v — Will define enhancements for network management.802.11w — Defines protected management frames to prevent some security vulnerabilities.802.11x — 802.11 technologies as a whole are often referred to as 802.11x, so this amendment was bypassed.802.11y — Defines use of OFDM in 3650-3700 MHz.802.11z —Defines enhancements to Direct Link Setup, which no one uses. We’re out of letters, whatever will we do? 802.11aa — Will define enhancements to video transport streams.802.11ab —Was bypassed to avoid confusion with devices using 802.11a and 802.11b PHY technologies, which are often abbreviated as 802.11ab.802.11ac — Will define Very High Throughput (VHT) with gigabit speeds, building on 802.11n MIMO technology.802.11ad — Will define short range Very High Throughput (VHT) in the 60 GHz spectrum.802.11ae — Will define enhancements for QoS management.802.11af — Will define usage of Wi-Fi in newly opened TV whitespace frequencies.802.11ag — Similar to 802.11ab, 802.11ag was skipped to avoid confusion with devices using 802.11a and 802.11g PHY technologies, which are often abbreviated as 802.11ag.802.11ah — Will define usage of Wi-Fi in frequencies below 1 GHz. Also used as an expression of Wi-Fi pleasure. 802.11…ah!802.11ai — Will define the way artificially intelligent robots overtake the world using Wi-Fi. Actually, that’s a lie. No public info is yet available for 802.11ai. 802.11-2011 is scheduled for mid/late 2011 and will roll up 802.11-2007 with previously ratified amendments.Wi-Fi has an exciting history. Future amendments hold promise that we’ll continue to push the boundaries nearing the Shannon limit. In the future, we’ll kick old Claude Shannon’s 802.11ass. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-part-2-front-matter/ Title: 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-part-2-front-matter/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter H2: 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter H2: 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Part 2 - Front Matter H3: Leave a Reply This video covers the 802.11 Front Matter and provides you with an overview of the important early pages in the 802.11 standard. You will learn why they are there and how they help you understand all of the remaining clauses within the standard. The topics covered include: You can view it here on CWNP's YouTube channel,?http://ow.ly/bI2dL, or below.TomFrames Are Food Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-part-3-how-wlans-are-different/ Title: 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-part-3-how-wlans-are-different/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different H2: 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different H2: 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Part 3 – How WLANs Are Different H3: Leave a Reply This video covers 802.11-2012 clause 4.2, which focuses on the differences between WLANs and wired LANs. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-part-4-wlan-basic-architecture/ Title: 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-part-4-wlan-basic-architecture/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture H2: 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture H2: 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Part 4 - WLAN Basic Architecture H3: Leave a Reply This video introduces initial concepts in 802.11-2012 Clause 4.3. These include BSS, IBSS, ESS, DS, DSM and Portals. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-series-launches/ Title: 802.11 Commentary Series Launches Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-commentary-series-launches/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Commentary Series Launches H2: 802.11 Commentary Series Launches H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Series Launches H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Commentary Series Launches H2: 802.11 Commentary Series Launches H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Commentary Series Launches H3: Leave a Reply The first video in the new 802.11 Commentary series is live on YouTube. We will be adding to this series each week until we have worked out way through the entire 802.11-2012 standard roll-up. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-fast-bss-transition-ft-part-1-of-2/ Title: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-fast-bss-transition-ft-part-1-of-2/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 H2: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 H2: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 1 of 2 H3: Leave a Reply The 802.11i amendment gave us Preauthentication and Pairwise Master Key (PMK) Caching.  Nothing fancy, just the basics.  Preauthentication enables supplicants (stations) to authenticate with authenticators (APs or WLAN controllers) to which they may roam.  Preauthentication always happens through the AP to which the station is currently associated – over the distribution system (typically an Ethernet network). Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-fast-bss-transition-ft-part-2-of-2/ Title: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-fast-bss-transition-ft-part-2-of-2/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 H2: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 H2: 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Fast BSS Transition (FT) Part 2 of 2 H3: Leave a Reply The IEEE 802.11r amendment introduces a new 3-tier AKM architecture and some new terminology such as Mobility Domain, Key Holders, RICs, and two tiers of Pairwise Master Keys (PMKs).  A Mobility Domain is a set of BSSs, within the same ESS, identified by a Mobility Domain Identifier (a numerical value).  Fast BSS Transition (FT) is not specified between Mobility Domains.  The definition of an authenticator is, under the new amendment, split into two pieces – each being responsible for certain tasks.  These two pieces are called the PMK-R0 Key Holder (R0KH) and the PMK-R1 Key Holder (R1KH).  These could, in many instances, be considered the WLAN controller (R0KH) and the lightweight AP (R1KH) though this is not a requirement of the amendment. To contrast with the current AKM structure, the 802.11r authentication server (typically a RADIUS server) sends the Master Session Key (MSK), which is formed at the supplicant and authentication server during the “Initial Mobility Domain Association (IMDA)”, to the authenticator instead of the PMK that is currently sent using 802.11i AKM.  This MSK is used to derive the same PMK-R0 (the highest level PMK) on both the supplicant and authenticator.  From this PMK-R0, a set of unique-per-AP PMK-R1 keys (the second highest level PMK) is derived on the supplicant and authenticator.  The R0KH then distributes (through a mutually-authenticated and confidential connection) each PMK-R1 to the correct R1KH.  Once the PMK-R1 keys are held by the R1KH and the supplicant (which is both an S0KH and S1KH), the FT 4-Way Handshake (performed only once, during the IMDA) can proceed for the purpose of establishing a PTK which will be used for data frame encryption.  From there, the FT reassociation mechanism is handled either over-the-DS as part of an FT Request/Response (using Action frames) or over-the-air as part of an authentication request/response procedure.  The 802.11r amendment additionally specifies the use of Resource Information Containers (RICs), which are sequences of information elements that include resource request and response parameters.  RICs are used as bolt-on parts of over-the-air and over-the-DS FT protocols allowing the supplicant to request resources from new APs for QoS purposes. For more detailed information on IEEE 802.11r Robust Security Network (RSN) Fast BSS Transition (FT), refer to the CWNP whitepaper by the same name found here:http://www.cwnp.com/learning_center/search_details.php?doc_id=j8s5 Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-ppdu-formats/ Title: 802.11 PPDU Formats Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11-ppdu-formats/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 PPDU Formats H2: 802.11 PPDU Formats H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 PPDU Formats H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 PPDU Formats H2: 802.11 PPDU Formats H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 PPDU Formats H3: Leave a Reply There are three overall PPDU structures possible in an 802.11n network, one of which was previously defined by Clause 17. — Non-HT format: frames of this format are structured according to the Clause 17 (OFDM) or 19 (ERP) specification.  Support for Non-HT Format is mandatory.— HT mixed format: frames of this format contain a preamble compatible with the non-HT receivers.  The non-HT Short Training Field (L-STF), the non-HT Long Training Field (L-LTF) and the non-HT SIGNAL field are defined so they can be decoded by non-HT Clause 17 and 19 stations.  The rest of the frame cannot be decoded by Clause 17 or Clause 19 stations.  Support for HT mixed format is mandatory.— HT greenfield format: HT frames of this format do not contain a non-HT compatible part.  Support for HT greenfield format is optional. An HT station that does not support the reception of an HT greenfield format frame must be able to detect that an HT greenfield format frame is an HT transmission (as opposed to a non-HT transmission).  In this case the receiver must decode the HT-SIG and determine if the HT-SIG cyclic redundancy check (CRC) passes.Two NEW preamble formats are defined by 802.11n: For HT mixed format operation (HT Mixed Mode preamble), the preamble has a non-HT portion and an HT portion.  The non-HT portion of the HT mixed format preamble enables detection of the PPDU and acquisition of carrier frequency and timing by both HT stations and stations that are compliant with Clause 17 and/or Clause 19.  The non-HT portion of the HT mixed format preamble also consists of the SIGNAL field defined in Clause 17 and is thus decodable by STAs compliant with Clause 17 and Clause 19, as well as HT stations.  The HT portion of the HT mixed format preamble enables estimation of the MIMO channel to support demodulation of the HT data by HT stations.  The HT portion of the HT mixed format preamble also consists of the HT-SIG field that supports HT operation, and the SERVICE field.  For greenfield operation (HT Greenfield Mode preamble), compatibility with Clause 17 and Clause 19 STAs is not required.  Therefore, the non-HT portions of the preamble are not included in the greenfield format preamble. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11ac-planning-webinar-slides/ Title: Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11ac-planning-webinar-slides/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar H2: Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar H3: 0 Responses to Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar H2: Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar H3: 0 Responses to Webinar Slides for 802.11ac Planning Webinar H3: Leave a Reply Slides download for the 802.11ac Planning webinar from 4/24/2014. Please feel free to download the following slides from the CWNP 802.11ac Planning webinar:802.11ac Planning Webinar Slides-Tom Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11ac-vht-just-the-facts/ Title: 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11ac-vht-just-the-facts/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts H2: 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts H2: Why Create a New PHY? H2: In What Frequency Band Will the PHY Operate? H2: What New capabilities or Technologies Are Introduced? H2: Who Will Benefit From It? H2: When Will We See It? H3: 0 Responses to 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts H2: 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts H2: Why Create a New PHY? H2: In What Frequency Band Will the PHY Operate? H2: What New capabilities or Technologies Are Introduced? H2: Who Will Benefit From It? H2: When Will We See It? H3: 0 Responses to 802.11ac (VHT) - Just the Facts H3: Leave a Reply When a new development comes along, related to any technology, the proper foundation must exist if we are to understand it well. Today, I want to present the basic facts related to the new 802.11ac draft amendment of the 802.11-2012 standard. The purpose is to answer the five most common questions asked about 802.11ac: The answer to this first question will be somewhat generic as the reasons for creating new PHYs have remained fairly constant over the 15-year history of the 802.11 standard. The primary motivators for the creation of a new PHY or the modification of an existing one are as follows: The very first 802.11 PHYs (FHSS and DSSS) operated at a whopping maximum of 2 Mbps data rate and even lower throughput rates. OFDM was introduced through the 802.11a amendment and provided a maximum of 54 Mbps data rate, but it also added the use of a new frequency block – the 5 GHz U-NII bands. The HR/DSSS PHY introduced through the 802.11b amendment provided 11 Mbps. So, 802.11 was ratified in 1997, and before the decade was out (in 1999), data rates had increased by a factor of 27. The next PHY added was the ERP PHY introduced through the 802.11g amendment. It simply brought OFDM operations into the 2.4 GHz ISM band. The ERP PHY was ratified in 2003. In the first six years of the standard’s existence, three new PHYs were added (OFDM, HR/DSSS and ERP). It would be another six years before the next PHY was introduced. In 2009, the 802.11n amendment was ratified, giving us the new potential for 600 Mbps (with 4 streams operating at the highest data rate of 150 Mbps per stream). We expect the ratification of 802.11ac within the next 12-24 months (the IEEE currently says the fourth quarter of 2013). It will provide a new potential aggregate capacity of nearly 7 Gbps (assuming MU-MIMO is implemented). All of this shows one important fact: new PHYs are often motivated by the desire for faster data rates. This is still true for 802.11ac. While 802.11ac does not introduce the use of new frequency bands (it will operate in the 5 GHz U-NII bands), it does take advantage of the less congested license-free band. Though nothing would prevent the standard concepts from being implemented in the 2.4 GHz ISM band, it is simply not practical from a real-world perspective. One 802.11ac AP or wireless LAN router could easily consume all of the available frequency space within an area. An additional motivator for new PHYs is the improved stability or reliability desired. For example, the HT PHY (802.11n) introduced improved stability for links at greater distances through MIMO technology. 802.11ac (the VHT PHY) will continue this and add enhanced reliability, stability, and range features such as Multi-User MIMO. The new capabilities will be described in more detail later in this post. As you can see, these three factors are important to the evolution of the 802.11 standard and will continue to be in the future. The 802.11ac-D1.2 document (which is draft version 1.2 from October 2011) states that “This clause is concerned with the below 65 GHz frequency bands excluding the 2.4 GHz frequency band…” The message is clear: 802.11ac will not support the 2.4 GHz ISM band. This is why you will see many people talking about the fact that 802.11ac will be implemented in the 5 GHz U-NII bands, but not in the 2.4 GHz ISM bands. In actual implementations, many vendors (both consumer and enterprise) will implement dual-band APs and wireless LAN routers. The devices will implement 802.11n (HT) in the 2.4 GHz band and, therefore, compatibility with older wireless LAN clients. They will implement 802.11ac in the 5 GHz band with backward compatibility all the way back to 802.11a (OFDM) devices. This model will be used for several years during the transition period. Eventually, we can remove our wireless LANs from the 2.4 GHz bands (sometime in the next couple of decades, maybe, possibly) and use the 5 GHz bands exclusively; but we have to wait for the client devices to catch up. The VHT PHY introduces faster data rates and MU-MIMO. One of the ways that the VHT PHY provides higher data rates is through the use of wider channels. The widest channel available in the HT PHY is 40 MHz. The VHT PHY will support 80 MHz and even 160 MHz channels. Logically, with channels up to four times wider, we should see a potential increase in data rates of four times as well. So why is there potential for even more than four times the data rate? Another data rate enhancement feature is the introduction of 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation). QAM techniques use a constellation chart to identify bytes of data to be encoded with values smaller (in transmission size) than the data itself. HT PHYs support up to 64 QAM, so the constellation includes 64 identified bits encodes. The result is that each bit encode was a 6-bit chunk, and there were 64 of them defined. With 256 QAM, each bit encode is an 8-bit chunk, and there are 256 of them defined. Stated differently, with 8 bits, there are 256 possible combinations; with 6 bits, there are 64 possible combinations. Therefore, 256 QAM can represent more data than 64 QAM, but it also requires a very good link and can only be used in most environments over short distances (a few meters). VHT also supports more spatial streams. HT supported 4 spatial streams, and VHT supports twice that at 8. However, given that few HT devices support more than 3x3:3, we are not likely to see 8x8:8 anytime soon. In fact, most client devices are very unlikely to support more than 3-4 antennas in the near future due to space and power consumption and the conflict with consumer desire to have every smaller and lighter devices and more battery life. However, a tablet with just 2 spatial streams connected to a 4x4 VHT AP would be much better than what most of us have today. Finally, Multi-User MIMO (MU MIMO) is introduced. This concept allows the AP to transmit to multiple client stations simultaneously. This is accomplished using information received from the clients to aim or form the signal specifically for them when sent from the AP. I will describe MU-MIMO in more specific detail in a whitepaper later this year. Now, know that it allows for more aggregate throughput in a coverage area by optimally using antennas and the frequency space. At the moment, many organizations could benefit from faster data rates. Rather than answering this question from the benefit of “who,” let’s talk about the benefit of “what.” What technologies can benefit from this? Certainly, video delivery is a key factor. Organizations are using videoconferencing and other video delivery technologies (elearning, virtual presentations, etc.) that require streaming video. They also require reliable delivery of the video – particularly for live streams. Video consumes a significant amount of bandwidth, and when multiplied by all the users accessing the video from mobile devices as well as desktops and laptops, high throughput Wi-Fi is important. Eventually, the MU-MIMO technology will benefit wireless LAN engineers in that the bigger pipe provided by 802.11ac can be better used within coverage areas. Of course, we will need the hardware and software that implements MU-MIMO, but that will come. The key technologies to explore are high bandwidth technologies and technologies that are real-time and low latency in nature—for example, VoIP and streaming desktops and applications. Citrix, VMware, and other organizations are pushing for more and more desktop virtualization. While each individual desktop is not a significant load on the typical network, dozens or hundreds of users become very significant. And with BYOD, many users will want to stream these desktops to their iPADs and Android tablets (eventually Windows 8 tablets?) and many of them will want one virtual desktop running on their “desktop computer” and another on their mobile device. While the desktop computer may be wired (with a huge emphasis on maybe), the mobile device most certainly will not. BYOD and desktop and application virtualization are certainly important areas that can benefit from 802.11ac. We are already seeing consumer devices come to market that support 802.11ac. NETGEAR was first out of the gate with an 802.11ac wireless LAN router and Buffalo released a wireless router and a “client” at the same time. The client is what we have traditionally called a workgroup bridge, but it is a client to the 802.11ac wireless LAN router just the same. Eventually, we will see USB 3.0 client adapters as well as integrated wireless LAN clients. NETGEAR currently predicts that they will have an 802.11ac USB adapter in August of this year. The current round of devices are, of course, based on the draft specification. According to the IEEE 802.11 timeline, final ratification is expected in December of 2013. While it is possible that it could be ratified early, it is more likely that it will either be ratified on time or a little late. Either way, the first flood of devices based on the final standard will not provide the full benefits. We are not seeing MU-MIMO in the first draft devices and may see many devices based on the ratified standard that do not implement it as well. The chips have to support it and the software hardware has to be configured and implemented to provide the value it brings. As with 802.11n, devices should be upgradeable through firmware to support any changes made to the amendment before it is ratified. Even a NETGEAR wireless LAN router purchased today should be upgradeable to support the final ratified amendment when it is released. Of course, whether the vendors choose to support this or not will depend on the value it brings to them and their clients. The purpose of this post was not to argue for or against VHT in the enterprise, but I can certainly see its value there. I would love to hear from all of you. What do you think about VHT? How quickly do you expect organizations to adopt it once vendors make it available? Will we use dual-band devices in the enterprise and, if so, for how long? In the very near future, I will provide videos of frame captures against an 802.11ac device so that you can see the information transmitted from the draft-based implementation. For now, remember, Frames Are Food. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in July 2012 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-2040-mhz-bss-mode-operation/ Title: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-2040-mhz-bss-mode-operation/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation H2: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation H2: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Operation H3: Leave a Reply The 802.11n gives us 20/40 MHz BSS mode, which my Apple Extreme Basestation supports in the 5 GHz band.  Oh, can't you feel the joy welling up inside you at the thoughts of this? First, let's get some definitions out of the way.20/40 MHz Operation:The following terms are used to describe transmitted PPDU formats:"40 MHz HT" is a Clause 20 transmission using HT Mixed Mode Format (HT_MF) or HT Greenfield Format (HT_GF) frame formats and 40 MHz channel bandwidth"20 MHz HT" is a Clause 20 transmission using HT Mixed Mode Format (HT_MF) or HT Greenfield Format (HT_GF) frame formats and 20 MHz channel bandwidth"DSSS/CCK" is a Clause 15 or Clause 18 transmission Now how does an AP and station declare what they support in the way of channel widths?An HT AP declares its channel width capability (20 MHz only or 20/40 MHz) in the Supported Channel Width Set subfield of the HT Capabilities element and its BSS channel width in the BSS Channel Width subfield in the HT Information element.  An HT client station declares its channel width capability (20 MHz capable or 20/40 MHz capable) in the Supported Channel Width Set in the HT Capabilities element.  A 20/40 MHz capable HT station, 20 MHz capable HT station, or non-HT station may be associated in a BSS with BSS Channel Width equal to 20/40 MHz.If a station associates to a BSS using the 20 MHz channel width, how does it switch over to 20/40 MHz operation?A non-AP HT station may switch between 20/40 MHz capable and 20 MHz capable operation by disassociation and association or reassociation.  20/40 MHz capable and 20 MHz capable HT stations must use the 20 MHz primary channel to transmit and receive 20 MHz HT frames.  The Notify Channel Width action frame may be used by a non-AP station to notify another station that the station wishes to receive frames in the indicated channel width.   The PPDU Formats for Beacon transmission are defined below:Band and BSS channel width                             PPDU Format for Beacon transmission5 GHz band BSS 20/40 MHz                              Non-HT OFDM5 GHz band BSS 20 MHz                                   Non-HT OFDM2.4 GHz band BSS 20/40 MHz                           DSSS/CCK or non-HT OFDM.2.4 GHz band BSS 20 MHz                                DSSS/CCK or non-HT OFDM.The HT AP indicates protection requirements in the BSS through the "Operating Mode" field and "Non-greenfield STAs Present" field of the HT information element as well as the "Use Protection" field of the ERP information element.  Phased Coexistence Operation (PCO) is an optional BSS mode with alternating 20 MHz and 40 MHz phases controlled by a PCO capable AP.  A PCO capable AP advertises its BSS as 20/40 MHz BSS Channel Width and PCO Capable.  A non-PCO capable station regards the BSS as a 20/40 MHz BSS and may associate with the BSS without regard to this field.A station may associate with a PCO BSS as a PCO capable station by setting the PCO field in the HT Extended Capabilities element to 1.  If the PCO transition time of the station does not meet the time indicated by the PCO AP in the PCO Transition Time field, then the PCO capable station regards the BSS as a 20/40 MHz BSS and may associate with the BSS as a 20/40 MHz station.  We will talk about the details of PCO operation in another article.What if we need to use DSSS/CCK transmissions with 40 MHz channel widths?  Keep in mind that OFDM (clause 17), ERP-OFDM (part of clause 19), and HT (clause 20) all use OFDM.Support of DSSS/CCK in 40 MHz:Transmission and reception of PPDUs using DSSS/CCK by 20/40 MHz capable HT stations is managed using the "DSSS/CCK Mode in 40 MHz" subfield of the HT Capabilities Info field.If the "DSSS/CCK Mode in 40 MHz" subfield is set to 1 in Beacon and Probe Response frames, an associated HT station in a 20/40 MHz BSS may generate DSSS/CCK transmissions. If the subfield is set to 0:— associated HT stations must not generate DSSS/CCK transmissions;— the AP must not include an ERP information element in its Beacon and Probe Response transmissions;— the AP must not include DSSS/CCK rates in the Supported Rates information element;— the AP must refuse association requests from any station that includes DSSS/CCK rates in its Supported Rates information element;— the AP must refuse association requests from an HT station that has the DSSS/CCK Mode in 40 MHz subfield set to 1;— the Beacon must be transmitted using a non-HT OFDM PPDU.An HT station declares its capability to use DSSS/CCK rates through the DSSS/CCK Mode in 40 MHz subfield of its Association and Reassociation Request transmissions.  If this subfield is set to 0, the station must not use DSSS/CCK rates.  If it is set to 1, the station may use DSSS/CCK rates.Next up: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in August 2007 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-2040-mhz-bss-mode-rules/ Title: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-2040-mhz-bss-mode-rules/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules H2: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules H2: 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n 20/40 MHz BSS Mode Rules H3: Leave a Reply Rules for operation in 20/40 MHz BSS:A 20/40 capable station operating in 20 MHz mode follows the rules for a 20 MHz capable station.  A 20/40 capable station is allowed to operate under Phased Coexistance Operation (PCO) where the AP switches back and forth between 20 MHz and 40 MHz operation.  Indication of the switching of channel width is done in Beacons, and a 20/40 capable station is allowed to use L-SIG TXOP protection. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-5-reasons-to-go-for-it/ Title: 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-5-reasons-to-go-for-it/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! H2: 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! H2: 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n: 5 Reasons to Go For It! H3: Leave a Reply 1.  The technology works.   With all of the vendors racing to be first, there's already a significant number of successful enterprise 802.11n deployments that prove that the technology actually works.  This is, of course, on top of all of the certification testing completed by the Wi-Fi Alliance.  I've tested a number of client adapters (Mini-PCIe, CardBus, USB, etc) and a small number of enterprise 802.11n APs.  They work. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-and-indoor-mesh/ Title: 802.11n and Indoor Mesh Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-and-indoor-mesh/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n and Indoor Mesh H2: 802.11n and Indoor Mesh H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n and Indoor Mesh H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n and Indoor Mesh H2: 802.11n and Indoor Mesh H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n and Indoor Mesh H3: Leave a Reply I was just sitting here reflecting on 802.11 indoor mesh networks.  The main problem with using mesh nodes (those APs that are connected to the network wirelessly) is the degraded throughput for client stations.  When stations transmit to the mesh node, it has to repeat the traffic to its upstream mesh node.  This continues until the traffic arrives at the mesh portal - an AP connected to the wired infrastruture. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-and-mimo-are-not-synonymous/ Title: 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-and-mimo-are-not-synonymous/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous H2: 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous H2: 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n and MIMO Are Not Synonymous H3: Leave a Reply One of the most commonly confused concepts in 802.11n is the use of multiple input, multiple output (MIMO). There’s a ton of technical detail to understand in 802.11n, and for everyday network management, most of it is beyond the realm of necessary information. For us non-degreed engineers (what I call a pseudo-engineer), it’s easy to get lost in the numbers, formulas, and diversity schemes of 802.11n, but MIMO is a basic concept that networking folks should understand well. What I have found over the past few months is that many people “get” the idea of MIMO in the sense that it is an important part of 802.11n that provides multiple antennas and allows multiple spatial streams and transmit beamforming, among other features. But what many people can’t articulate is that MIMO is a radio architecture with multiple radio chains for each radio chip. The most common misconception is that 802.11n is MIMO. But, MIMO and 802.11n are not synonymous.This is simply to say that 802.11n contains a huge set of technologies, but only a portion of them use MIMO, and you can have 802.11n without MIMO. IF 802.11n equipment supports MIMO, the MIMO architecture is described as AxB (e.g. 3x3 or 2x2), where either A or B MUST be two or higher. If an 802.11n device, like the iPhone or low-cost APs, is a 1x1, this is not MIMO. A 1x1 radio is single input, single output (SISO), but it can still be 802.11n. All 802.11a/g radios are SISO, and 802.11n radios can also be SISO. Also, remember that MIMO is not purely about antennas. 802.11a/g APs can have multiple antennas too, but their radios are not MIMO. A SISO radio does not have multiple radio chains; it has just one radio with a single set of transmit and receive radio components (amplifiers, mixers, filters, ADC, etc.). One radio can switch back and forth between two different antennas, choosing the best air interface for incoming or outgoing frames. Using multiple antennas with a single radio is called simple or switched diversity. The image below is a quick sketch of a SISO wireless system. Notice that there is one set of radio components and both antennas connect to that same set. MIMO has multiple radio chains (with a set of radio components for each chain) and one or more antennas tied to each radio chain. The radio chains and their antennas are a part of the same radio system, but they can both be used at the same time with features like spatial multiplexing, transmit beamforming, or maximal ratio combining. My quick MIMO sketch is below where each antenna connects to its own set of radio components for simultaneous use. Remember, quick sketch. It’s true that MIMO provides the majority of high value 802.11n features, but there are also several valuable 802.11n features that don’t require MIMO: Final Comments and Suggestions (FCS)The relationship between MIMO and 802.11n is often confused because so many articles begin the discussion about 802.11n by talking about MIMO. Journalists are right to do so because MIMO provides many important enhancements. However, did you know that you can still achieve 150 Mbps connectivity rates in 802.11n without MIMO? So, tell your friends and co-workers to stop equating the two. And if you’ve told them once, the next time they use these terms synonymously, punch them in the face…with both hands at the same time. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-guard-intervals-gi/ Title: 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-guard-intervals-gi/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) H2: 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) H2: 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Guard Intervals (GI) H3: Leave a Reply The 802.11n specifies two guard intervals: 400ns (short) and 800ns (long).  Support of the 400ns GI is optional for transmitting and receive.  The purpose of a guard interval is to introduce immunity to propagation delays, echoes, and reflections to which digital data is normally very sensitive. A guard interval (GI) is a period of time between symbol transmission that allows reflections (from multipath) from the previous data transmission to settle before transmitting a new symbol.  The signal content inside the GI, called Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), is rejected by receivers.  Clause 17 and 19 OFDM use 800ns GIs.  This value was chosen because the maximum multipath echo time is typically considered to be 800ns in an indoor environment.  Outdoor GIs are typically higher.The time used to transmit a symbol is comprised of two parts: Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) time and Guard Interval (GI) time.  FFT is a signal processing technique, thus FFT time is the time during transmission or reception when signal processing is accomplished.  The 802.11a/g OFDM symbol rate is 250 kHz, corresponding to a symbol period of 4 µs.  This means the GI is 0.8 µs and the FFT is 3.2 µs in a clause 17 or 19 OFDM symbol. The guard interval (GI) should be 2-4 times higher than the delay spread, so in most environments, delay spread should not exceed 200ns.  Most offices and homes have a delay spread of approximately 50–100 ns.  Choosing a GI that is too short means that ISI will increase and throughput will decrease.  Choosing a GI too long means decreased overhead due to unnecessary idle time on the wireless medium.  Choosing a proper GI time period is crucial to optimizing throughput.There are 77 Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCSs) specified in the current IEEE P802.11n, with eight of them being mandatory for 802.11n compliance.  The highest data rate of 600 Mbps is achievable with MCS 31 using 64-QAM modulation in a 40-MHz channel, four spatial streams, and operating with a short guard interval (GI) of 400 ns.  Choosing a 400 ns GI adds approximately 11% to the achievable data rate over the 800 ns GI. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in September 2007 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-line-rate-vs-data-rate-part-1-frame-aggregation/ Title: 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-line-rate-vs-data-rate-part-1-frame-aggregation/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation H2: 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation H2: 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Line Rate vs. Data Rate - Part 1: Frame Aggregation H3: Leave a Reply Although the PHY layer enhancements (such as MIMO, 40 MHz wide channels and short guard intervals) introduced in 802.11n improve the maximum line rate1 by more than 10x, the MAC layer enhancements (such as frame aggregation) are absolutely essential to achieving data rates that are anything close to the line rate. In this first article, we will briefly examine how data rate (802.11 throughput) is increased by MAC layer enhancements, in particular, we will look at frame aggregation. Without this 802.11n feature, it would not matter what line rate the physical layer achieves – the maximum data rate would be capped by overhead. For later comparison, let us first examine an 802.11b data transfer. For simplicity, we will look at 802.11 data throughput only, ignoring TCP throughput and throughput at layers above the wireless medium. Say we give our 802.11b STA an ideal world; it is transmitting the maximum payload size (2304 bytes) with every packet, at 11 Mbps (line rate), with short preamble enabled, no encryption and no contention for the medium by other nodes – as fast as an 802.11b node possibly can. As shown in the following figure, the total transaction period for every 2304 bytes is 1938 µsec, or a maximum of 516 transactions per second. Multiplication gets us a raw 802.11 data rate maximum of 9.51 Mbps2. Looking at the figure above, it is clear that most of the time is spent transmitting the payload data. In fact, 86% of the air time is spent sending data; the remaining 14% is spent in PHY and MAC layer management overhead, such as interframe space, PLCP preamble and ACK. This demonstrates that not only is frame aggregation an important enhancement to the 802.11 MAC layer, it is absolutely critical if an 802.11n station is to take any real advantage of the High Throughput (HT) PHY layer line rates. It is probably for this reason that frame aggregation is required of all 802.11n devices, both by the IEEE and the Wi-Fi alliance. 1Line rate: the speed at which data bits are physically transferred over the communications medium. 2 Mega bits per second: Multiply the number of transactions per second, by the number of bytes per transaction, by the number of bits per byte. (2304 x 516.04 x 8 = 9511649.28) 3We are ignoring data rate loss due to encapsulation. Also, a single ACK is shown, as opposed to block ACK. Warren Blackwell is a Sr. Software Engineer at AirMagnet, Inc. wblackwell@airmagnet.com http://www.airmagnet.com "Wireless Network Assurance" Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-primary-and-secondary-channels/ Title: 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-primary-and-secondary-channels/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels H2: 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels H2: 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Primary and Secondary Channels H3: Leave a Reply The 802.11n draft gives us 20 and 40 MHz wide channels.  This is no secret and has been widely publicized for months.  What hasn't been publicized is how 40 MHz channels work.  The draft explains the concepts of "primary" and "secondary" channels - each 20 MHz wide using OFDM modulation.  A Secondary Channel is defined as a 20 MHz channel associated with a primary channel used by HT stations for the purpose of creating a 40 MHz channel. The Secondary Channel Offset element is used by an AP in a BSS or a STA in an IBSS as part of the Channel Switch Announcement element when changing to a new 40 MHz channel.  This offset element is constructed as follows:Element ID (1)Length (1)Secondary Channel Offset (1)...where the numbers are length in octes.  The Secondary Channel Offset element may also be included in Beacons and Probe Responses.  The Secondary Channel Offset element is present when switching to a 40 MHz channel.  It may be present when switching to a 20 MHz channel (in which case the secondary channel offset is set to 0).  The Secondary Channel Offset field represents the position of the secondary channel relative to the primary channel.  The Secondary Channel Offset field is set to the value 1 to indicate that the secondary channel is above the primary channel; the value 3 indicates that the secondary channel is below the primary channel; the value 0 indicates that no secondary channel is present, and the value 2 is reserved.  An HT AP that indicated a value of 0 in its most recently transmitted Secondary Channel Offset field (in a beacon) is not allowed to transmit a 40 MHz mask PPDU.  In the case where the station is moving to a 40 MHz channel (i.e., a pair of 20 MHz channels), the channel number refers to the primary channel. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-protection-mechanisms-part-1/ Title: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-protection-mechanisms-part-1/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 H2: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 H2: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 1 H3: Leave a Reply When 802.11g was introduced, we had RTS/CTS and CTS-to-Self protection mechanisms.  What do we get with 802.11n so that it's backwards compatible with 802.11a and 802.1b/g?  First, there's a couple of new things I'd like to introduce, and then we'll get to the protection rules.In an ERP Beacon, ERP stations look at the "ERP Information Element" to determine whether or not protection is necessary in the BSS.  See my whitepaper here: http://www.cwnp.com/learning_center/search_details.php?doc_id=l7w2 for further information.In an HT Beacon, HT stations use the "Operating Mode" and "Non-greenfield STAs Present" fields in the HT Information Element to determine whether or not to use protection. Section I: Operating Mode The Operating Mode field has 4 possible settings: 0-3.  I'll paraphrase what they entail, but keep in mind that some would call this over-simplification:Mode 0: If all stations in the BSS are 20/40 MHz HT capable, or if the BSS is 20/40 MHz capable, or if all stations in the BSS are 20 MHz HT stations in a 20 MHz BSSMode 1: (called HT non-member protection mode) - used if there are non-HT stations or APs using the primary or secondary channelsMode 2: if only HT stations are associated in the BSS and at least one 20 MHz HT station is associated.Mode 3: (called non-HT mixed mode) - used if one or more non-HT stations are associated in the BSS.From lab work, I've found that you can basically call mode 0 "pure mode" just like we used to have with just 802.11g.  If the 802.11n AP hears nearby APs and STAs that are non-HT capable, then it flips over to mode 1.  If a non-HT station associates to an 802.11n (HT) AP, it flips over to mode 3.  Mode 2 is for when all HT stations are associated (e.g. pure mode) and at least one 20 MHz slow-poke connects to the BSS.  Somebody smack that 20 MHz guy and tell him to get it in gear!  When non-HT stations leave the BSS, the AP, after a preset time, will switch back from mode 3 to mode 0.  The same is true of when the AP ceases to hear nearby non-HT stations.  It will switch from mode 1 back to mode 0.When the Operating Mode field is set to 3, HT transmissions are protected.  The type of protection that is required depends on the type of transmission as well as the type of the non-HT STAs that are present in the BSS.When using a 20 or 40 MHz HT channel, operating modes 1 or 3, and the Use_Protection field is 1 in the Beacon's ERP IE, all HT transmissions must be protected using RTS/CTS or CTS-to-Self sent at a clause 15 (DSSS) or clause 18 (HR/DSSS) rate.  This is a very normal scenario where 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n are all being used together on the same AP.When using a 20 or 40 MHz HT channel, operating mode 3, and the Use_Protection field is 0 in the Beacon's ERP IE (or the ERP IE isn't present in the beacon), the implementer gets a choice of how to protect the HT transmission:a) Control frames such as RTS/CTS or CTS-to-self prior to the HT transmissions: 1) For 20 MHz transmissions, use the rates defined in Clause 17 or Clause 19 2) For 40 MHz transmissions, use the non-HT duplicate frames defined in Clause 20.The rate for protection frames are selected based on the rules described in 9.6.3.1 (Rate selection for control frames that initialize a TXOP) and 9.6.3.2 (Rate selection for control frames that are not control response frames).b) Using a non-HT preamble, transmit first a PPDU that requires a response frame.  The remaining TXOP following the first PPDU exchange may contain GF and/or RIFS sequences.c) L-SIG TXOP protection (don't worry, we'll cover it in Part II)d) Using a mixed format preamble, transmit first a PPDU that requires a response that is sent as a non-HT frame or non-HT duplicate frame.  The remaining TXOP following the first PPDU exchange may contain HT greenfield format and/or RIFS sequences. Section II: Non-greenfield STAs Present There are two kinds of HT stations: those capable of using greenfield format and those that are not.The "Non-greenfield STAs Present" bit is set to 0 if all HT STAs that are associated are greenfield capable.  The same bit is set to 1 if one or more HT STAs that are not greenfield capable are associated.  HT APs use this bit to tell greenfield capable STAs to use protection when non-greenfield-capable STAs are present.  This bit only applies to HT stations since the entire HT IE is only processed by HT STAs.  Greenfield transmissions are to be protected by setting the duration/ID value in all frames sent during a TXOP to the time remaining in the TXOP.Section III: OBSS Non-HT STAs Present bit in the HT IEThe OBSS Non-HT STAs Present field allows HT devices to report the presence of non-HT STAs that cannot interpret HT transmissions correctly.  A second HT AP that detects a first HT AP’s beacon with the "OBSS Non-HT STAs Present" field set to 1 may cause HT greenfield format and RIFS sequence transmissions of the second AP’s BSS to be protected by setting the Operating Mode field to 3 (HT mixed mode).If the NonERP_Present bit in the ERP IE is set to 1 in the first AP’s beacon, then the Use_Protection bit may also be set to 1 by the second AP.  This is how ERP-OFDM transmissions are protected when DSSS and HR/DSSS stations are associated to an ERP AP.   HT stations may also scan for the presence of non-HT devices either autonomously or after the station's AP transmits a HT Information element with the Operating Mode field set to 1.  Non-HT devices may be detected as follows:— one or more non-HT STAs are associated , or — a non-HT BSS is overlapping (a non-HT BSS may be detected by the reception of a Beacon where the supported rates only contain Clause 15, 17, 18 or 19 rates), or — reception of a management frame (excluding a Probe Request) where the supported rate set includes only Clause 15, 17, 18 and 19 rates, or — reception of a Beacon containing an HT Information element with the OBSS Non-HT STAs Present field set to 1.When non-HT devices are detected, the STA may enable protection of its HT greenfield format and RIFS sequence transmissions.In summary, separate fields and bits are used for status reporting (OBSS Non-HT STAs Present and NonERP_Present) and for protection (Operating Mode and Use_Protection) so that protection extends to the BSS directly detecting the non-HT STAs and to the nearby BSSs, but not beyond.  A first AP has non-HT STAs associated to its BSS or directly observes a non-HT BSS, and reports this status to its neighbors.  A second AP’s BSS overlaps the first AP’s BSS, and may respond to the status report by requiring protection.  The second AP does not relay the status report further.  A third AP’s BSS overlaps the second AP’s BSS but not the first, and so the third AP sees no report of non-HT STAs and so requires no protection. Did you remember that this was just Part 1? ;-) Part 2 can be found here. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in August 2007 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-protection-mechanisms-part-2/ Title: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-protection-mechanisms-part-2/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 H2: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 H2: 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Protection Mechanisms: Part 2 H3: Leave a Reply Dual CTS bit in the HT IE: When this feature is used, beacons in a BSS have the "Dual CTS Protection subfield" set to 1.  Stations will then start every TXOP with an RTS frame addressed to the AP.  The AP responds to this RTS with two CTS frames.  If the RTS is an STBC frame, then the first CTS is an STBC frame back to the station and the second CTS is a non-STBC frame back to the station.  This assures that all STBC and non-STBC stations receive the CTS and set their NAVs accordingly.  NAVs are set to cover the entire transmission process (as always), including both CTS transmissions (which is new). CF-End Frames:This frame type, previously unused due to a lack of PCF implementations, can now be used in contention environments as a NAV reset tool.  When Dual-CTS is enabled and a station doesn't have any data to transmit when it obtains a TXOP, the station can truncate (cut it short, thus giving back its remaining time) its TXOP by sending a CF-End frame.  When receiving a CF-End frame with its BSSID as the destination address, the AP may resond by sending dual CF-End frames - one using STBC, one using non-STBC.  This resets everyone's NAV in the BSS.  Does anyone else notice the fact that with these two mechanisms, you could cause an AP to DoS its own BSS? :-(L-SIG TXOP protection ("PHY Layer Spoofing")In OFDM frames (clause 17), the PPDU header consists of short training fields, long training fields, and a SIGNAL field.  Inside the SIGNAL field is the LENGTH subfield.  In a non-HT format frame, this subfield, called L_LENGTH in 802.11n, indicates the length of the PSDU in octets in the range 1-4095.  This value is used by the PHY to determine the number of octet transfers that occur between the MAC and the PHY.When the 802.11n frame format is HT Mixed (keeping in mind that there are only HT Mixed format (HT_MF) and HT Greenfield format (HT_GF)), the LENGTH subfield is used along with RATE subfield to control the duration that non-HT STAs defer transmission equaling a period of time corresponding to the length of the HT PPDU (or the L-SIG Duration when L-SIG TXOP protection is used).  To restate, when using an HT Mixed format preamble, the Rate subfield in the Legacy OFDM Signal field (L-SIG) field of HT frame headers is always set to 6 Mb/s.  The Length subfield of the L-SIG field of HT frames with an HT Mixed format PHY preamble always contains a value that (together with the Rate subfield) represents a duration corresponding to the length of the rest of the PPDU, with a few exceptions.   This is "PHY Layer Spoofing."An HT STA must indicate whether it supports L-SIG TXOP Protection in its L-SIG TXOP Protection Support capability field in Association Requests and Probe Responses.The AP determines whether all HT stations associated with its BSS support L-SIG TXOP Protection and indicates this in the L-SIG TXOP Protection Full Support field of its HT Information Element.  This field is set to 1 only if the L-SIG TXOP Protection field is set to 1 by all HT station in the BSS.A station is not allowed to transmit a frame using L-SIG TXOP Protection directed to a recipient that does not support L-SIG TXOP Protection.  When the station is associated with an AP, support at a recipient that is associated with the same AP is indicated if the L-SIG TXOP Protection Full Support field is set to 1 in the HT Information element broadcast in Beacons transmitted by the AP with which the stations are associated.  L-SIG TXOP support at the recipient may additionally be determined through examination of HT Capability elements exchanged during association.  Under L-SIG TXOP Protection operation, the L-SIG field with an HT mixed format PHY preamble represents a duration value equivalent to the sum of:a) the value of Duration/ID field contained in the MAC header, andb) the duration remaining in the current packet (from the end of the symbol containing the L-SIG field to the end of the last symbol of the packet).The maximum value of L_LENGTH is 4095 octets.Non-HT stations are not able to receive any PPDU that starts during the L-SIG duration.  Therefore, no frame may be transmitted to a non-HT station during an L-SIG protected TXOP.  L-SIG TXOP Protection should not be used and the implementers of L-SIG TXOP Protection are advised to include a NAV based fallback mechanism, if it is determined that the mechanism fails to effectively suppress non-HT transmissions.  How this is determined is outside the scope of the standard. The figure below (Example of L-SIG Duration Setting) illustrates an example of how L-SIG Durations are set when using L-SIG TXOP Protection.  An L-SIG TXOP protected sequence starts with an initial handshake, which is the exchange of two short frames (each inside a HT MM PPDU) that establish protection.  RTS/CTS is an example of this. Any initial frame exchange may be used that is valid for the start of a TXOP, provided the duration of the response frame within this sequence is predictable.  The term L-SIG TXOP protected sequence includes these initial frames and any subsequent frames transmitted within the protected duration. An HT station is allowed to transmit a CF-End when the TXOP is not completely used by the TXOP owner, in a BSS whose beacon contains an HT Information element with the Operating Mode field set to 0.  This will reset the NAV at the HT station.  An HT STA using L-SIG TXOP protection should use an accurate prediction of the TXOP duration inside the Duration/ID field of the MAC header to avoid inefficient use of the channel capability.  If the initial frame handshake succeeds (i.e., upon reception of a response frame with L-SIG TXOP Protection addressed to the TXOP holder), all HT mixed format PPDUs transmitted inside an L-SIG TXOP Protection protected TXOP must contain an L-SIG Duration that extends to the endpoint indicated by the MAC Duration/ID field. Part 1 of this series can be found here. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-security-and-mcs-rates/ Title: 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-security-and-mcs-rates/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates H2: 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates H2: 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n, Security, and MCS Rates H3: Leave a Reply I had an interesting experience a while back. As I’ve said before, I work primarily from my home office and a local office in West Michigan. I went upstairs for one reason or another (too much coffee), and when I came back down to my office, I caught a whiff of something that surprised me. You ever have that? Perhaps you’ll smell pumpkin pie and it’ll remind you of high school homecoming or the smell of aloe (or moth balls) will remind you of Grandma’s. Well, I walked into my office, smelled this delightful smell, and at first, couldn’t identify it. It took me a few seconds, as I looked up at my open office window, to realize that this captivating aroma in which I partook was none other than fresh air. I’ve been inside too much lately. As usual, I can’t start a blog without rambling in the first paragraph, but at least my ramblings always lead to my point. My point today has to do with 802.11n security and the things that you learn when you’re trudging through the spec instead of sitting outside soaking up the rays. Specifically, I want to address the relationship between 802.11n, MCS rates, and security. I read this sentence from the 802.11n-2009 amendment a while back and am often asked what the spec says about this, so it seemed good to share. 8.1.5 RSNA assumptions and constraints“An HT STA shall not use either of the pairwise cipher suite selectors: “Use group cipher suite” or TKIP to communicate with another HT STA.”“What’s that mean?” First, let’s talk about some terminology:1. An “HT STA” is any 802.11n AP or client.2. A robust security network (RSN) is a BSS in which only CCMP (default) and TKIP (optional) may be supported.3. When a BSS supports CCMP and TKIP along with WEP, the BSS becomes a transitional security network (TSN). Needless reminder: WEP rots. When a network is configured as an RSN, the parameters of the RSN are advertised in Beacons and Probe Responses (as well as the client’s (re)association requests). These parameters include details like the supported pairwise (unicast) cipher count and types, the group (multicast and broadcast) cipher, preauthentication support, and more. There are different sets of encryption keys for unicast and group addressed frames. Unicast traffic is encrypted with a set of keys collectively known as the pairwise transient key (PTK) and group addressed traffic is encrypted with the group temporal key (GTK). The PTK is unique per user, but the GTK is shared by all members of a BSS. It is important to remember that when a single SSID supports multiple cipher suites (such as CCMP and TKIP or TKIP and WEP), group addressed traffic must be encrypted using the lowest common denominator, which is the weakest encryption method available. So, if CCMP and TKIP are supported by an SSID, group addressed traffic is encrypted using TKIP. If TKIP and WEP are supported, group addressed traffic is encrypted using WEP. Unicast traffic is encrypted using the best cipher suite configured for each client station. So, what is this part of the 802.11n amendment stating? It is stating that in a network that supports CCMP and TKIP (an RSN), 802.11n stations must use CCMP to communicate with one another. The logic here seems pretty simple. Since all 802.11n stations support CCMP (at least, all Wi-Fi certified 11n stations do), there’s no reason not to use the best encryption available for a BSS when communicating from one HT STA to another. [Edited due to some helpful comments from friends.]  The Wi-Fi Alliance and enterprise vendors support this approach and push it a step further. Most, if not all, vendors disable support for 802.11n MCS rates whenever WEP or TKIP encryption are used exclusively. What this means for your WLAN design is that if you want to support 802.11n and get the most from it, use either CCMP, or, when the occasion is right, open networks (such as in guest scenarios). Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-the-top-5-reasons-to-wait/ Title: 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-the-top-5-reasons-to-wait/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait H2: 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait H2: 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n: The Top 5 Reasons To Wait H3: Leave a Reply Trust me, there are many reasons to wait.  I just thought I'd share a "quick 5" with you.  I've been playing with 802.11n gear now for quite a while, and I deal with these issues quite a bit.  I've been talking to quite a number of people about the "why / why not" of 802.11n implementation, and here are some that are pretty common.  Enjoy. 1.  You don't actually NEED the bandwidth, you just WANT it.  Admit it.  You're just excited about the possibility of your 802.11 WLAN being as fast or faster than your Fast Ethernet LAN connection.  Have you done a traffic study for each AP and each controller on your LAN?  Do you know your average throughput per AP and controller?  Do you know how much of the WLAN traffic is business related (vs. personal)?  Should you be filtering your data more carefully?  Are you having latency problems?  If so, what is actually causing it?  Do you have legacy 802.11a/b/g clients or have you upgraded your clients to 802.11n already?  Without first answering these questions, upgrading to 802.11n could be a waste of time and money. 2.  802.11n APs are expensive.Vendors have already announced a roughly $1500 price point for a dual-radio, enterprise-class 802.11n AP.  Compared to enterprise-class 802.11a/g dual-radio APs, this is a stiff price premium.  Within 18 months, these same 802.11n APs will be a commodity just as 802.11a/g APs are now.3.  Troubleshooting and optimization tools are not yet available and mature.With dual-band chipsets just now being released in form factors such as CardBus, ExpressCard, and Mini-PCIe, troubleshooting, surveying, and performance optimization tools such as protocol analyzers and WIPS are just now hitting the market.  Their support of 802.11n features is limited, their new features are unproven, their price points are high, and without them you're flying blind.  Additionally, WIPS sensors haven't caught up with infrastructure devices such as APs and client radios.    4.  802.11n can cause problems for your 802.11a/g infrastructure.A significant problem is with the integrated predictive surveying tools found in many leading-edge WLAN controllers.  With these tools, the WLAN controller automatically adjusts power and channel assignments of APs to "optimize" the RF environment for maximum throughput and minimal interference.  Without these tools being significantly upgraded to understand both the vendor's 802.11n AP radio characteristics as well as integration of 802.11n radios into an 802.11a/g environment, the 1-to-1 802.11a/g -> 802.11n upgrade strategy simply isn't viable.  As these tools are upgraded to take into account 802.11n AP characteristics, this will be less of a problem. 5.  You won't get the full benefit out of 802.11n APs without a PoE upgrade.It takes mucho power to run an 802.11n AP in 3x3 mode.  More power, in fact, than 802.3-2005, clause 33...oops, sorry...802.3af can provide.  That measily little 12.95 Watts at the receiving end of the Cat5e cable just isn't enough.  What then should you do?  Well, you can opt for proprietary PoE, or perhaps you can go with "pre-standard" 802.3at PoE (which is still proprietary PoE by the way).  You can choose to run the system in 2x2 mode when powered by 802.3af, or perhaps you might be ok with plugging all of your APs into an AC wall socket in order to get a full 3x3 mode.  There is one option left that I particularly like: using second generation chipset that draw less power in 3x3 mode - less than or equal to 17W to be specific.  This means that .3af power can actually provide enough power to run these systems in 3x3 mode in given circumstances. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-throughput-testing-methodology-hopeless-with-existing-equipment/ Title: 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-throughput-testing-methodology-hopeless-with-existing-equipment/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment H2: 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment H2: 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Throughput Testing Methodology: Hopeless with Existing Equipment H3: Leave a Reply I was a little perturbed at 802.11n when I first started testing it, and now, after discovering the truth, I'm just saddened. I turned off my entire WLAN network here in the lab.  There are no nearby APs, so my Wi-Fi environment is clean as a whistle.  I fired up a spectrum analyzer - again, clean.  Then I enabled my spiffy new Apple Airport Extreme Basestation (802.11n using an Atheros AR5008-3NX chipset) on 2.4 GHz using channel 6 and 20 MHz channel width (because that's all that is available in the Apple configuration settings).  I connected my brand new Buffalo Technologies dual-band 802.11n, 2x3 MIMO CardBus card to a P4 laptop with 1GB of RAM.  I started a file transfer, and... it averaged anywhere from 19 to 23 Mbps after several trials.  I get roughly 21 Mbps with 802.11a or 802.11g in the same "multipath hell" environment.  The laptop was sitting about 3 feet from the Apple basestation.  The client utility (I'm using WinXP/sp2 WZC because, if you can believe this, it's better than the Buffalo client utilities for this card) says I'm connecting at 130 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band.  I also tried Windows Vista Business using its integrated wireless client.  It also said I connected at 130 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band.I decided to check out the 5 GHz band and a 40 MHz channel width, so I configured the Apple basestation for this (though it won't let you choose the channel).  My clients (both Vista and XP) connected at 300 Mbps.  I ran the same file transfer and got an average of 53 Mbps on both clients.  Again, big whoopie.  I can't imagine having a more multipath-rich environment than the one I'm in.  802.11n is supposed to smoke in the face of multipath.  Where's my throughput!  I decided to move my station away from the basestation - no change.I made sure I didn't have any other bottlenecks by pulling the same file across my Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure.  I averaged 105 Mbps over a long period of time.  The limitation of 105 Mbps is likely my NAS where the file is stored.  I decided to go for a little stroll around the lab and then around the entire building.  In the lab, it was varying from mid 20's to mid 40's using 5GHz with 40MHz wide channels.  Walking down the hall with multiple walls in the path between my CardBus card and my basestation, it started going down, down, down just like you'd expect...and just as quickly as 802.11g would have though I'm guessing that at the same distance, my 802.11n throughput is likely better than I would've had with 802.11g.  I don't really care to do that kind of comparative testing at the moment.I fired up AirMagnet Laptop Pro v7.5 (with 802.11n support) to look for clues on this 802.11n slowness.  After looking at Association Request frames, Beacons, Data frames, and ACKs, I was even more confused as to what was happening and why.  Suddenly I found myself knee deep in the 802.11n draft again...looking at data rates, Tx/Rx STBC support, multiple spatial stream support, MCS support, etc.  Most every feature I looked at was disabled in the Apple.  All of the data frames in the 2.4 GHz band were moving at 54 Mbps and ACKs at 24 Mbps.  This explains the 802.11g-like speeds.  Nothing was moving at 802.11n rates (even though my client utility says it's connected at 130 Mbps).  My guess is that the existing Apple firmware is basically 802.11a/b/g firmware with minor additions that allow HT (802.11n) clients to operate, but not to take advantage of any of the new features of the HT PHY that give you great range and speed.  The client station has a reasonable number of configurable options (through the driver's properties in Windows), though it's not exactly an impressive list.  It's certainly more than the Apple AP, but hey, what can you expect for $179, right?The supported rates for the client were only up to 54 Mbps as shown in the Association Request frame.  Tx/Rx STBC isn't supported on the Apple for 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands.  Beacons also show that the maximum number of spatial streams is 0.  Probe Request frames and Association Request frames (both sent by the Buffalo station to the Apple AP), are supposed to have an HT Capabilities information element in them (802.11n, section 7.3.2.49.1), but neither does.  This all adds up to, "you get what you pay for, IMHO."  Unfortunately, at the moment you can't pay for anything better because it's not available.    I decided to test multiple transfers in 2.4 GHz to see if I would get added throughput.  Nope.  Combined throughput was still in the 19 Mbps range.  In the 5 GHz band, a second data stream boosts overall throughput up to ~70 Mbps (though it's a little jumpy).  These results combined with what is (not much) and isn't (most everything) supported in Beacons makes absolutely no sense at all.Now once again I ask, "Where's my throughput!"  100+ Mbps as advertised?  NOT.  Right on Apple's website it says, "Blazing fast, it delivers up to five times the performance and up to twice the range compared to 802.11g routers."  On Buffalo Technologies' website, it says, "Blazing Speeds (12X Faster than standard 802.11g)."  Grrr.  I get 21 Mbps out of 802.11a in the same place, and often 19 Mbps on 802.11g.  Do the math.  5X?  12X?  NOT. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-upgrade-ap-substitution-is-it-viable/ Title: 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11n-upgrade-ap-substitution-is-it-viable/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? H2: 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? H2: 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? H3: 0 Responses to 802.11n Upgrade: AP Substitution. Is it viable? H3: Leave a Reply I'm sure that by now you've read the early 802.11n deployment documentation by various vendors.  It's pretty much a consensus in these documents that there are a small set of ways to deploy an 802.11n upgrade to an 802.11a/g network.  As a precursor, it is highly recommended by most vendors to use 5 GHz for the bulk of 802.11n deployments due to more available channels and bandwidth. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11r-r-is-for-radar-not-on-the/ Title: 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11r-r-is-for-radar-not-on-the/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' H2: 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' H3: 0 Responses to 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' H2: 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' H3: 0 Responses to 802.11r - R is for 'Radar, not on the' H3: Leave a Reply I'm shocked.  I've been pinging infrastructure manufacturers, VoWiFi manufacturers, client vendors, and anyone else who will eventually add a new form of standardized key management to their equipment.  Everyone says basically the same thing, 'It's on our roadmap, but not a big priority at this time.'  They all elude to the fact that they are either waiting on the Wi-Fi Alliance to finalize the Voice-Enterprise certification or they are waiting to see what other vendors are doing. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11r-r-is-for-rapid/ Title: 802.11r - R is for Rapid Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11r-r-is-for-rapid/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11r - R is for Rapid H2: 802.11r - R is for Rapid H3: 0 Responses to 802.11r - R is for Rapid H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11r - R is for Rapid H2: 802.11r - R is for Rapid H3: 0 Responses to 802.11r - R is for Rapid H3: Leave a Reply Soap Box: On802.11r ratification is the most important standard to hit the Wi-Fi industry in a long time - yes, even more important than 802.11n.  802.11i was sorely lacking - giving us only fast roam-back (to an AP to which your client was previously associated) and preauthentication, which is slow and rarely supported by WLAN infrastructure providers.  In the absence of a standard, many WLAN infrastructure vendors (Motorola, Colubris, Aruba, Cisco, Meru, etc.) have been using Opportunistic Key Caching (OKC) - also called Opportunistic PMK Caching.  Both the client device and the WLAN infrastructure have to support this for it to work, and on laptop computers, that gives us only Microsoft's WZC client and Juniper's Odyssey client.  While both are popular, they don't represent the entire industry - not even half when you consider how many appliances like VoWiFi phones there are in the market. Now that 802.11r is upon us, I predict (read: guarantee) that all WLAN infrastructure providers will adopt it into their WLAN infrastructure code as fast as they possibly can.  Further, we will see client software support for 802.11r protocols little-by-little over the next 12 months until pretty much all client software and appliances (Wi-Fi badges, handsets, handhelds, scanners, etc.) all support it.  As an industry, how can we not?  Fast, secure roaming - called Fast BSS Transition (FT) by the 802.11r amendment - is a must to asure applications don't break while on the move.  And since mobile applications have reached critical mass over the last 6 months, getting 802.11r protocol support into everything Wi-Fi related should be priority #1 for vendors.Soap Box: OffWhining: Start802.11r, and it's sister, 802.11k were ratified on July 15th and June 12th respectively.  Where the heck is my 802.11r support already?  It's not like vendors didn't know it was coming...they were helping build the standard.  Whining: EndNow then, if you're thinking, "where can I learn about FT stuff?" I have just the answer for you.  I've written a very abbreviated whitepaper on this topic, covering the humble begginings of 802.11 roaming and progressing through 802.11i AKM, proprietary options, and then 802.11r AKM.  Here's the link:http://www.cwnp.com/learning_center/search_details.php?doc_id=j8s5 (It's free to sign up and to get the whitepaper) If you can make it to the end of the whitepaper without a migraine, you probably enjoy Wi-Fi technology a little too much. ;)  I hope this helps.  Please feel free to post how 802.11r ratification will affect you and your company. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11s-whitepaper-with-jerome-henry/ Title: 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11s-whitepaper-with-jerome-henry/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry H2: 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry H3: 0 Responses to 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry H2: 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry H3: 0 Responses to 802.11s Whitepaper with Jerome Henry H3: Leave a Reply A good friend of mine and real-deal wireless expert, Jerome Henry, just completed a new whitepaper on 802.11s. 802.11s covers mesh networking protocols within the 802.11 wireless standard. You should read this paper. The actual 802.11s-2011 amendment is almost 400 pages long, so we’ve boiled down the need-to-know topics in a consumable format…with pictures. :) But, you might be saying to yourself: “a vendor-agnostic mesh protocol? Yeah right! No vendor will implement this. It's not real world.” And, you may very well be right, but there are a few massive reasons why this whitepaper is still important. First, protocol junkies get their fix by reading 30 pages instead of 400. Score.Second, for those of us who don’t work for a vendor, an 802.11 spec is the next best thing to help us understand some of the engineering challenges and solutions to mesh networking. Most of us don’t have a direct line to engineers at vendors who can tell us what vendors do or don’t do, how they determine mesh paths or secure mesh links. So, knowing the spec will help you analyze vendor implementations (even proprietary ones) to make sense of the solution (and perhaps, request missing features). Finally, in the race to solve many mesh networking problems, the standards guys working on 802.11s also introduced new mechanisms that could solve other problems, such as weaknesses with WPA/2-PSK and some collision problems in busy enterprise networks. Jerome teased out all the most juicy and relevant protocol goodness to share with us. If you already know Jerome, you’re probably aware that he is a super-stud in Wi-Fi. He is a wireless instructor at FastLane, a CWNE and CCIE-Wireless, and has a sexy man voice that makes women swoon (it’s true, check the link… but sorry ladies, he’s married). I’ve read the paper about four times now (perhaps that is too many), so I have sufficient first-hand knowledge to say that it’s quite good. Read it! Do it now! Link to whitepaper below (registration required). Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11w-management-frame-protection/ Title: 802.11w - Management Frame Protection Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802-11w-management-frame-protection/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11w - Management Frame Protection H2: 802.11w - Management Frame Protection H3: 0 Responses to 802.11w - Management Frame Protection H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11w - Management Frame Protection H2: 802.11w - Management Frame Protection H3: 0 Responses to 802.11w - Management Frame Protection H3: Leave a Reply The 802.11w amendment offers three new security pieces: Data Origin Authenticity, Replay Detection, and Robust Management Frame Protection.  The data origin authenticity mechanism defines a means by which a station that receives a data or robust management frame can determine which station transmitted the data or management frame.  This feature is required in an RSNA to prevent one station from masquerading as a different station.  Data origin authenticity is only applicable to unicast data frames, or unicast Robust Management frames, and Deauthenticate or Disassociate frames with Robust Management protection.  The protocols do not guarantee data origin authenticity for broadcast/multicast (bc/mc) data frames or broadcast/multicast Robust Management frames. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-mac-series-ndash-basics-mac-architecture-ndash-part-1-3/ Title: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-mac-series-ndash-basics-mac-architecture-ndash-part-1-3/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 H2: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 H2: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 1 of 3 H3: Leave a Reply Welcome to the 802.11 series of blogs for beginners in the field of wireless networking. In this blog, we will discuss the basic components of the 802.11 MAC architecture. The basic component of any network communication is data, which is in the form of packets, frames, or bits. A packet is a unit of data that is transmitted over the network, and contains routing information that helps it to reach its destination. The Network layer of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model uses the packets as a data unit. On the other hand, the frame is a unit of data used in the Data-Link layer of the OSI model. Frames contain information related to the flow control, frame synchronization, and error checking. A bit is a binary digit, 0 or 1, that is a basic unit of communication in the Physical layer of the OSI model. Data is processed and transmitted from one device to another on a network. Internally, the data transmission starts from the Application layer of one device and travels to the Physical layer while adding some information to the data packet. When the data packet reaches the Physical layer, it is transferred as modulated bits on the medium, which may be wired or wireless. As you may know, OSI model has seven layers, each layer appends some information to the data that is transmitted from the Application layer (Layer 7) to the Physical layer (Layer 1). At the Network layer (Layer 3), an IP header is prepended to the data that is received from the upper layers. At the Data-Link layer (Layer 2), a MAC header, including an address, is prepended to the data and the IP packet is encapsulated inside a frame. Once the frame moves to the Physical layer, PHY information is prepended to the frame. Finally, data is transferred as bits, which are binary digits: 0 and 1, at the Physical layer. An 802.11 network deals with the following two layers of the OSI model: The Data-Link layer of the OSI model is categorized into two sublayers: The above figure shows that the MPDU data frame contains the three main components: Now, the MPDU data frame is sent to the Physical layer from where the data frame is forwarded further to reach at the destination device. The Physical layer of the OSI model is categorized into two sublayers: The following figure shows the data moving between the Data-Link and Physical layers. 802.11n/High Throughput (HT) MAC Architecture The 802.11n amendment also defined some new improvements to the MAC sublayer of the Data Link layer for increased throughput and reduced overhead by using the frame aggregation methods. Frame aggregation was introduced after the 802.11n amendment (HT PHY). An analogy for frame aggregation is carpooling that is implemented to reduce traffic and subsequently reduce traffic jams. Similarly, frame aggregation is used to reduce medium contention overhead by combining several service data units (SDUs). The medium contention overhead is minimized by using the following methods of frame aggregation, which are: The first frame aggregation method is A-MSDU, where several MSDUs are combined into a single frame. An 802.11n access point uses A-MSDU aggregation and removes the headers and trailers from the received MSDUs, and combines these multiple MSDU payloads in to a single frame, which is known as A-MSDU and is further used for transmission across the wireless medium. The aggregated frame is encrypted using the Counter Mode with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (CCMP) encryption method. Each MSDU within the A-MSDU must be of the same 802.11e QoS access category. For example, A-MSDU can contain several MSDUs of Video access category only and it cannot be mixed with Best Effort or Voice MSDUs within the same aggregated frame. Another method of frame aggregation is A-MPDU, where several MPDUs are combined into a single frame for transmission. Each MPDU of A-MPDU has the same receiver address and data payload and each MPDU is encrypted using the CCMP encryption method. Similar to A-MSDU, each MPDU within the A-MPDU must be of the same 802.11e QoS access category. A-MPDU has more overhead than A-MSDU because each MPDU contains a MAC header and trailer details. In the next blog, we will take a look at different types of 802.11 frames. Till then happy reading!! Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-mac-series-ndash-basics-mac-architecture-ndash-part-2-3/ Title: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-mac-series-ndash-basics-mac-architecture-ndash-part-2-3/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 H2: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 H2: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 2 of 3 H3: Leave a Reply Welcome back to the next blog of the 802.11 series. In this blog, we will discuss different types of frames. As you know, a frame is a unit of data used in the Data-Link layer of the OSI model. Different frames are exchanged between devices to successfully connect to the wireless network. The IEEE 802.11 standard specifies the following three frame types which are further subdivided into subtypes. Management frames play a very important role in assisting wireless devices in searching and connecting to the wireless network using the authentication and association processes. These frames are exchanged between an access point (AP) and the client devices desiring to join the wireless network. Management frames do not go beyond the Data Link layer of the OSI model and do not carry any upper-layer information. They are also known as Management MAC Protocol Data Unit (MMPDU), and do not contain MSDUs. The following subtypes of the management frame are: Beacon Management Frame The Beacon subtype is one of the most important management frames. It is normally referred to simply as a beacon. Beacons are the core of the wireless network because they contain all the information that the client devices should know before joining any basic service set created by the AP. In the infrastructure mode of the basic service set, the AP sends the beacon frames whereas the client devices listen them in order to select the appropriate AP for connection. Beacons are transmitted in the interval of roughly 10 times per second. In the independent mode of the basic service set or ad hoc, client devices send beacon frames. The following parameters comprise the body of the beacon frame: Control frames reserve the wireless medium for providing contention free environment and sending data acknowledgments so that the transmission happens with as few collisions as possible. Some control frames help client devices to fetch data from the AP when the client devices return from a power save state mode. The following are the subtypes of control frames: Data frames carry the data payload or Layer 3 information between wireless devices. The layer 3 – 7 MSDU data payload is encrypted to implement data privacy over the wireless network. The Data subtype is one of the most important data frames, which is also known as simple data frame that contains the MSDU upper-layer information. Another special subtype of data frame is the Null function, which is also known as Null Data that does not carry any data payload. The Null Function subtype is also used for implementing power save feature by which client devices inform the AP about their status of power save. The following are the subtypes of data frames: You will learn more about the above frames in the subsequent blogs of the 802.11 series. In the next blog, we will take a look at the phases of wireless network discovery that help client devices to choose the best wireless network. Til then happy reading!! Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-mac-series-ndash-basics-mac-architecture-ndash-part-3/ Title: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-mac-series-ndash-basics-mac-architecture-ndash-part-3/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 H2: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 H2: 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 MAC Series – Basics of MAC Architecture – Part 3 of 3 H3: Leave a Reply Welcome back to the next blog of the 802.11 series. In this blog, we will discuss the discovery process, which is the first step in joining a wireless network and helps to identify a desirable wireless network to connect to. Wireless Network Discovery Wireless network discovery is a process by which a client device searches for the wireless networks and finds the different parameters, such as SSID, supported data rates and security configuration of the networks. Wireless network discovery has two modes: The first mode of the wireless network discovery we’ll describe is passive scanning. In this mode, wireless client devices listen for the beacon frames that are being broadcasted at a regular interval by the AP. The beacon frames contain all the information related to SSID, data rates, and radio frequency channels of the AP. Once the client device hears the beacon frame containing the same SSID that is configured in the wireless client software utility, it connects to the AP. Sometimes, a client device hears the beacon frames containing the same SSID from several APs, then it identifies the best signal and attempts to connect to that AP for joining the wireless network. The following figure represents the passive scanning in which the beacon frames are broadcasted from the AP. Another mode of wireless network discovery is active scanning. In this method, client devices desiring to join the wireless network transmit management frames called probe requests. These management frames contain the SSID of the wireless network to which the client devices desire to connect. If the client device does not know the SSID of the wireless network, it sends a probe request without specifying any value in the SSID field, which is a null SSID or wildcard SSID. A probe request containing SSID information is known as directed probe request where as a probe request that does not contain an SSID value is known as null probe request.Access points continuously listen for the directed probe requests and if they find the probe request with the same SSID that the AP has, then the AP provides the probe response frame to the client device. The probe response frame stores all the information that the beacon frame contains except the Traffic Indication Map (TIM) field. It helps client device to find the required parameters before joining any wireless network. If multiple APs provide probe responses, then the client device chooses the AP with the best signal strength. If the client device sends the null probe request, then all the APs that hear the probe request should provide their probe response because the received probe request was not dedicated to any specific SSID. The following figure represents the active scanning in which the probe request and probe response frames are exchanged between the client device and the AP. There is a characteristic of passive scanning where the beacon frames are transmitted on the matching channel on which the AP is operating. On the other hand, in active scanning, probe request frames are transmitted across all the channels available on the client devices. The main aim of a client device is to search for the wireless network with the best signal, hence it can choose either or both the methods, active or passive, for discovery of the wireless network. In the next blog, we will take a look at the process of authentication and association of the client devices used to gain access to the wireless network. Til then happy reading!! Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-wireless-networks/ Title: 802.11 Wireless Networks Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/802.11-wireless-networks/ ## Headings Structure: H1: 802.11 Wireless Networks H2: 802.11 Wireless Networks H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Wireless Networks H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: 802.11 Wireless Networks H2: 802.11 Wireless Networks H3: 0 Responses to 802.11 Wireless Networks H3: Leave a Reply Learn the basics of 802.11 wireless networks(WLANs) What are 802.11 wireless networks (hereinafter referred to as WLANs in this post)? A wireless network, as the name suggests, is a network that uses radio waves to connect devices, such as laptops, desktops, and mobile phones to the Internet, your organizational network, and applications hosted on your network. Wireless networks, unlike wired networks, do not use physical transmission media, such as wires and LAN cables. WLAN implementation is done at the Physical and Data Link layers of the OSI model. Implementing a wireless network enables the organizations/business establishments to reduce the cost of laying the cables for a wired network while providing high-speed data transmission, which can be used by both stationary and mobile users. A common example of a wireless network is your mobile phone network, though it does not use 802.11. Implementing a wireless network provides the following advantages: WLANs evolved from legacy radio frequency data technologies. As WLANs evolved as a data transfer technology, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an organization that promotes new technologies and creates standards and protocols that govern these new technologies, created the IEEE 802.11 – 1997 standard, the first standard for WLANs. We will discuss the IEEE and other organizations that are involved in the implementation and standardization of a wireless network. The IEEE is an organization of professionals, with its headquarters in New York City and operations center in New Jersey. Founded in 1963, the IEEE is today the world's largest association of technical professionals, which includes computer scientists, information technology professionals, software engineers, and physicists. The IEEE is primarily involved in educational and technical advancement of electrical and electronic research, computer engineering, telecommunications, and similar disciplines. For more information about IEEE and how it came into existence, refer to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Electrical_and_Electronics_Engineers web page. The IEEE formed the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee (LMSC) that develops and maintains networking standards and protocols for various network technologies, such as Ethernet, wireless networks (LAN, PAN, and WAN), media independent handover devices, and other such technologies. This LMSC committee has a working group for each of these networking technologies, some of which are given below: For more information all the working groups of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, refer to the http://www.ieee802.org/ web page. The 802.11 Wireless LAN working group came into existence in 1991 to create standards for 1 MB/sec Radio Frequency (RF) based data network technology. This working group provided the first 802.11 standard in 1997, called the 802.11 Wireless LAN standard, which is implemented at the Physical Layer and the Data Link Layer of the OSI model. The 802.11 standard has now become the basis for all the development and updates in the field of WLAN data network technology. Another organization that is involved in creating standards for Internet technologies is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF works to standardize Internet technologies and protocols especially the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Initially, IETF started as an activity supported by the United States federal government but from 1993, it started working under the Internet Society umbrella, an international membership-based non-profit organization, to develop networking standards. For more information about IETF, refer to the https://www.ietf.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force web pages. IETF develops standards using the process called Request for Comments (RFCs). An RFC is a document that is authored by computer scientists and engineers in the form of a memorandum to describe methods, behaviors, innovations, or research results for the working of the Internet or Internet-related systems/technologies. Some of these RFCs are adopted and implemented as Internet standards. Since its invention by Steve Crocker in 1969, the RFC is now an official document for Internet communications and network protocols. Some of the IETF RFCs that have been adopted as standards, and implemented to build either a wireless or a wired LAN network are: The following figure illustrates a typical RFC document. You can search for all the available RFCs and download their PDFs from the http://www.rfc-editor.org/search/rfc_search.php web page. Some of the RFCs that affect WLANs are: Our next blog will talk about Wi-Fi Alliance, an organization associated with Wi-Fi certifications and interoperability. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/80211outlooksaygoodbyetoaccesslayerwire/ Title: An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/80211outlooksaygoodbyetoaccesslayerwire/ ## Headings Structure: H1: An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires H2: An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires H3: 0 Responses to An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires H2: An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires H3: 0 Responses to An 802.11 Outlook: Say Goodbye to Access Layer Wires H3: Leave a Reply A look at the future of wired connectivity as a primary access layer. Written By: Tom Carpenter Has the time come to eradicate all plans that include wired connectivity at the access layer? For many organizations, the answer is an unhesitating, "Yes." For others, it is an uncertain, "Maybe." For few, it is a simple, "No." The point is that wired access to networks is becoming less important and will continue to do so. As you plan for future network upgrades and installations, wireless must become the primary access layer technology.Certainly, we will continue to ensure that proper wired connectivity is available where required. A few immediate locations where wired connectivity is needed today include: • Servers • Infrastructure devices • Intensive networked data workstations • Network service devices NOTE: Interestingly, with the advent of 802.11ad at 60 GHz with several gigabits for each link, the potential for wireless links in the infrastructure is very conceivable for the future. For example, I'd rather have four 5-7 Gbps links between two routers than a single 10 Gbps wired link in nearly every scenario. Yes, a wireless infrastructure must still acknowledge malicious interference, but the nice thing is that 60 GHz interferers will be easier to locate (they will have to be very close by). I know, 60 GHz is making "moves" (potentially, but we're not sure yet) into enterprise APs, but I still see great value in segregating it for use on the infrastructure. But, that's an 802.11 outlook for another day. So, why do I say that the primary access layer technology should be wireless in all future plans? Because it is already the primary access layer technology today. When users "BYOD," they are rarely BYODing a wired device (though I did plenty of that back in the day [smile]). They are bringing wireless phones, tablets and laptops. If they also have a desktop, their desired access layer connections are 3-to-1 in favor of wireless. Many organizations have all but replaced desktop computers with laptops. Laptops provide the benefits of being portable, smaller, less power consuming and plenty expandable these days thanks to the replacement of PC Cards with USB. If users have laptops that they carry to their meetings, do they really want to plug them into a wire (Ethernet) when they get back to their desks? Likely, not; however, in the interest of full disclosure, I do have a docking station at my desk for my laptop which does connect to a wired Ethernet link. Yes, the Wi-Fi guy is using Ethernet at his desk. Sorry. 802.11g (and a) took us a long way toward being able to cut the cord. Today, with 802.11n and 802.11ac, for most applications, the time has come. Sure, you won't get the best in performance when playing that online shooter, but for the standard business and personal application, Wi-Fi is just fine. Therefore, I suggest the following: don't ever design another network without making Wi-Fi a or the primary access layer. Your users will thank you. When you design a network with Wi-Fi as primary, you always get better performance from it than when you layer Wi-Fi onto the network as an afterthought. What do you think Wi-Fi geeks? Are we ready to say, for most organizations, Wi-Fi is primary? I think we are there for the most part in many countries and many more countries will find themselves there in the next 2-3 years. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/a-book-for-cwsp/ Title: A Book for CWSP Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/a-book-for-cwsp/ ## Headings Structure: H1: A Book for CWSP H2: A Book for CWSP H3: 0 Responses to A Book for CWSP H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: A Book for CWSP H2: A Book for CWSP H3: 0 Responses to A Book for CWSP H3: Leave a Reply Every once in a while, a new Wi-Fi book comes along that's worthy of the front page.  I've recently stumbled across one such book: "Implementing 802.1x Security Solutions for Wired and Wireless Networks " by Jim Geier. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/a-gap-in-the-market-and-irritating-licensing-schemes/ Title: A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/a-gap-in-the-market-and-irritating-licensing-schemes/ ## Headings Structure: H1: A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes H2: A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes H3: 0 Responses to A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes H2: A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes H3: 0 Responses to A gap in the market and irritating licensing schemes H3: Leave a Reply People are constantly asking me, "which 802.11n wireless access point or router should I buy for my home?"  After questioning them about their needs, they tell me that they want the "good stuff" - not the usual SOHO fare.  Of course, the "usual" is Linksys, DLink, NetGear, TrendNet, Belkin, and a few others.   There's nothing in particular wrong with equipment from any of these vendors, and most people are perfectly fine using it in their homes or small businesses.  But there's a few telecommuters and small business owners that don't mind paying a little extra for something more feature rich and reliable.  The problem is that there is no such thing.  I have a suggestion. Now that Cisco, Motorola, Ruckus, Colubris, and a number of other vendors that have autonomous APs (or WLAN routers) have recently introduced 802.11n equipment, it stands to reason that instead of phasing the 802.11a/g equipment out, they could repurpose it into the SOHO market as "high-end" equipment.  Sure, SOHO consumers wanting this type of gear wouldn't have the fastest thing on the market, but it would be "tried and true."  Manageable, stable, and plenty "fast enough" makes this kind of gear desirable in the SOHO space - especially for small businesses.  The main problem with repurposing equipment like this is its price.  When an AP is originally priced at $1200+, it would be like saying to their existing enterprise customers, "we've been ripping you off" for them to sell it for $200 once it has been "repurposed."   If they could overcome this "marketing" problem, they would still have to provide a means of distribution.  Ruckus has already done this by having a direct-sales store right on their website.  Kudos.  Other vendors, such as Meru, Trapeze, and Bluesocket would need to flip one of their lightweight (aka thin) APs into an autonomous AP in order to join in on the action.If nothing else, this would be a great way for vendors to get rid of existing inventory once an item has hit "end of life" status.  Support would likely have to be provided via email and forum only to keep costs down.  Currently, the gray market takes care of this need.  For example, if I wanted such an "enterprise-class" AP for a price far less than retail (say, 50% off), I would go straight to ebay.com.  Eventually I'm going to be able to get one.  The only problem I have then is support and firmware updates...Many IT professionals get the manufacturer's documentation and firmware updates from their IT industry friends.  In fact, most professionals that want to use enterprise-class gear in a SOHO environment won't buy a device that they know they can't get updates for.  The way many vendors have started "hiding" their firmware and documentation behind a support login is useless when it comes to security and irritates many customers and/or potential customers.  What's worse is when vendors lock their equipment's license codes to a specific box (a very common practice in today's WLAN industry).  This simply causes potential customers will look to other vendors.  Potential customers know that without paying dearly for a support contract, licenses will expire and/or boxes can't be upgraded with new features.  Vendors look at this as a way of reducing gray market sales, but in reality, it's a great way to run off potential customers.  If I bought vendor-A's platform today, used it for 1 year (during the initial support contract period), and then decided to switch to vendor-B's platform, the very first thing I'd think of doing with vendor-A's gear is selling it on eBay for a fair market price.  If this equipment had very strict licensing (as mentioned above), it wouldn't bring anything on the open market because it's basically a boat anchor.  The ebay buyer, in most cases, can't even purchase a support contract for the equipment since they didn't buy it directly from the manufacturer or through distribution channels.The better way of keeping down gray market sales of "not quite obsolete, but not quite cutting edge" equipment is to make it available directly from the manufacturer at a bargain price after its usefulness in the enterprise has run its course.  I'd love nothing more than to walk into Best Buy and see a Motorola AP5131 sitting on the shelf!  What's even better than seeing it in a retail store is to go to the manufacturer's website and see a Colubris MAP-330 or perhaps a Cisco 1242AG for sale for $200.  Call me crazy - I think the idea rocks...and since it's my blog... ;)There has to be other spins on this as well; certainly this idea could use fine-tuning and isn't the only idea out there for filling this market gap.  Another idea is a software controller built on Linux that can be run inside a Microsoft virtual machine that comes with a free 5-AP license and special firmware to flip common SOHO APs into "lightweight APs."  I'm just thinking out loud here of course.  There's definitely a huge hole in the industry.  I'm just interested to see who steps up to the plate and how they fill it. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/a-salute-to-wireless-broadband-with-my-middle-finger/ Title: A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/a-salute-to-wireless-broadband-with-my-middle-finger/ ## Headings Structure: H1: A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] H2: A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] H3: 0 Responses to A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] H2: A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] H3: 0 Responses to A Salute to Wireless Broadband [With my Middle Finger] H3: Leave a Reply “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” -- Chuck Dickens I share mixed feelings today. On the one hand, I am glad to finally have Internet service that is both reliable and fast (faster than 2/3 of the US, says speedtest.net). Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of replacing wireless with wires. I’m happy. I’m sad. When I bought my house a few years ago, I had taken this thing called “broadband Internet access” for granted. With all the discussion about Internet regulations and Comcast, I often see opinion statements that take service provider choice for granted. “If you don’t like Comcast policies or customer service, just don’t use them” the argument goes. Maybe if you live in a suburb. Where I live, choice means dial-up, T1, or cellular (if you have coverage). If you’re lucky, you might find a decent (someone answers when you call) wireless ISP that has a tower nearby. For almost two years now, I’ve endured spotty connectivity from a local wISP whose closest tower is 7 miles away. The distance is easily within range using 900 MHz, but the woods behind my house often like to frolic in the Fresnel zone. I say “often” because the seasonal changes in Michigan have a schizophrenic impact on the reliability of the link. In the winter, the trees get bare, and Fresnel zone blockage is within usable limits (<40%). The summer brings foliage…dreaded Fresnel zone blocking foliage. I’ve often heard the theory that rain will not impact an outdoor wireless link. My daily personal experience testifies otherwise. If your outdoor link is designed and deployed properly, a little rain shouldn’t cause a noticeable change. But, when the link sits right on the fence of marginality, a rain shower settles the debate. So the natural questions is “why have I lived with this for two years?” There are four primary reasons:First and foremost, the only real alternative option was a T1.Second, just to get marginal link quality, I put a 40’ tower on my roof, so it is already an eyesore. The engineer’s solution would be to take the tower higher (to avoid obstacles in the first Fresnel zone), but I just can’t buy into it. Literally, it’s cost prohibitive for me, which is why I didn’t do it originally. Towers can be expensive and cumbersome to install on a house, and guide wires are just ugly. Even though I live in the country, my neighbors might picket and throw things at me. My “friends” already laugh at me. Third, it gives me an excuse to work from a local office where I see real people.And finally, when I stay home, marginal Internet connectivity forces me to do some real work. But, unreliability was affecting work, so I paid a cable company with service nearby (they were difficult to find) to extend their service to my house.A few things I’ve learned along the way: Please join me as I send wireless broadband packing: You've been a lousy friend.Cable broadband, welcome to my home. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/a-tale-of-two-wi-fis-a-guest-blog-by-devin-akin/ Title: A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/a-tale-of-two-wi-fis-a-guest-blog-by-devin-akin/ ## Headings Structure: H1: A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin H2: A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin H3: 0 Responses to A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin H2: A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin H3: 0 Responses to A Tale of Two Wi-Fis - A Guest Blog by Devin Akin H3: Leave a Reply Often I (Devin) get the question, “Can two Wi-Fi systems be co-located beside each other peacefully?” Absolutely. This may be the case when performing a Wi-Fi system upgrade, vendor changeover, or well…you just happen to think that having different Wi-Fi vendors play different roles in your Wi-Fi network is cool.  Whatever your reason, there are some specific items to be aware of when it comes to installing two disparate Wi-Fi systems side-by-side. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/a_drivers_license_for_wireless_engineers_or_where_are_my_gaps/ Title: A Drivers License for Wireless Engineers (or Where Are My Gaps?) Meta Description: 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? Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/a_drivers_license_for_wireless_engineers_or_where_are_my_gaps/ ## Headings Structure: H1: A Drivers License for Wireless Engineers (or Where Are My Gaps?) H2: A Drivers License for Wireless Engineers (or Where Are My Gaps?) ## Main Content: H1: A Drivers License for Wireless Engineers (or Where Are My Gaps?) H2: 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?" The ECDL defines a Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), which provides baseline capabilities a citizen should have in the computer world to participate in a digitized society. It defines five competency areas. Twenty-one individual competencies are defined within these five areas (source: ECDL and DigComp: Describing, Developing & Certifying Digital Competence): Remember, this is the list for non-IT professionals. Start here. These are competencies that most children are learning now as they reach the end of primary school (or at least, I hope they are in most areas). To function well in modern society, this is the starting point. Many of my peers in the IT profession lack basic knowledge in some of these areas because, well, they are as old as me. When we started in the IT field, many of these items were non-issues. Today, they are essential. In each of these competency areas, they recommend learning the following (they offer certification programs in all of these areas): When I look at this list, the greatest weakness is probably in 2D CAD. Maybe I should look into that. Next, we turn to the ACS CBOK (source: ACS CBOK 2015). This body of knowledge is focused specifically on the IT professional. It defines two essential core knowledge areas: In addition to the two essential core knowledge areas, they define three knowledge areas related to "ICT as a broad discipline": The ACS CBOK (linked above) provides references to other knowledge specifications and how they relate. I'll leave it to you to browse the document and learn more. My point here is to bring focus to the possible need for knowledge gap analysis in our careers. If gaps exist in fundamental areas of knowledge, we should seek to fill those gaps to be more effective and efficient IT professionals. BOKs like those referenced here are a good place to start that analysis. One thing that stands out to me is the lack of programming knowledge many IT professionals have and the inefficiencies in their work methods because of this - and they don't even realize it. Yet, few computer science degrees or BOKs omit programming skills from their syllabi. Take some time, look over these lists and possibly some university course plans for computer science degrees today, and find those gaps. Then create a plan to fill them so you can be the best wireless professional you can be. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/about Title: About Meta Description: Certified Wireless Network Professional (CWNP) is the IT industry standard for vendor neutral enterprise Wi-Fi certification and information technology training. Learn more.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/about ## Headings Structure: H1: About Our Information Technology Training & Certification Programs H1: We are the recognized industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi certification. H2: Enabling opportunity. Providing support. H2: CWNP Values ## Main Content: H1: About Our Information Technology Training & Certification Programs H1: We are the recognized industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi certification. H2: Enabling opportunity. Providing support. H2: CWNP Values We are the only vendor-neutral wireless LAN certification program in the industry, covering the full range of technologies underlying all enterprise WLAN products. Founded in 1999, we offer high-stakes, proctored certification exams focused on 802.11 wireless networking technologies. Our four levels of enterprise WLAN certification prepare IT professionals to specify, design and manage wireless LAN infrastructure and applications regardless of the vendor solution utilized. CWNP is dedicated to delivering the knowledge, learning tools and resources needed to achieve enduring success in IT and wireless networking. We have our finger on the pulse of the industry and are constantly thinking of new ways to help our members get certified and get ahead. Professionals in more than 150 countries have achieved CWNP certifications, enabling them to make wireless LANs more cost-effective, reliable and secure. See what others are saying - Read Success Stories. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/about/ Title: About Meta Description: Certified Wireless Network Professional (CWNP) is the IT industry standard for vendor neutral enterprise Wi-Fi certification and information technology training. Learn more.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/about/ ## Headings Structure: H1: About Our Information Technology Training & Certification Programs H1: We are the recognized industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi certification. H2: Enabling opportunity. Providing support. H2: CWNP Values ## Main Content: H1: About Our Information Technology Training & Certification Programs H1: We are the recognized industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi certification. H2: Enabling opportunity. Providing support. H2: CWNP Values We are the only vendor-neutral wireless LAN certification program in the industry, covering the full range of technologies underlying all enterprise WLAN products. Founded in 1999, we offer high-stakes, proctored certification exams focused on 802.11 wireless networking technologies. Our four levels of enterprise WLAN certification prepare IT professionals to specify, design and manage wireless LAN infrastructure and applications regardless of the vendor solution utilized. CWNP is dedicated to delivering the knowledge, learning tools and resources needed to achieve enduring success in IT and wireless networking. We have our finger on the pulse of the industry and are constantly thinking of new ways to help our members get certified and get ahead. Professionals in more than 150 countries have achieved CWNP certifications, enabling them to make wireless LANs more cost-effective, reliable and secure. See what others are saying - Read Success Stories. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/about/contact-us-about-vendor-neutral-certifications/ Title: Contact Us Meta Description: Since 1999, CWNP has been at the forefront of IT certification and the industry standard for vendor-neutral Enterprise Wi-Fi certification and training. Learn more.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/about/contact-us-about-vendor-neutral-certifications/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Contact Us About Our Vendor Neutral Certifications For Enterprise Wi-Fi H1: Contact Us ## Main Content: H1: Contact Us About Our Vendor Neutral Certifications For Enterprise Wi-Fi H1: Contact Us We'd love to hear from you! Please contact CWNP Customer Care with questions, comments, or concerns. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/about/news/11_29_2010 Title: 11.29.2010 CWNP Enhances Leadership Team Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/about/news/11_29_2010 ## Headings Structure: H1: 11.29.2010 CWNP Enhances Leadership Team H2: CWNP Enhances Leadership Team ## Main Content: H1: 11.29.2010 CWNP Enhances Leadership Team H2: CWNP Enhances Leadership Team Socrates Sakell joins CWNP as VP of Business Development. Atlanta, GA - November 29, 2010 – CWNP, Inc., the IT industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi certification and training, announced today that Socrates Sakell has joined the company as Vice President of Business Development. Socrates Sakell is responsible for channel growth and the authorized learning center program. Leading business development and sales operations in all customer and center engagement activities across the globe, Sakell’s vision is to drive business growth and profitability. Part of that vision includes increasing customer and center satisfaction by building strong business relationships and ensuring that CWNP grows as the wireless training and certification standard across the globe. Kevin Sandlin, Co-Founder and CEO at CWNP said “Socrates brings a wealth of process knowledge and quality management experience, and we expect great improvements to our current offerings under his leadership.” Before taking on his current role at CWNP, Socrates was Director of Education for Motorola Enterprise Division (formally Symbol Technologies). He led a global team that designed, developed and delivered education, training, certification, and thought-leadership on the suite of Motorola’s wireless scanners, readers, and RFID products. Prior to his tenure at Motorola, Socrates was the Education Channel Manager at CITRIX Systems, and North American Education Channel Manager at Lotus Development Corporation (IBM), leading the development of those education channels, and growing certification across associates, channel partners, and customers. Socrates holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Marketing, and in Transportation from the University of Maryland. About CWNP, Inc. CWNP is the recognized industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi training and certification. CWNP is the only vendor neutral wireless LAN certification program in the industry, covering the full range of technologies underlying all enterprise WLAN products. CWNP offers four levels of enterprise WLAN certification, from novice to expert and prepares IT professionals to specify, design, and manage wireless LAN infrastructure and applications regardless of the vendor solution utilized. Professionals in more than 130 countries have achieved CWNP certifications, enabling them to make wireless LANs more cost-effective, reliable and secure. CWNP is a privately-held corporation based in Atlanta, GA. For more information about CWNP, visit www.cwnp.com. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/about/news/2010_04_07 Title: 2010_04_07 Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/about/news/2010_04_07 ## Headings Structure: H1: 2010_04_07 H2: CWNP Announces New CWDP and CWAP Certifications ## Main Content: H1: 2010_04_07 H2: CWNP Announces New CWDP and CWAP Certifications New WLAN analysis and design certifications will be required for CWNE Atlanta, GA -April 07, 2010 - CWNP, the IT industry standard for vendor-neutral enterprise Wi-Fi certification and training, today announced two new certifications for enterprise WLAN design and analysis, both of which will be available in Q4 of 2010. CWNP also announced changes and new requirements for its highest level certification, CWNE.New Design & Analysis Professional CertificationsCWNP will begin offering two new professional level certifications in late 2010: CWDP (Design) and CWAP (Analysis). Sybex, the official press partner of CWNP, is publishing an official study guide for each certification.CWDP. The new CWDP certification will ensure that network engineers understand how to properly design 802.11 networks for a variety of applications in many different deployment environments. Because today's Wi-Fi networks provide far more than portable Internet access, Wi-Fi engineers must be able to design networks for challenging mission-critical applications, regardless of the infrastructure and client vendor or the deployment environment.The CWDP exam, PW0-250, will be available in January 2011. The Sybex Official CWDP Study Guide is being authored by industry experts Shawn Jackman, Rick Murphy, Matt Swartz, and CWNP Director of Product Development, Marcus Burton, all of whom are CWNE certified. Co-author Marcus Burton, CWNE and Director of Content Development at CWNP, said of the CWDP certification and study guide, "Behind every good WLAN is a good WLAN design. Wi-Fi is everywhere in the enterprise, but still few too many professionals understand how to design Wi-Fi networks for robust applications. Our mission is to create a comprehensive and authoritative certification curriculum that examines every detail of WLAN design. As any field engineer would attest, this text is sorely needed."CWAP. The CWAP certification is coming out of retirement. The CWAP certification was first launched in 2004 to lackluster success, mainly because the industry was not ready for the depth of analysis and troubleshooting that was required to earn CWAP. The CWAP certification will be reintroduced in late 2010, with updated content for 802.11n, WMM/QoS, and 802.11r/k, as well as a renewed focus on helping engineers troubleshoot and solve common real-world problems.The CWAP exam, PW0-270, will be available in Q4 2010. The Sybex Official CWAP Study Guide is being authored by industry experts David Coleman, David Westcott, Keith Parsons, and Bryan Harkins, all of whom are CWNE certified. Lead author David Coleman, CWNE #4 and author of the Sybex Official CWNA and CWSP Study Guides, said of the CWAP certification and study guide, "The forthcoming Certified Wireless Analysis Professional (CWAP) study guide and courses will provide the reference knowledgebase for WLAN professionals for 802.11 analysis. Furthermore, the CWAP certification will validate the advanced troubleshooting skills and knowledge that any serious WLAN professional should possess.” The CWAP Study Guide will include coverage of updates for real-world troubleshooting best practices and use of the most up to date packet, protocol, and spectrum analysis tools.New CWNE Certification RequirementsThe CWNE certification, which has been available since 2007, currently requires the candidate to earn both the CWNA and CWSP certifications, complete a rigorous application process, and then pass exam PW0-300. The CWNE exam (PW0-300) will be retired on September 30, 2010. Beginning October 1, 2010, CWNE candidates will be required to complete a similar, though more streamlined application, and pass four exams: The new CWNE application will require at least 2 years of relevant technical experience with 802.11 networks, at least 2 other networking certifications, three (3) documented enterprise Wi-Fi projects, and a publication directly relating to the implementation of enterprise Wi-Fi technologies.CWNE Recertification: All current CWNEs as of October 1, 2010, will be required to re-certify by passing either PW0-250 or PW0-270 before December 31, 2011. Individuals who earn CWNE after October 1, 2010, will be required to recertify every three (3) years by passing any one of the exams required for CWNE.Kevin Sandlin, CEO & Co-Founder of CWNP, Inc., said, "Enterprise Wi-Fi is a fast moving industry, and we have to stay ahead of the knowledge curve, and sometimes even set the curve. A Wi-Fi design certification is needed in the marketplace because Wi-Fi technology has penetrated many different industry verticals, and wireless applications are becoming more challenging to design and implement. Now is also the perfect time to bring back CWAP because the market and available tools are mature and complex enough to support it. With four challenging exams and a rigorous application process, the CWNE certification is taken to a new level of quality and breadth of knowledge."With these introductions, CWNP certifications will now cover the entire spectrum of knowledge for the enterprise Wi-Fi market. CWTS challenges sales people and project managers to understand the terminology and basic functionality of 802.11. CWNA provides a broad and deep foundation for the network engineer at the administrative level. Our professional level certifications - CWSP, CWAP, and CWDP - provide a specialty track for all network engineers who live in the Wi-Fi world, and CWNE requires the full breadth of knowledge, practical experience, and expertise.About CWNP, Inc.CWNP is the recognized industry standard for enterprise Wi-Fi training and certification. CWNP is the only vendor neutral wireless LAN certification program in the industry, covering the full range of technologies underlying all enterprise WLAN products. CWNP offers four levels of enterprise WLAN certification, from novice to expert and prepares IT professionals to specify, design, and manage wireless LAN infrastructure and applications regardless of the vendor solution utilized. Professionals in more than 130 countries have achieved CWNP certifications, enabling them to make wireless LANs more cost-effective, reliable and secure. CWNP is a privately-held corporation based in Atlanta, GA. For more information about CWNP, visit www.cwnp.com. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/about/privacy-policy/ Title: Privacy Policy Meta Description: Read the complete online CWNP privacy policy statement.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/about/privacy-policy/ ## Headings Structure: H1: CWNP Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Legal Disclosures H1: CWNP Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Legal Disclosures ## Main Content: H1: CWNP Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Legal Disclosures H1: CWNP Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Legal Disclosures PERSONAL INFORMATIONIf you shop for CWNP merchandise and place your orders exclusively through cwnp.com, any personal information that you may share with us (and with the business partners that help this site function or assist us in filling your order) is kept absolutely private. Neither your name nor anything about you is sold or shared with any other non-affiliated company or agency. EMAIL UPDATESWe need your email address to contact you about your account. We will never sell or share your personal information to anyone. COOKIESYou need to accept cookies to shop at cwnp.com. 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JURISDICTION AND VENUEYou agree that any legal action brought against CWNP shall be governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina without regard to its conflict of law principles. You agree that the sole jurisdiction and venue for any litigation arising from your use of or orders made on the CWNP sites shall be an appropriate federal or state court located in Durham County, North Carolina. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/aerohive-big-on-distinction-bod/ Title: Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/aerohive-big-on-distinction-bod/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) H2: Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) H3: 0 Responses to Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) H2: Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) H3: 0 Responses to Aerohive, Big on Distinction (BoD) H3: Leave a Reply …or is it Branch on Demand (BoD)? Either way, Aerohive announced the birth of a new child in their product family: the branch router, or AP, or router, or AP router. It’s the offspring of their cloud management offering, their distributed wireless architecture, and their Pareto acquisition in early 2011. Call it a branch in a box, or something like that. But, wireless networking for branches isn’t new. Aruba has mostly owned this market with their remote APs and mobility controllers. Organizations have enabled mobile employees with RAPs, which are inexpensive enough to be handed out like [sugar-free] lollipops at the dentist. Aruba’s previous competition in this market came mostly from Cisco’s overpriced and somewhat feature-depleted branch options. Meraki has also introduced a cloud-controlled branch routing experience much like what Aerohive is announcing, but have yet to integrate the wireless component with the router. Now, Aerohive is joining the scene with their distributed flavor of the branch experience. That is, they’ve taken the Pareto routing portfolio and integrated it into APs (330 and 350), and the reverse. They’ve taken the Aerohive AP expertise and integrated it into two models of branch routers (BR100 and BR200). If there’s one word that constantly comes to my mind when I think of Aerohive, it is distributed. Their wireless is distributed, and now this leap into routing extends their distributed networking bag o’ tricks. I like Aerohive’s continuity and focus, largely because their distributed model is flexible and scalable. The components of Aerohive’s BoD are three: branch routers/APs, HiveManager (management), and the Cloud VPN Gateway (VPN terminator). Management of routing is integrated with the same HiveManager instance as for AP management, using the same object-based platform to control and integrate wireless and routing policies. The Cloud VPN Gateway (CVG) is a VMware software platform designed to be easily expandable as a business or deployment grows, avoiding the stair-step hardware model. In keeping with their “licenses are mostly evil” theme, Aerohive licenses each BR100/BR200 to HiveManager, but for the CVG portion, there’s no per-AP or per-VPN licensing. Licensing simplicity is good for consumers. Finally, Aerohive seems very excited about their Cloud Proxy feature and cloud security partnerships. Instead of building all of the L4-7 security features themselves, they’re leaning on cloud partnerships with Barracuda and Websense to offload and easily distribute web application security for branches. Admins configure proxies to the cloud-based services that specialize in advanced security services (policing/monitoring web application usage, detecting malware and spam). What I Don’t LikeI feel the need to poke at their ribs a bit, because a few pieces of the announcement are a little underwhelming. For example, look at details like the AP component of the BR100; it’s a 1x1 11b/g/n radio. Yes, you can have 802.11n without MIMO, but it’s like a cake without frosting or ice cream. Also, some wireless features, like spectrum analysis and WIPS, are not supported due to processing limitations. In some ways, those feature exclusions are expected because of their requirements, but at the same time, remote troubleshooting and security monitoring are two massive advantages to distributed networking. It’s a shame to lose them. Then other portions of the announcement feel a little rushed. For example, routing for APs comes with HiveOS 5.0, but 5.0 is only for the latest generation of APs. Sure, it’s a way to go-to-market NOW, but it may cause OS disparity between devices within the enterprise. Finally, the BR200 (3x3 11n, Gigabit Ethernet, etc.) is announced, but will not be released for several months in 2012. Perhaps it's all part of a drip release strategy. RedemptionPerhaps a symbol and a two-digit number redeems the limitations: $99. Yes, the BR100 starts at* $99, with products shipping in mid-December. “Starts at” means you have to buy a bundle of 20 for that price, but for individual units, the BR100 is $199. Even though I feel a little marketed at (I know, marketing isn’t wrong) with the “starts at” thing, the price is still super affordable for a solid branch networking platform. And for the price, no other products offer the same features. Actually, for that price, no one comes anywhere near the same features. They’re breaking the rules a little (APs are supposed to be Layer 2 devices!!!), but their BoD announcement should make wake. I’ll get my hands-on soon, and can offer more verified user details then, but for now, like usual, I’ll defer further details to their press release (link at bottom). Final Comments and SuggestionsDavid “in like” Flynn (CEO) said that traditional enterprise architectures impede employee and company flexibility, and the corporate office is undergoing a decentralization. Now, I hate to paraphrase Aerohive’s CEO in my blog like a puppet, but I agree. I agree with the description of the problem. And I agree that Aerohive’s answers to networking challenges are on target. Simplify and centralize management, offer flexibility, and pile on value...there's a winner. I’m willing to sound like a paid-for (we don’t get paid for this in any way) parrot if I truly believe it. Other than my few gripes with their delivery, this BoD business maketh sense. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/aerohive-updates-for-hiveos-4-0/ Title: Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/aerohive-updates-for-hiveos-4-0/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 H2: Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 H3: 0 Responses to Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 H2: Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 H3: 0 Responses to Aerohive Updates for HiveOS 4.0 H3: Leave a Reply In a conversation last week, I was asked about hot topics in Wi-Fi. My list went something like this: • Mobile, mobile, and more mobile device management and control • Simple guest access and provisioning • Spectrum analysis • Architecture I find Aerohive speaking to each of the hot topics. In some ways, Aerohive instigated the architecture fight, and as a company, they set up camp on that point. But in yesterday’s press, I find affirmation of Aerohive’s commitment to the enterprise WLAN by focusing on all of the hot topics—and beating several of their larger competitors to the punch. The first two topics—mobile devices and guest access—are inter-related, though still separate. Mobile Device ControlWhen we face the challenges of mobile devices, two primary needs stand out. The first is device-specific policies on the network. The second need is device management and control to eliminate security threats from consumer devices. In my opinion, the first issue can be answered by WLAN vendors, and the second is really a broader security concern that should be addressed by device manufacturers and third-party software vendors. On the WLAN, controlling who, what, when, and where of client access is key to both performance and security; such control is the need that Aerohive addresses. Aerohive’s management system (HiveManager) is designed to be flexible; IMO, it’s one of the more graceful solutions for managing user and group policies for QoS, firewall, authentication, and more. In version 4.0 of Aerohive’s HiveManager and AP software, they’ve added an Operating System detection feature. OS detection allows network admins to add the OS type into policy definitions, giving administrators greater control over network permissions and usage by wireless devices. Administrators can use the OS object in a policy to define separate access rules for mobiles and laptops, even if the user has a single PSK or EAP credential for their laptop, tablet, and phone. This eases the administrative burden of creating new SSIDs and issuing different credentials for each user/device. In practical terms, administrators could permit only Internet and email access for iPhones, then add remote desktop applications for iPads, for example. Then give corporate users full rights with their company-issued laptops. Such a simple example doesn’t do justice to the capabilities. For example, time of day, rate limiting, SLA guarantees, airtime fairness, QoS, and many other factors can be controlled based on device type, whether company or user owned. OS type thus becomes another variable—an important one—in the policy. Guest AccessAs we look at the problem of mobile device management and guest network access, one key feature for Aerohive is Private PSK. A PPSK is a unique PSK for each user. In both corporate and guest access use cases, PPSKs have several strengths: One advantage of the PPSK is to secure guest networks. Guests come to your facility, connect to your open network (an access network for provisioning purposes) and are provisioned a temporary PPSK—via their browser. Since everyone knows how to use a PSK, the guests can copy the PSK and use it to connect to your secure guest network. Administrators (and other office personnel) don’t have to be involved, and guests get secure access. You can apply guest policies (time of day, length of session, rate limits, VLANs, QoS, firewalls, etc.) to their connection as appropriate. Similarly, the same open network could be used by corporate users to self-provision their own PSK for personal devices like phones or tablets. With proper policies in place, a corporate user could use their PSK to access some corporate resources (as defined by your company’s usage policies), but may be prevented from accessing others. I’m not convinced that self-provisioned PPSKs are the ultimate answer to guest access, but I see it as a secure and easy-to-use step towards an automated solution. I’m still surprised that only two vendors have a per-user PSK feature since it has many use cases and is a “best of both worlds” between 802.1X and PSK. Spectrum AnalysisJoining the ranks of other WLAN leaders, Aerohive has also announced spectrum analysis support in HiveManager and HiveOS 4.0. Like Aruba, spectrum analysis support is based on the Atheros chipset, which I’ve written about previously. For the 4.0 software release, spectrum support is for the 100 series APs only. Future software updates will add spectrum support to the 300 series APs, which will likely be announced this summer along with a new triple stream 300 series AP (clarification: a 300 series AP is my prediction; I do not know Aerohive's actual product roadmap). Other than a few screenshots, I haven’t seen the quality of the new spectrum features yet, but will report on them after testing firsthand. Spectrum visibility enhances monitoring and troubleshooting, particularly when added to Aerohive’s existing client health and SLA features. Other features were announced in Aerohive’s press release: Final Comments and Suggestions (FCS)Aerohive’s Cooperative Control architecture is new and exciting…we’ve heard that a million times by now. Feature updates like guest access provisioning, mobile device control, and spectrum analysis are solid enhancements to their platform. They’re still a young company, but are focusing on the right features, making big strides in the enterprise. I don’t see “world domination” on the horizon, but with every new release, their role as an up-and-coming WLAN leader is confirmed. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/aigmagnet-multi-adapter-support/ Title: AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/aigmagnet-multi-adapter-support/ ## Headings Structure: H1: AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support H2: AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support H3: 0 Responses to AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support H2: AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support H3: 0 Responses to AirMagnet Multi-adapter Support H3: Leave a Reply To all of you AirMagnet fans out there, AirMagnet released a press release yesterday to announce a handful of nice (could I use a more generic word?) updates to their WLAN analysis and survey products. I had the privilege of beta testing the core update, multi-adapter support. For anyone that spends time designing/surveying for new networks or troubleshooting existing networks, this feature is a must have because it provides network analysis insight that you can’t get from a single adapter and it makes the surveying process more efficient. Applications: Analysis & Troubleshooting — In any properly deployed microcell (multiple channel architecture) system, adjacent APs will be deployed on non-overlapping channels. This is a principle from WLAN design 101. The problem is that the traditional approach to analysis of multi-channel systems has been to use one adapter and to scan from one channel to the next. That is, to spend a short amount of time on one channel capturing traffic, to skip to the next channel and spend a short amount of time on that channel, and so on. The problem is pretty obvious, right. As you scan channel 1, for example, you’re missing all traffic on channels 6 and 11, and all of 5 GHz. So, your data sampling may be representative of all traffic all the time, but you never know. And, it is always an incomplete picture. This drawback is particularly important as mobile client applications swarm to Wi-Fi like IT nerds to a booth babe. Mobile applications possibly generate more WLAN support tickets than any other (did I mention that fast secure roaming support in this industry rots?) issue, so it only makes sense that analysis tools are equipped to analyze the unique data fingerprint of mobile applications. With multiple adapter support, you configure each adapter to capture traffic on a single channel, so all relevant data is captured. For 2.4 GHz, it makes sense to use 3 adapters, capturing channels 1, 6, and 11. In this way, you capture client reassociations from one AP to another. With three channels of data, you could be over your head in manual analysis pretty quickly, but AirMagnet is providing some help by extracting the important details along the way. Of course, they still provide the channel metrics and other analysis tools as before, but with the triple capture, they’re identifying each roaming event along with important details like the new and old AP, the delay of the roam, and the new and old channel as well as application oriented stats like incoming and outgoing MOS, jitter, retries, and more. Armed with this data, you can likely identify the problems (or symptoms) your users are experiencing. You can also seek the root cause of performance problems by drilling down into the new and old channel utilization and overall health. This is some pretty sweet stuff. It also happens to be necessary for efficient troubleshooting. Here's a stock snapshot of the roaming analysis screen. Surveying — Manual (on-site) WLAN surveys come in two primary types: active and passive. With passive surveys, the Wi-Fi adapter is collecting and reporting data as it hears it, but it is not sending any data. In other words, it is listening to all surrounding RF traffic and noise and reporting on this information. This is an important perspective because it reflects the environment as new clients will perceive it. Passive surveys are mostly about the RF environment. Though I should point out that a VoFi survey is a unique type of passive survey that uses a nearby voice device (kept near the analysis laptop), which is associated to a service set and transferring voice data, and measures voice-specific statistics on the network. In a VoFi survey, the analysis software measures metrics like roaming behavior and call quality and quantifies performance with voice in mind. In active surveys, the Wi-Fi adapter associates with a service set (or a specific AP), then collects and reports data based on an actual connection. Within the AirMagnet world, there are different types of active survey, including a basic active survey as well as an Iperf active survey. In a basic active survey, the client passes actual data traffic to the AP; this method measures performance metrics of the data instead of just collecting RF data. An Iperf survey takes the active process a step further by integrating with the open source network testing utility, Iperf. The Iperf server sits on the network somewhere, and the active survey client passes some type of customizable data flow to the server across the wireless network. This helps validate actual application performance in accordance with the desired use of the network. As you might guess, multi-adapter support allows a surveyor to perform a basic passive and active (any of the above mentioned types) survey at the same time. You could also perform a basic passive and VoFi passive survey as well. By doing them both simultaneously, the process is much more efficient. Though I will reserve the topic for a future article, this type of feature enhancement simply goes to illustrate that most product enhancements are actually software enhancements. Sometimes you need more or different hardware for a feature upgrade, but a staggering amount of WLAN features are a result of software. To make the multi-adapter business easier for the rest of us, AirMagnet packaged it up very thoughtfully in a kit. Here’s a picture of my setup. The roaming analysis portion of the AirMagnet product upgrade is just awesome. Other Updates In addition to the multi-adapter upgrades, they also refreshed their wireless dashboard, the one-stop-shop for network analysis as you launch the product. I know there are some happy folks out there who can now use AirMagnet with 64-bit Windows. Some others are still complaining because native MAC OS X support is not available. Too bad for them. I’m a PC. :P They also added a one-click option for testing WLAN connectivity in the Analyzer product. With this feature, the adapter becomes an active client and connects using a Windows profile created within the AirMagnet software. The profile config is shown below. With this feature, you test basic connectivity and signal metrics as well as some helpful application metrics. As shown below, I configured the software to download an image, via HTTP, from CWNP. My test results are shown below. The crappy performance is my wireless ISP’s fault. All told, these are some nice updates. A pat on the back for AirMagnet. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/aircheck-a-follow-up/ Title: AirCheck: A Follow Up Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/aircheck-a-follow-up/ ## Headings Structure: H1: AirCheck: A Follow Up H2: AirCheck: A Follow Up H3: 0 Responses to AirCheck: A Follow Up H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: AirCheck: A Follow Up H2: AirCheck: A Follow Up H3: 0 Responses to AirCheck: A Follow Up H3: Leave a Reply Back in the early Spring when the Michigan snow clung to the ground like a two-year old to mommy’s leg, I wrote about Fluke Networks’ new handheld network analysis tool, AirCheck. My original test product for that article was an early alpha unit that was returned to Fluke Networks after a hardware bug (it was fixed) was discovered. Ever since, I’ve had a slight nagging feeling that I left the intro blog a little short and lacking in visual material. I find it apt timing that a similar product was released back in December, which could make for some interesting discussion in the comments section. Anyway, to make good after my initial limitations, here’s a follow-up that demonstrates the device, its features, and its interface. If you missed my first article and Fluke Networks’ press releases, you should know that AirCheck is a dedicated hardware network analysis and monitoring tool for frontline IT techs. These are the individuals that aren’t likely to study for CWNA and then master a tool like AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer, so they need something that is quick and easy to use that covers the basics of troubleshooting and surveying. With that purpose in mind, AirCheck is feature rich. I have to mention that AirCheck has the fastest boot time of any handheld device I’ve ever used, with the exception, possibly, of a calculator. Push the power button and the device is ready to use in less than 3 seconds. After the imperceptible boot, the user arrives at the Home menu. The Home screen has four different navigation menus and provides additional information on the interface top and bottom, including the channel being scanned, the number of APs that have been discovered, the current profile (top right), the battery status, AC power or USB connectivity, and whether an external antenna is connected (in this case, it is).From the Networks menu, you’ll see a list of discovered SSIDs and associated security, channel, and PHY. Drill down even further to see details for each AP that is broadcasting that SSID.Or, from the Home menu, select the Access Points menu to see a list of APs, which looks similar to the list of networks. Select an AP and you get more helpful info about that AP, such as signal, noise, SNR (these three metrics are color-coded according to preset thresholds), and a handful of other data including 802.11n details (channel width, max MCS rate, protection mode, etc.).To connect to a network, you’ll have to load a previously created (out of band) profile for that network. When you do connect, basic network connectivity testing is done automatically. As you can see in the graphic, the pings to www.google.com failed, though pings to the local network were successful. WAN connectivity or DNS problem perhaps?For further testing, you’ll have the option to select a network node (such as gateway, DHCP server, custom IP address, URL, etc.) and begin a continuous ping.If your employees don’t abide by your security policy that forbids home Wi-Fi routers, you can track their rogues with the AP location feature and smack their hand when you find them. There’s an external antenna connector on the unit to aid in this purpose.For a more global environmental analysis, from the Home menu, drill down on the Channels menu where you’ll see a spread of channels, color-coded according to the configured regulatory domain (black is within regulatory domain, red is not). The Channel Usage menu displays the utilization (Blue is Wi-Fi, grey is non-Wi-Fi) of a channel as well as the number of APs operating there.Drill down on a specific channel to see the usage details spelled out.From the Home menu, you can also enter the Tools menu, which is comprised mostly of configuration options like language, country code, profile management, time/date, etc. From the Tools menu, you can also enter a client scanning mode where AirCheck camps out on each channel for a slightly longer interval, recording all client probe requests.So there's your overview of the interface and functionality.The hits: In addition to those hits, there are a few misses: Again, don’t misunderstand the intended customer market here. This is a fitting product for frontline support and simple troubleshooting tasks, but it’s not designed to replace professional Wi-Fi survey and analysis tools. It delivers on its intended use very well.For more information from Fluke Networks, check out their AirCheck resources: www.flukenetworks.com/AirCheckResources List price is $1995. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/airhorn-is-a-blast/ Title: AirHORN is a Blast! Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/airhorn-is-a-blast/ ## Headings Structure: H1: AirHORN is a Blast! H2: AirHORN is a Blast! H3: 0 Responses to AirHORN is a Blast! H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: AirHORN is a Blast! H2: AirHORN is a Blast! H3: 0 Responses to AirHORN is a Blast! H3: Leave a Reply Upon first inspection, this unassuming little gadget (AirHORN from NutsAboutNets.com) doesn't seem like "all that"...but give it more than 2 minutes, and you'll be hooked.  Forgetting its intended purposes for a second, this gadget is just plain fun to play with.  The first thing I did was to pull out my fancy-smancy AirMagnet Spectrum Analyzer to monitor what AirHORN was doing.  It not only did what it was intended to do, but it also had me laughing out loud at the cool things it does and how useful it can be for a variety of things.  I started a spectral recording in AirMagnet, put AirHORN in Fast Traverse mode, and just sat there laughing at the prospect of sending it to some expert friends who pride themselves on their troubleshooting skills.  With slanted white lines repeating across the swept spectrogram, I can only imagine what BS they'll speculate that this "system" is! :-) I would include a screenshot or two, but fortunately for their customers, NutsAboutNets (literally the dumbest company name I've ever heard) posts screenshots of everything they make on their excellent website.  They are very responsive and good to work with, which is a welcomed change from most small newcomers that we encounter.  Whether you're testing antennas (yeah, right), jamming your neighbor's network, or any of a long list of cool things you could think up to do with this unit (both useful and fun), AirHORN is one of the coolest units I've seen in the Wi-Fi market in a long time.  Somebody over there is using their head for more than a hatrack.I personally think it's a superior training aid for teaching spectrum analysis, but that's because I'm an education freak.  I recommend that all CWNT instructors get one immediately.  Kudos to, uh, NutsAboutNets, for a great little product! If you haven't checked out their free product NetStress, do yourself a favor and do.  It's WAY cool. Follow me at www.twitter.com/DevinAkin Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/airtightening-the-bolts-on-insecure-networks/ Title: AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/airtightening-the-bolts-on-insecure-networks/ ## Headings Structure: H1: AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks H2: AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks H3: 0 Responses to AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks H2: AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks H3: 0 Responses to AirTightening the Bolts on Insecure Networks H3: Leave a Reply WIPS vendors tell us all about the problems of ad hoc networks and the dangers of hackers, but perhaps they should remind us of the dangers of ad hoc networks and Russian spies. You may have read in recent news that the FBI detained several individuals who were suspected of being Russian spies. During the investigation, some telling evidence was collected by means of Wi-Fi sniffing. As it turns out, one of the suspects would set up shop with a laptop in a coffee shop. Another suspect would drive by in a van, transferring files with the person in the coffee shop via an ad hoc network with “amateurish” security. The FBI caught onto this and was able to sniff the traffic and recover the data. If only the Russian spies had heard marketing messages from WIPS vendors explaining that ad hoc networks are bad. Apparently they’re bad for everyone, spies included. Speaking of WIPS vendors, the whole point of this blog is actually to make a few comments about AirTight. I’m sure you know the AirTight name by now, but if you don’t, they’re one of the three (previously) third-party WIPS vendors (all named AirSomething). AirDefense was acquired by Motorola, and AirMagnet was acquired by Fluke. Of course, Fluke is not an infrastructure vendor, so their WIPS platform is still third-party; but it seems that their focus lately has been heavily slanted towards Fluke’s primary product lines, which are targeted towards network analysis, and not so much towards WIPS. From all that I see and hear, AirTight is capitalizing on this market opportunity as a small(er) and flexible vendor by partnering and integrating with infrastructure and analysis vendors to extend their appeal to more customers. Some of the features in their latest firmware upgrades (Spectraguard v6.0/1) highlight their thought leadership, which is certainly on the cutting edge. If you don’t remember, reread some of Gopinath KN’s articles on our blog. He’s AirTight’s Director of Engineering, and a very skilled security researcher. Anyway, back to the AirTight products. They’ve introduced some excellent new features lately to help differentiate them from the AirSomething crowd; hopefully there’s value to our readers when we highlight the latest and greatest from leading vendors, so that’s what I’m here to do. Let’s start with a quick WIPS primer, which is only necessary because I want to show you a visual aid that was in an AirTight presentation. In a nutshell, a WIPS serves to automate the monitoring, reporting, and response to security and performance policies. On the security side, the essence of WIPS functionality looks like the graphic below. Cool graphic, huh? It simplifies the whole concept of WIPS, as this picture speaks thousands of words. To optimize their solution’s capabilities, here is a snapshot of what AirTight has been up to: • One of the key problems with deploying WIPS systems is that you must classify every device as either friendly or rogue, neighbor or local, or, potentially, unknown. If you improperly categorize devices, you run several risks (legal, security, performance, bad neighbor). And, you have to manually classify new devices on a regular basis. And, you have to classify client devices, which can be overwhelming, especially with smartphones and tablets, which will continue to increase, as evidenced by Cisco’s recent announcement of Cius. All this goes to establish that manual classification can be a real pain in the glutes; with proper deployment and configuration on the wired side, AirTight can automate the classification process with several different techniques. One of which is by using their patented wireless-to-wired or wired-to-wireless broadcast marker packets to determine if a device is on the local network. Finding out whether a potential rogue is on the wired network is an important first step to classification. It also helps to identify the risk factor of potential network threats. AirTight alleviates this task with automation. • Third-party WIPS vendors (both of them) have the unique strength of being able to function as an overlay to any WLAN infrastructure. Third-party WIPS vendors have the unique challenge of having to function as an overlay to all WLAN infrastructures. Let’s focus on that second sentence because some vendors (like Meru) have some pretty challenging proprietary functionality that can really screw with an overlay WIPS system. Meru’s proprietary Virtual Port and Virtual Cell modes are intriguing, but imagine what an ESS-wide BSSID or a per-client BSSID will do to a WIPS and expected WIPS functionality. Truth be told, if WIPS vendors don’t implement proprietary mechanisms to understand a Meru environment, the WIPS solution will be completely ineffectual. That’s exactly why AirTight has been working hard to understand the Meru environment and then incorporate that understanding into its solution. With v6.1, AirTight includes capabilities to detect and accurately report the details of both Virtual Cell and Virtual Port Meru deployments. AirTight’s Meru-specific reporting includes details like the number of physical APs, client-to-AP associations, and more; identifying this information accurately depends upon proprietary information from Meru. In other words, such intelligence would be impossible without assistance from Meru. If you’re a Meru shop and you want overlay WIPS security, make sure your vendor can make sense of Meru’s secret sauce. AirTight can. • As WLANs are increasingly used for mission-critical applications, the deployment, maintenance, and troubleshooting of those networks will continue to increase in sophistication (and probably automation). You’ll continue to see tighter integration between infrastructure/WIPS vendors and packet/spectrum analysis vendors so that APs and WIPS sensors can be used for analysis of the L1 and L2 environment. To serve the need at the L2 protocol level, AirTight integrates code from the open-source Wireshark platform. Also, they partner with Omnipeek and integrate their solution as well. So, an AirTight WIPS sensor can be used for remote wireless packet captures and analysis. This is great for detailed troubleshooting, and it alleviates the problem of rolling trucks. I’m sure we’ll see more like this from other vendors as well. Those were three of the big ticket capabilities that stood out for me. Reporting features and processes were fine-tuned and forensic analysis was also improved. While those are important, they’re not nearly as exciting to talk about, so if you care, ask an AirTight engineer. Security has been a big topic lately with the Wi-Fi Alliance’s recent announcements about WEP and WPA, and I’m excited to see if and how this impacts the WIPS market. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/alcfee/ Title: Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/alcfee/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Store ## Main Content: H1: Store --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/algorithms/ Title: How CWSA Helps In Understanding Algorithms Meta Description: Algorithms are the driving force behind Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning and more. These technologies are used in today's wireless networks (though only partially) and understanding algorithms is the key to understanding them. In this VLOG, Tom Carpenter talks about the starting point for learning about algorithms: formulas. Those wonderful mathematical notation strings that look like a foreign language to many. He provides some brief advice on how to get started in the process as well. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/algorithms/ ## Headings Structure: H1: How CWSA Helps In Understanding Algorithms H2: How CWSA Helps In Understanding Algorithms ## Main Content: H1: How CWSA Helps In Understanding Algorithms H2: How CWSA Helps In Understanding Algorithms Tom Carpenter gives a brief on how CWSA can help you in understanding algorithms needed in AI. Algorithms are the driving force behind Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning and more. These technologies are used in today's wireless networks (though only partially) and understanding algorithms is the key to understanding them. In this VLOG, Tom Carpenter talks about the starting point for learning about algorithms: formulas. Those wonderful mathematical notation strings that look like a foreign language to many. He provides some brief advice on how to get started in the process as well. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/all-same-guest-blog-craig-schnarrs/ Title: All the Same? (A Guest Blog by Craig Schnarrs) Meta Description: Survey devices, those engineered specifically for performing wireless site surveys, often use higher quality chipsets than those in access devices (or simply different qualities). The result is varying receive sensitivities for different devices. This guest blog post provides an overview of how to deal with this issue from one wireless expert's perspective. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/all-same-guest-blog-craig-schnarrs/ ## Headings Structure: H1: All the Same? (A Guest Blog by Craig Schnarrs) H2: All the Same? (A Guest Blog by Craig Schnarrs) ## Main Content: H1: All the Same? (A Guest Blog by Craig Schnarrs) H2: All the Same? (A Guest Blog by Craig Schnarrs) Survey devices, those engineered specifically for performing wireless site surveys, often use higher quality chipsets than those in access devices (or simply different qualities). The result is varying receive sensitivities for different devices. This guest blog post provides an overview of how to deal with this issue from one wireless expert's perspective. I'm working on a warehouse wireless remediation project and there are over 100 warehouses across the United States. The warehouses range in size from 50k square feet to over 1.2 million square feet. The devices in use range from the newest tablets to decade old barcode scanners. Management is concerned because the last time this was done, the money got spent, the surveys were done, the maps were green, but the devices still had issues with connectivity. The problem is that all the devices were treated as equals when in fact all the devices see the Wi-Fi differently. Another reason is the Ekahau Sidekick has better receive sensitivity than the client devices being used by the workers in daily production. This had the effect of making the maps green and giving the illusion of better coverage. To address this issue, this is what needs to be done: Before starting a wireless survey, compare the receive sensitivity of the wireless client with the Sidekick. Next, document the delta between the devices. This will be used later on in the report creation phase. The Sidekick will record RSSI at higher levels than a client device. In order to compensate for this difference in readings, collect RSSI from other wireless client devices in the same environment and compare them with the readings taken from the Sidekick. There is a need for WLAN device calibration, but there's no economical way to accomplish it. Primary reasons why Wi-Fi flourishes are its low cost and simplicity. If we understand that RSSI and CCI are relative to the receiving device we can create a plan to compensate, not calibrate, the WLAN client devices. Every device is different, even the same device from the same manufacturer. In addition, all RF environments are different. These differences can't be corrected but they can be compensated for. A WLAN NIC is not calibrated, it's stable, and it's used for making a measurement against other devices in the network. The average of these measurements is used in the WLAN client device compensation process. While It is not economically viable to calibrate a wireless client device we can compensate for the differences between the devices. Before starting the process, move the client device to a location close to the RSSI threshold selected for the RF design. This is typically somewhere between -67 and -65 dBm, but will vary based on a large number of factors. Position the device and the Sidekick as close to one another as possible for similar readings. Collect readings from the RSSI cutoff throughout the facility before the pre-deployment survey or post-deployment validation, making sure to move around to a few locations with different environmental conditions. The graphic below illustrates some of the factors involved in the behavior of each wifi device. Not all devices will use all choices, this is usually highly proprietary to each manufacturer. Here is an Ekahau heatmap of a 420k Square feet warehouse showing the 2.4ghz Wi-Fi as viewed by the sidekick at -67dBm: Here is the same exact building as viewed by a Zebra ET55 Tablet: And here is the same exact building as viewed by 1x1 802.11n barcode reader: The next question is will the above devices work given the signal differences? The answer is does it meet the requirements? The barcode scanners signal is vastly different than the Sidekick. Ekahau Pro released an option to provide a "device offset" to help visualize how the RF looks to different devices. The website www.rssicompared.com was created with the intent of determining the offset ranges for various devices out there using a consistent testing process. In conclusion, due to the variances of sensitivity on the different client devices the design was engineered to meet the requirements of the least capable yet most important device in this situation, the 1x1 barcode scanner. After each warehouse was completed, workers were asked for feedback. The information received was that everything was working a lot better and faster. This whole exercise saved enormous amounts of time, money and frustration. I look forward to the next warehouse and the next challenge knowing that all wireless devices behave differently and how to compensate for these differences. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers-part2/ Title: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 2 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers-part2/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 2 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 2 (Guest Blog) H1: Wireless Network Analyzer Location H2: Capturing close to the access point H2: Capturing close to the device H2: Capturing in different locations H2: Wired Analysis for a Wireless issue H1: Packet Capture Configuration for Wireless Network Analyzers H1: Adaptor/Capture Device Selection H1: Channel Configuration ## Main Content: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 2 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 2 (Guest Blog) H1: Wireless Network Analyzer Location H2: Capturing close to the access point H2: Capturing close to the device H2: Capturing in different locations H2: Wired Analysis for a Wireless issue H1: Packet Capture Configuration for Wireless Network Analyzers H1: Adaptor/Capture Device Selection H1: Channel Configuration One very important point when performing wireless network analysis is the placement of the wireless network analyzer, there are many different situations that would cause you to place the analyzer in different locations throughout the wireless environment. If you are trying to analyze a situation where it would be necessary to see the traffic from all devices and from the AP as well, you will need to place the wireless network analyzer near the AP. Keep in mind, however, that all traffic seen at the AP level will only be traffic that can be heard and demodulated properly by that AP. If you are trying to analyze a situation with one device, you may want to place the wireless network analyzer near that device. Keep in mind, also, that traffic captured at the device level will include 2-way traffic (transmission and reception from and to the device). If you are trying to analyze a broader situation, you would want to place the wireless network analyzer throughout the environment, in different locations, to be able to capture from different sources and determine the signals that may be introducing problems or conflicts in those areas. There will be times when you will need to perform a wired analysis to determine the cause of the problem. It is important to understand the traffic flow on a wired network to know where to capture traffic on the wired network. When setting up a packet capture, for the most part with different vendor wireless network Analyzers, you will have similar options available. The following terminology is exact to OmniPeek, but the reflected capabilities exist in most other software as well. Capture title – It is recommended to use as much detail as possible in the title of your capture for reference purposes, i.e., where, when, why, etc. Continuous capture – This option will recycle the capture buffer, the buffer will become a first in first out buffer, in other words the buffer will continue capturing and will remove the oldest captured frames from the buffer as needed. Without "Save to Disk", most tools will maintain statistics, but you will be unable to analyze the actual frames once removed from the buffer. Save to disk – This option will give you the ability to save your capture to your hard drive. Keep in mind you will need to make sure you have enough space. In conjunction with continuous capture, this allows analysis of all frames captured from the start of the capture. Packet Slicing – This option gives you the ability to ignore the capturing of data within frames, also this would save you space on your hard drive, also it ensures confidentiality. it is recommended to limit each packet size to 500 bytes due to the size of beacon frames in most cases. Warning: Avoid cutting off header information, checksums may become invalid. Capture buffer size – This option gives you the ability to increase or decrease the size of the buffer based on your available memory in the capture system. Most software defaults to some value at or around 100 megabytes, but with modern systems often having 16 GB RAM or more, this can safely be increase in many use cases. Access point capture – This option gives you the ability to do a packet capture from an access point that supports this feature. Aggregator/ Roaming – This option gives you the ability to add multiple supported adaptors to be able to capture on multiple channels, then this gets aggregated together based on times to form a big capture view. Single supported adaptor – This is your most common option; you would be able to do packet capture with a single network adaptor. You want to make sure you have the appropriate drivers for this adaptor. Fixed Channel – This option allows you to select one channel in which you would like to do a packet capture. Some wireless network Analyzers will let you capture on 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz channels. You will pick the channel base on the 20 MHz primary channel. Channel Scan – This option will give you the ability to select all channels on either 2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHz. You can also select the channels you are looking to scan only. With this option you can also select the time to dwell on a channel. Keep in mind, the longer you scan on a particular channel, the more data you will be able to collect from that specific channel, in the other hand, it is only capable to scan one channel at a time, in other words, the longer you scan in one channel the more you will miss from other channels. Click here for part 3. Material by – CWAP (Certified Wireless Analysis Professional) Study and reference guide, CWAP-403 1st edition by Certitrek publications.Illustrations by – Wireless Analysis and Troubleshooting CWAP bootcamp v1.1, MarQuest networking support by Peter Mackenzie Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers-part3/ Title: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 3 Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers-part3/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 3 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 3 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer Views and Features H3: Packet view H3: Packet List H3: Decode View H3: Wireless Network Analyzer Views H3: Channel information H3: Channel Information in the Beacon Frame H3: Node List H3: Protocol View H3: Conversation View ## Main Content: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 3 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 3 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer Views and Features H3: Packet view H3: Packet List H3: Decode View H3: Wireless Network Analyzer Views H3: Channel information H3: Channel Information in the Beacon Frame H3: Node List H3: Protocol View H3: Conversation View In this view, the Wireless network Analyzer will show you all the 802.11 frames that have been captured during particular packet capture. You will be able to see the time, the source MAC address, possibly the Vendor, the destination MAC address, the protocol in use, etc. Different Wireless network Analyzer's vendors will have different views as well. For the most part, you will have a packet list, packet decode, and hex and/or binary data available to you. In the packet list will find a numbered of different columns, the Wireless network Analyzer's vendors will have different columns available to you, and they can be enabled/disabled based on the needed view. Some important columns, for instance, the flag column could indicate CRC errors, retransmissions, etc. These types of frames will be something you will need to identify quickly. Other important columns will be the time columns, and you will have three different ones.Absolute time – is the time when the packet was originally captured.Delta time – is the elapsed time between packets. You can identify possible contention problems in the environment.Relative time – is a cumulative time from a selected packet. You can possibly identify the duration of a particular process during the analysis. This view is very important for you to understand with whichever Wireless network Analyzer you select. In this view, you will have a translation if you will from computer language (ones and zeros) to a more understandable human language. In this view, we have different sections, the first section being.The packet info/ radio tap header – this information is generated by the Wireless network Analyzer and added to the frame when capturing. This information is not part of the 802.11 MAC frame, some of this information is derived from the PLCP header. Also, it may be provided by the device's drivers, or it may be calculated by the Wireless network Analyzer.Field Name – these are information included in the frame, for instance, duration, destination, etc.Field value – this is the information corresponding to a field name, for instance, 233 MS, destination's MAC address, etc. This information is often represented in three different ways, a binary value, which starts with a percentage symbol (%), a Decimal value which is represented by numbers, and a Hexadecimal value, which starts with "0x".Interpretive text – this is information translated to be more understandable to you.Raw Hex – this is the data in its original form at the time of the capture as it is seen by the Wireless Network Analyzer.ASCII Encoding – this is the code used for the translation of the raw hex data. These views are features that would give you a bit more granular information about different statistics or performances of the wireless environment. For instance, you will be able to see in one location how many retransmissions, you can see channel utilization, you can also see a graphical representation of top channels, top talkers, top access points, top protocols, etc. This information can be very useful when analyzing a wireless network. It is also very important where to see or where to find channel information when capturing data for wireless network analysis. You can find the channel information in the following.The Radio tap header/Packet info – the channel information would be listed in this section of the packet view.Packet list columns – the channel information would also be available in one of the columns in this section, you may have to enable it, or you may not have to enable the column view, depending on the vendor. This is important to note in some instances, the channel information when capturing a beacon frame would be in the radio tap header. However, it could also be in the direct sequence parameter set if you were able to capture it in the packet, such as 2.4 GHz traffic. Very important to notice that the channel you capture the packet on is going to be in the radio tap header, and the channel that the packet was transmitter on is going to be in the frame fields, and sometimes these two may not be the same. For instance, you may capture a packet on channel 2; However, the packet was transmitted on channel 1. The reason is those are overlapping channels, and if the transmission has enough signal strength, you would be able to capture the uncorrupted frame and be able to demodulate and decode that frame on the channel you are on, which indicates a possible problem with channel interference. This list will give you information such as, who is your top talker in the wireless network, who is sending the most multicast traffic, you can also identify unexpected vendors/devices (rogue devices), or you also would be able to find a device sending too much traffic. You would be able to identify a problematic device and address it quickly once it is identified. In this view, you will be able to see the different types of protocols/frames, you will also be able to do quick filtering on the different protocols/frames, and in some cases, you can see a brief description of the protocol/frame. This view would be useful if you can decrypt the upper layer traffic. However, depending on the type of encryption on the wireless network, it is not always possible to decrypt the traffic, and it is necessary to see the upper layer traffic, then it is recommended to do a packet capture on the wire beyond the wireless access point. It would have to be on the traffic path of the particular device, it may be directly past the access point, or it may be directly after the wireless LAN controller depending on which type of wireless environment you are working on. Click here for part 4. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers-part4/ Title: Wireless Network Analyzer Views and Features Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers-part4/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 4 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 4 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer Views and Features H1: Expert Analysis H1: Filtering H1: Naming Nodes H1: Colorization H1: Decrypting Frames for upper layer visibility H1: Packet Generation H2: Conclusion ## Main Content: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 4 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 4 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer Views and Features H1: Expert Analysis H1: Filtering H1: Naming Nodes H1: Colorization H1: Decrypting Frames for upper layer visibility H1: Packet Generation H2: Conclusion This feature is an automated, intelligent identification and reporting of performance or security issues. For this feature to work properly, you will have to create or set several baseline thresholds to be able to compare the newly received information, and this feature will also be able to notify you when one of the predefined measures is not met. There are three different baseline analyses you can set in some of the Wireless network Analyzers. Threshold-base Analysis – Compare key statistics to pre-configure thresholds. Heuristics-base Analysis – Compare network traffic to the pre-configure rule set. Hybrid Analysis – Combination of threshold and heuristics. There are two different types of filtering when doing wireless network analysis, and it is very important to understand the difference between the two. There are capture filters, and there are also display (post-capture) filters, they are described as follows. Capture filters – with these filters, you will keep the frames that you want, and you will discard the frames that you don't want to keep at the time of the capturing. Very important to note the frames you discard with these filters will never be able to get retrieved again because they were never captured during this analysis. Display (post-capture) filters – with these filters, you will be able to filter what is on the display view or what you are seeing. You would be able to display filter a capture file that was also filtered during the capture. It is recommended to filter the capture files with the display filter and not with the capture filters unless absolutely necessary or you are certain of the traffic you are looking for during this particular analysis. This feature will allow you to view the names of the devices instead of the MAC addresses, which would help you identify devices easier and be able to follow the device during different processes of wireless communication. There are different ways you can name the devices when using this feature and they are described below. Passive Discovery – Automatically will add the names found in the packet captures, however, for this method to work, you will have to have access to the upper layers. Active Resolution – This method will query the names of devices via DNS or WINS, however, for this method to work, you will have to have access to the upper layers. Manually adding – In this method, you will need to manually add the name of the devices into the Wireless network Analyzer. Import List of devices – This method will allow you to import a list of mapping device names to MAC addresses via a text or CSV file. With this feature, you will be able to separate protocols/frames by color. This feature will also help you, instead of filtering the display, with visually identifying what you are looking for quicker. This feature could be set up however you would like, and it could also be saved to be used with other analyses, or you can also have multiple different colorization schemes to be used for different types of traffic captures. There are several websites offering different coloring rules. This feature offers you the ability to decrypt the frames captured during the analysis. However, there are a few conditions that will need to be met to decrypt the data payload on the frame. The encryption used – This feature can only decrypt frames using WEP and frames using WPA/WPA2-PSK. This feature will not be able to decrypt frames using 802.1X EAP. Four-way handshake – You will also need to have captured the four-way handshake along with the SSID and the passphrase to be able to decrypt the frames.It is recommended that if you need to decrypt those frames, you will have to force the device to disconnect and reconnect to capture the four-way handshake with SSID and Pre- Shared key then be able to decrypt the traffic. This feature allows you to generate a packet to send to either an access point or to a device on the wireless network environment. These generated packets can be modified before transmission. This feature is not available in all Wireless network Analyzers and can be used for troubleshooting and/or testing a device or access point behavior when a generated packet is received. In conclusion, this series of articles has been intended to give you an idea or perspective of the different views, features, capabilities, and opportunities a Wireless network Analyzer can provide you with assistance in your daily lives as a Wireless network professional. I encourage you to decide, which Wireless network Analyzer works best for you based on budget, features, capabilities, and learn as much as possible about it by either searching online for material or by utilizing the software as much as possible. To read this series from the start, click here. Reference table:Material by – CWAP (Certified Wireless Analysis Professional) Study and reference guide, CWAP-403 1st edition by Certitrek publications.Illustrations by – Wireless Analysis and Troubleshooting CWAP bootcamp v1.1, MarQuest networking support by Peter Mackenzie. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers_part1/ Title: How To Select Adaptors for Wireless Network Analyzer's Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/analyzers_part1/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 1 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 1 (Guest Blog) H1: Wireless network Analyzer's Overview H1: Packet capture options H2: Selecting Adaptors for Wireless network Analyzers H1: RF Monitor Mode H1: Adaptor Selection ## Main Content: H1: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 1 (Guest Blog) H2: Wireless Network Analyzer's Overview - Part 1 (Guest Blog) H1: Wireless network Analyzer's Overview H1: Packet capture options H2: Selecting Adaptors for Wireless network Analyzers H1: RF Monitor Mode H1: Adaptor Selection The following content will inform you of four main topics about Wireless network Analyzers (also known as protocol analyzers) when capturing 802.11 frames. You will learn about the appropriate methods and locations for capturing 802.11 frames. You will also learn how to analyze 802.11 frames, discover problems, and find solutions. In addition, you will better understand the application of the common capture configurations. Lastly, you will explore some additional tools to capture 802.11 frames to analyze and troubleshoot Wireless networks in your day-to-day. Wireless network Analyzer software is a tool used to capture and analyze data traffic over a communication channel. Some of the protocol analyzers options out in the market are, Wireshark, Commview for WiFi, Omnipeek, Airmagnet WiFi analyser pro, etc. Your ability to choose among these common tools would be based on the different factors such as budget, features needed, etc. Visualization tools are dedicated to analyzing the packets and present a more user-friendly version of the interaction between the device and access point. Such tools are packet analyzers imbedded in different vendors' management platforms, i.e., Mist client insights, Extreme Cloud IQ, Meraki client packet capture, Cisco DNA Center etc. There are also visualization tools that specialize in analyzing packet capture files, such as Eye P.A. from metageek. In a nutshell, visualization tools are a rapid 802.11 packet capture and analytics solution that makes WiFi traffic visible for quick analysis and diagnosis. At a glance, you can find and fix packet loss, monitor channel capacity, minimize congestion, and shed light on network configuration and security issues. To perform wireless network protocol analysis, you will have to capture the 802.11 layer 2 frames traversing the wireless network you would like to analyze. You can do that with a portable protocol analyzer such as Commview for WiFi, Omnipeek, Airmagnet WiFi analyzer pro, Wireshark for MacOS, Wireshark for Windows (with the correct wireless adaptor set to monitor mode), Wireshark for Linux, etc. With this method you will be able to take the analyzer close to the device and capture the frames as the device is experiencing (sending and receiving). Another method of capturing the frames will be with a wireless controller, if you are in a controller-based environment. However, this method would only give you the access points' perspectives and not the devices. Another method is using WIPS (Wireless instruction prevention systems) in which most of these systems will give you the ability to capture wireless layer 2 frames; however, these systems, like the wireless controllers, will only be able to capture at the access point or sensor locations and not at the device location. Lastly, you can also have a distributed forensics system or monitoring system, which will use dedicated sensors for capturing the wireless layer 2 frames, system such as 7Signal, Omnipeek, or a system like Cisco DNA Center where you would have tri-band access points and you could dedicate one radio to monitor mode. However, these systems will also only be able to capture at the sensor location and not at the device location. First and foremost, when doing wireless packet captures, the wireless network adaptor will need to be in RF monitor mode and not in promiscuous mode. The difference between the two modes is that promiscuous mode will capture everything going in and out of the wireless network adaptor, and RF monitor mode will capture everything on the channel on which the wireless adaptor is listing and that it is capable of "hearing" basde on demodulation capabilities due to the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the capabilities of the protocol analysis adapter and software. The recommended mode for successful packet capture for wireless network analysis is RF monitor mode, for wireless network analyzer software to utilize the wireless network adaptors in RF monitor mode, you would need to install custom drivers in many systems (particularly Windows-based systems). Most of the time, these drivers will come from the vendor of the wireless network analyzer software, and in some cases like Linux it could be a driver that can change the wireless network adaptor to RF monitor mode. In some cases, the wireless network analyzer software vendor will provide you with a list of network adaptors and their corresponding drivers. Another important point when selecting wireless network adaptors for packet capture are often done with the use of multiple adaptors with the use of a USB 3 hub. You will have to make sure you select the correct hub in order not to reduce your SNR, some USB 3 hub can reduce SNR up to 20 db, causing your wireless network analyzer not to be able to demodulate the traffic. The most important point is making sure you get the right wireless network adaptor for the wireless network analyzer software you are using, most of the software out there does not work with all wireless network adaptors and getting the correct wireless network adaptor for the kind of network traffic you are going to be analyzing is very important. For instance, you will need a 3 spatial streams wireless network adaptor to capture 3 spatial streams network traffic. If you are using a 2 spatial stream wireless network adaptor, and your access point is capable of 3 spatial streams, all data sent on the third spatial stream will be missing since your adaptor is only capable of capturing on two spatial streams. The illustration below shows the incorrect adaptor selection in the form of missing data, you will be able to determine it based on the duration times as illustrated. Click here for part 2. Material by – CWAP (Certified Wireless Analysis Professional) Study and reference guide, CWAP-403 1st edition by Certitrek publications. Illustrations by – Wireless Analysis and Troubleshooting CWAP Bootcamp v1.1, MarQuest networking support by Peter Mackenzie. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/and-the-road-goes-ever-on/ Title: And The Road Goes Ever On... Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/and-the-road-goes-ever-on/ ## Headings Structure: H1: And The Road Goes Ever On... H2: And The Road Goes Ever On... H3: 0 Responses to And The Road Goes Ever On... H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: And The Road Goes Ever On... H2: And The Road Goes Ever On... H3: 0 Responses to And The Road Goes Ever On... H3: Leave a Reply It was a Commodore Pet. I turned on the system, saw the lime flickering text on the screen, and was hooked for life. Like an addict, I pursued the knowledge of computers and computing with a passion that has sometimes bordered on insanity. All-nighters, caffeine filled weekends and shopping online for documentation older than I am have all led me to where I am today. Yes, the journey started with a stand-alone Commodore computer (which I still argue was the best line of computers in personal computing history), but it moved well beyond the scope of personal computing. In the last twenty years, I have worked continuously in the technology sector. This time window has arguably introduced the most rapid growth and change within the industry. While using Commodore machines at home early on (from the Pet-CBM through to an Amiga 500), I have supported PCs since the very early 1990s and computer networks and systems since July 1995. From this background, I found my way into the wireless LAN (WLAN) market and have been enthralled by it now for more than a decade. I am excited to bring my experience and drive to the CWNP program and we have exciting things planned for the future. One major new project is the 802.11 commentary series. We will be creating free videos teaching through the 802.11 standard. The series will be based on the 802.11-2012 update, but will also include any new amendments that come along in the future. The purpose of the series is to provide commentary on the standard document from start to finish. It is also to help you all become more comfortable reading and understanding “standard language” and standards documents. Along the way, we will also explore some IETF standards and Wi-Fi Alliance certifications. While the series will not focus directly on the various CWNP exam objectives per se, it will indeed cover much of the knowledge needed for the exams. Of course, it’s not intended to be a replacement for the official courses, video courses and study guides that are designed specifically for the exams and provide the selected knowledge needed for them. In addition to these free videos, we will continue to communicate through the blog, webinars and forums here at the CWNP.com Web site. We will begin to revisit some of the WLAN fundamentals and continue to address the latest and greatest technologies in the 802.11 market. Until then, guard your frames. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/announcing-the-cwna-pw0-105-update/ Title: Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/announcing-the-cwna-pw0-105-update/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! H2: Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! H3: 0 Responses to Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! H2: Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! H3: 0 Responses to Announcing the CWNA (PW0-105) Update! H3: Leave a Reply Strap on your boxing gloves and prepare yourself for the latest update of the CWNA exam. We’re pleased to announce the upcoming release of the PW0-105 CWNA exam and the availability the new CWNA PW0-105 study guide! The current exam version is PW0-104, which will remain available at testing centers for several months for those who have been preparing with PW0-104 study materials. PW0-105 will be available in early May, so stay tuned for exact dates. Once again, the David - David (Coleman and Westcott) authorship duo have outdone themselves on the CWNA study guide. I am firmly convinced that this is the best text for network administrators to learn wireless LAN networking. It is a must read. The study guide is available now for immediate shipment from the CWNP store. The last major release of CWNA was in 2009, when 802.11n was ratified. We’ve been tuning the exam along the way since then, but it’s time for a major update to reflect shifts in enterprise networking trends.  Specifically, we want to address the maturation of new technologies in the market, focusing on 802.11n as the status quo while 802.11a/g becomes “legacy” technology. Also, you may have noticed that the 802.11 specification was recently updated as 802.11-2012. The IEEE and Wi-Fi Alliance have been busy in the past few years, releasing several Wi-Fi enhancements in that time. For example, 802.11k, 11r, 11s, 11w, and 11u are among the new topics that network administrators should recognize. We also used this update to address other major industry shifts, such as WLAN architecture changes. Distributed data forwarding is now standard fare for most products, fully distributed architectures are gaining traction, and remote access solutions (remote APs and remote WLAN branch solutions) have evolved too. Security expectations are higher, BYOD has occurred, and exciting new standards are on the horizon. Perhaps the proper question to ask is “what hasn’t changed in the last three years?” Both the CWNA exam and study guide have been updated to reflect these changes. PW0-105 will bring you up to speed or keep you up to speed. Stay tuned for announcements in the coming weeks for more details! It’s truly an exciting time to be in Wi-Fi!In the meantime, here are some helpful links:Order your Sybex Official CWNA PW0-105 Study GuideAnnouncement on the forum — a good place to ask questions about PW0-105 For more information, contact us at: customercare@cwnp.com Twitter Facebook Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/another-interframe-space-rifs/ Title: Another Interframe Space: RIFS Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/another-interframe-space-rifs/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Another Interframe Space: RIFS H2: Another Interframe Space: RIFS H3: 0 Responses to Another Interframe Space: RIFS H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Another Interframe Space: RIFS H2: Another Interframe Space: RIFS H3: 0 Responses to Another Interframe Space: RIFS H3: Leave a Reply RIFS (Reduced Interframe Spacing) is a means of reducing overhead and thereby increasing network efficiency.  RIFS may be used in place of SIFS to separate multiple HT format transmissions from a single transmitter when no SIFS-separated response transmission (like an ACK) is expected.  The RIFS is the time from the end of the last symbol of the previous frame to the beginning of the first symbol of the preamble of the subsequent frame as seen at the air interface.  The value of RIFS for the MIMO PHY is 2us. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/antennas-make-all-the-difference/ Title: Antennas Make All The Difference Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/antennas-make-all-the-difference/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Antennas Make All The Difference H2: Antennas Make All The Difference H3: 0 Responses to Antennas Make All The Difference H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Antennas Make All The Difference H2: Antennas Make All The Difference H3: 0 Responses to Antennas Make All The Difference H3: Leave a Reply I've recently had the good fortune to play with a WLAN system from Ruckus Wireless, a WLAN infrastructure company focused primarily on SMB and broadband operators.  Besides having a user interface to die for, it's also a snap to deploy...and when i say "snap", I'm literally talking a couple of minutes.  You plug it in, wait for it to boot up, and by the time you've located the default login parameters, the APs have discovered the controller and all is operational.  Upon initial login, you set up your initial WLAN profile with a wizard that seems to be made for 3 year olds.  Once completed, you find yourself at a loss for words...or actions.  There's nothing left to do unless of course you have a diverse array of user groups, each with different connectivity and security needs.  If you have one of those "nightmare" scenarios (like so many administrators do), prepare to spend at least another 3 minutes configuring the controller...yes, minutes. Everything seems to be self-configuring.  AP connectivity, channels, power - you name it, it's all automagic.  Having said all of that, I saved the best for last. I've seen some pretty effective antenna systems in my time.  In fact, I remember my first experience with Vivato.  Wow.  It was an omni-present AP. ;)   Since then, I've been playing with pretty much every system available on the market, and until now I haven't found anything that's out of the ordinary.  These have to be the weirdest looking APs of all time.  One model, the 2942, looks like silly putty that was wrapped half way around a pole, frozen, and got painted white.  The other looks like a white mystical orb with a handle.  But I'll give them this much, as weird as they look, they work even more so. These little things can give you a solid 54 Mbps connection at long range through lots of hideous obstacles.  Pine paneling, concrete, dry wall, tile-wall restrooms, closets full of clothes.  54 Mbps without a glitch.  I tried laptops with CardBus cards, MiniPCI cards, and even PDAs.  54 Mbps.  I started a file copy while next to an AP, and was getting 14 Mbps of throughput, steady as a rock.  I walked to the corners of every floor of the house and still...you guessed it...54 Mbps and 14 Mbps of throughput.  All of this with 2 APs located near the center of the house.  When I roamed between the APs, the ftp session didn't break...nor did the Windows file copy.  When comparing this to other vendors' 802.11g equipment, it typically took 3-5 strategically placed APs from most other vendors.  I attribute this to their antenna technology.  It's radical, it works, and IMHO everyone should do the same.  Let's hope that the Transmit Beamforming (TxBF) features coming with nextgen 802.11n chipsets will give us this kind of amazing connectivity. Kudos Ruckus.  Where have you guys been for the last 3 years? :) Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/apple-macontroller/ Title: Apple MAController? Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/apple-macontroller/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Apple MAController? H2: Apple MAController? H3: 0 Responses to Apple MAController? H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Apple MAController? H2: Apple MAController? H3: 0 Responses to Apple MAController? H3: Leave a Reply Ha!  Made you look.  Wouldn't that be the coolest thing though.  Is there anyone not sick of overly-complicated WLAN controller and WNMS interfaces?  In fact, if Apple would make their latest AirPort Extreme in a 2-radio version that could be powered with 802.3at PoE and managed by something as simple as their AirPort Utility, small companies wouldn't need much else really.  Stick in a USB2 Hub, USB2 HDD, and a USB Printer or two, Bonjour zero-config networking, and presto: instant, fast, user-friendly mobile networking.  Not bad really, for a small-to-medium office. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/aps-for-haiti/ Title: APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/aps-for-haiti/ ## Headings Structure: H1: APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) H2: APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) H3: 0 Responses to APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) H2: APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) H3: 0 Responses to APs for Haiti (Aerohive repost) H3: Leave a Reply (reposted with permission from Aerohive) You bet we did! When my friend Mark Elliott of Mercy Ships (MercyShips.org) asked if we could “help a brother out”, we jumped at the chance. We shipped a pile of APs and accessories out to Texas and Mark back-packed them into Haiti and gave them to Quisqueya Christian School.  He said it would be easier than an air-drop and safer than US Postal Service (or did I get that backwards?)…Mark delivered them to a school-turned-relief-center where they were immediately deployed as a multi-building mesh.  With HiveManager Online for management, we can see, configure, and upgrade APs-de-Haiti as requested – way cool. We could ramble on about all the ways the APs will get used, but it suffices to say that they are being used…to help people in need.  That’s all that really matters, right?  Aerohive encourages and challenges other vendors to do likewise.  It’s not a competition, but rather an opportunity for those who have to help those who don’t have. Sean Blesh, who runs IT operations for the Quisqueya Christian School in Haiti, is a seriously happy guy now.http://quisqueya.org We also want to take a moment to point out the real heroes in this situation.  People who go to other countries – be it Haiti, Africa, or any other broken or impoverished country – to help people survive are heroes in our book.  Mark, his wife Zana, and their two beautiful daughters rank at the top of that list, having entered the mission field 6 years ago.  I met Mark when, as the SE Director at Colubris, he attended a CWSP class I was teaching.  Shortly thereafter, Mark and Zana walked away from their $250k combined annual salary for an income of “whatever friends would choose to donate” in order to help people in Africa.  Since then, they’ve branched out to other continents with the same relief effort.  Heroes, they are. How many times do you see something like that happen?  Mark started out running IT operations on a ship that was doing thousands of operations per year while docked along the coast of Monrovia.  Zana is a nurse practitioner and assisted with the surgeries while Mark deployed Wi-Fi pervasively across the ship using a kludge of donated parts.  Mark was the McGyver of Wi-Fi for about 18 months.  Aren’t you envious?  CWNP gave him a new laptop after he showed us his soldered-together-but-still-holding-on 2-yr old unit.  If you’re wondering how you can donate tax-deductable contributions to help the Elliotts in their quest to help thousands of people in need, you can contribute here: Mail to: Mercy Ships Donor Services Mark & Zana Elliott, Acct #1771 PO Box 2020 Garden Valley, TX 75771Please do not put their names on any checks you might send (for tax purposes), and you can email Mark at elliottm@mercyships.org with questions.  You can keep up with the Elliott family’s adventures at coasty4christ on FaceBook.Trust me when I say that I wouldn’t present you with a great opportunity like this unless I was also taking advantage of it myself.  My wife and I give several hundreds dollars per month to the Elliotts, and have been supporting them since the day Mark left Colubris.  Trust me, it’s the most worthwhile thing I do with my money.  The stories Mark and Zana can tell about their adventures will make you weep with joy and sadness;  my favorite being when they gave 1/2 of their annual income ($9600 at that time) to build a mud-brick orphanage and to dig a well for homeless girls in Liberia and Ghana.  I bet you can’t top that one. Haiti might end up being the most diverse Wi-Fi deployment in history, but if it works, who cares, right?  If everyone will just use the same SSID and PSK, then Haiti will have Fast/Secure roaming everywhere….kinda/sorta. One last thing: don’t forget to send AP mounting hardware. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/architecture-naming/ Title: Architecture Naming Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/architecture-naming/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Architecture Naming H2: Architecture Naming H3: 0 Responses to Architecture Naming H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Architecture Naming H2: Architecture Naming H3: 0 Responses to Architecture Naming H3: Leave a Reply There are two distinct types of architectures in today's WLAN infrastructures.  Each goes by several different names.  Today's WLAN newcomers can be easily confused by having several names for the same thing as well as trying to understand the nuance between each vendor's implementation.  I'd like to clarify some common terminolgy. First, we need some plain old definitions: Single Channel Architecture (SCA) – A WLAN architecture where uplink and downlink transmissions are coordinated by a WLAN Controller on a single 802.11 channel in such a manner that the effects of co-channel and adjacent channel interference are minimized. Multiple Channel Architecture (MCA) – A WLAN architecture where three or more channels are used in a tiled pattern within a frequency band (2.4 or 5 GHz) for the purpose of minimizing co-channel and adjacent channel interference.   This is often referred to as “channel reuse” or “micro-cell” architecture. Channel Stacking / Channel Spanning / Channel Blankets™– When a Single Channel Architecture (SCA) is used, WLANs may be co-located in the same physical area on different 802.11 channels for the purpose of high-density / high-capacity client deployments.  Scalability is accomplished through adding additional coordinated channels in the same physical space. Virtual BSSID / Virtual Cell – When 2 or more access points coordinated by a WLAN Controller appear to be the same access point (have the same BSSID). These names are some that we made up and some that we borrowed from vendor partners.  These definitions are our own and are likely missing some of the discriptive marketing language that you would expect from vendors trying to sell their warez.  They are not considered perfect, but are generally accepted as accurate. There are currently only two manufacturers who make SCA equipment: Meru Networks and Extricom.  Both OEM to other vendors (e.g. Meru > Foundry and Extricom > Belden).  With SCA equipment, scalability comes as a result of stacking/spanning/blanketing multiple channels in the same physical area by using one or more APs rather than reusing channels in a tiling pattern like MCA does.  MCA is where the market has been for a number of years; deploying APs on different channels in a tile-like pattern to avoid as much co-channel and adjacent channel interference as possible. "Which is better?" is an on-going industry debate that is often more volatile than discussing politics or religion. There are other architectures on the market, but these two are currently the most dominent.  Others include: Arrays (i.e. Xirrus), Cooperative Control (Aerohive), and Mesh (Firetide, Tropos, Strix, etc).  Some vendors support multiple architectures.  For example, Cisco, Aruba, Motorola, Colubris, Trapeze, and Bluesocket all support MCA and Mesh.  Meru supports SCA and Mesh. More or less, there's an architecture for every occassion, but within the more dominent architectures (MCA and SCA), we thought it important to sort out some details. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/are-you-loss-when-trying-understand-return-loss/ Title: Are You At A Loss When Trying To Understand Return Loss? Meta Description: Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) is taught lightly in our CWNA course and hints at return loss, but some students have faced challenges in grasping the concepts. The problem stems from the fact that a significant amount of physics and mathematics supports the concepts and we do not teach that level of detail. In this article, I will explain the concepts for you, in a five-minute read, that should allow you to gain some control over your thinking about return loss. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/are-you-loss-when-trying-understand-return-loss/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Are You At A Loss When Trying To Understand Return Loss? H2: Are You At A Loss When Trying To Understand Return Loss? ## Main Content: H1: Are You At A Loss When Trying To Understand Return Loss? H2: Are You At A Loss When Trying To Understand Return Loss? Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) is taught lightly in our CWNA course and the course hints at return loss, but some students have faced challenges in grasping the concepts. The problem stems from the fact that a significant amount of physics and mathematics supports the concepts and we do not teach that level of detail. In this article, I will explain the concepts for you, in a five- to ten-minute read, that should allow you to gain some control over your thinking about return loss. As taught in our CWNA course, VSWR is typically represented as a ratio of some number compared to 1. For example, a value of 1.4:1 or better (meaning 1.3:1 or 1.2:1, for example) is considered very good. Ratios from 1.5:1 to 1.9:1 may be acceptable, but ratios of 2.0:1 and higher are genrally thought to be from bad to very bad. VSWR (sometimes shortened to SWR in ham radio and other RF use cases) worsens with impedance mismatches and while many components may have specification sheets that say they are 50 ohms, which is a common impedance rating for Wi-Fi gear and many other wireless systems, actual measurements can show that they are 48.8 ohms or 50.3 ohms or some other variation. The result is that you never have truly perfect match in the components and some level of VSWR will result. No systems, using cables and connectors to connect an antenna to a radio, will have a VSWR of perfection 1.0:1. We are, after all, humans engineering these things. Therefore, the explanations that refer to a VSWR of 1.0:1 as "ideal" should be understood in the same way as an isotropic radiating antenna - theoretical - for the most part. Before I get into more on VSWR and specifically explaining return loss, I want to spend a moment explaining why poor VSWR and therefore poor return loss values matter. As an example, in one test with LoRaWAN connectivity, an antenna with poor VSWR ratings could not even connect to the LoRaWAN network from the exact same location that two other antennas with better VSWR ratings could. This, in spite of the fact that the poor performing antenna was stated to have a higher gain value. All three antennas were omnidirectional. The antenna with poor VSWR was showing a VSWR of 5.8:1 (using a VSWR/SWR meter) while the other two antennas were rated at 1.3:1 or better. While a VSWR of 5.8:1 is rare in purchased antennas, this real case reveals the potential for problem. So why does this happen and what does VSWR have to do with return loss? Return loss is the measurement of the reflected signal strength traveling back to the transmitter from the antenna. So you have an incident wave or forward wave, which is the one that travels from the radio transmitter to the antenna. You also have a reflected wave or reverse wave, which is the one that is reflected from the antenna (or another connectivity element) back to the radio transmitter. To be clear, reflections go back and forth in the line, but most analysis considers only the impact of the initial reflection because the back-and-forth energy is attenuated to eventual untraceability. You can calculate return loss when the VSWR is known. Many antenna specification sheets list the VSWR and some list the return loss, but many do not. When the VSWR is known, the return loss can be calculated as: Or in Excel, use the following formula: =20*LOG10((I2-1)/(I2+1))*-1 Where I2 is the cell containing the VSWR. Note that the *-1 portion is added to the Excel formula to convert it to a positive value. Higher return loss values are better. This statement might seem counterintuitive, so let me explain. Imagine that you are measuring the power of the reflected signal (from the antenna or another component) close to the radio transmitter. The measurement of the amplitude of the reflected signal at that point compared to the amplitude of the original transmitted signal (before reflection) gives you the return loss. Therefore, a higher return loss value indicates less reflection in the wires. With a better VSWR you also have a higher return loss. As the VSWR worsens, the return loss also decreases. This reality is why you actually want loss in this case. High return loss is a good thing. In a perfect system (no reflection), return loss is infinity as there is no reflection. Our systems, of course, are not perfect so some return loss exists. For example, with a VSWR of 1.01:1, using the above formula or equation, you can see that the return loss would be roughly 46 dB and a VSWR nearing perfection of 1.00001:1 gives a return loss of 106 dB. Next, when the VSWR and/or return loss is known, you can also determine the percentage of reflected power. A VSWR of infinity (infinity:1) would have 100% of the power reflected back. A VSWR of 1.0:1 would have 0% of the power reflected back. With all VSWR values between infinity and 1, some percentage between 0 and 100 is reflected. To calculate the percentage of reflected power when the VSWR is known, use the following Excel formula: Where I2 is the cell containing the VSWR value. You are first calculating VSWR-1 and then VSWR+1 and then dividing the former by the latter. Finnaly, you raise the results to the power of 2 to determine the percentage of the power reflected. Now, returning to our example of 900 MHz antennas used with LoRaWAN, the VSWR of 5.8 results in a reflection percentage of nearly 50% (49.8269896193772% to be exact). This means that, if my radio transmitter is transmitting at 100 mW, as an example, my real power passing through the antenna is only 50% of that or 50 mW from the initial forward wave (not factoring in cable losses and other phenomena occuring in the antenna beyond the scope of this article). Next, the 50% that is reflected will re-reflect at the initial insertion point from the radio transmitter and travel back to the antenna where 50% of the 50% will be reflected back again and this process will continue until the power is fully attenuated to zero. Now you can start to see why this antenna was unable to connect. Given the same output power from the radio transmitter for the other two antennas, the gain of the poor performing antenna was not enough for the communications to effectively reach the gateway. To be fair, depending on the length of the cable and other factors, some of the energy will reflect from the radio transmitter back to the antenna and increase the radiated power as I've indicated, but let's leave that complexity alone for today as to further analysis of it. In most cases, significantly poor VSWR, such at the 5.8:1 referenced here, must exist before it will introduce significant radiated power differences. Typically losses are on the scale of less than 2 dB with more typical VSWR ratings. However, if you are purchasing cheap components or using an antenna engineered for a completely different frequency range than your use case, you can notice significant problems such as those reported here. Have you heard of OPM (other people's money). It's a great way to live! It also applies here with a slight tweak: OPE - other people's engineering. The good news is that for systems with integrated antennas (such as Wi-Fi access points, tablets, mobile phones, and many IoT devices) OPE gives you an acceptable or even well-performing system. However, in this age of self-engineered IoT solutions or when building Wi-Fi bridge links, this knowledge plays an important role in your design/engineering decisions. Pay close attention to VSWR and return loss values as they significantly impact the connectivity of your wireless solutions when they have significantly poor values. Thankfully, unlike broadcast radio stations, we don't have to worry as much about melting things down due to the low powers at which we transmit; however, we do have to be concerned about providing a stable link. Use the shortest cable run possible and use low VSWR-rated components and you should be able to achieve a quality link given the appropriate range and frequency use. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/are-you-smarter-than-a-fourth-grader/ Title: Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/are-you-smarter-than-a-fourth-grader/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? H2: Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? H3: 0 Responses to Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? H2: Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? H3: 0 Responses to Are You Smarter Than A Fourth Grader? H3: Leave a Reply Warning: this blog might make you whine...or perhaps weep.I have twin girls, Abbey and Hannah.  They're in the 4th grade, and just the other day they brought home a graded science exam.  I was in shock when I looked it over.  In so many ways, it was CWNA-level material.  I just couldn't believe my eyes...  I went through each of the questions, making sure I could answer and explain each of them and found myself explaining some of the same concepts to my 4th graders as I explain in seminars and CWNA classes.  Abbey...Abbinator...my OCD rocket scientist child, scored 95.  I was thinking of giving this same 4th grade exam as a pre-class assessment to CWNA students. :-) I asked my wife to obtain a clean copy of this exam, and I have posted it here for your amusement.  Nevermind my secret agenda of shaming you into studying harder... http://www.box.net/shared/09u7gsruid If you snag the latest version of the Double-Dave book (Wiley/Sybex CWNA Study Guide, 2nd edition), you will notice some topical similarities like: reflection and absorption (of a transmitted signal), amplitude (of a sign wave), echos (multipath), frequency/wavelength (of a sign wave), medium density (e.g. air, water, etc.), signal intensity, concave receivers (e.g. dish antennas), and passive gain (e.g. magnifying glass).  I tell everyone that works for me that I have two rules:Rule #1: No WhiningRule #2: If you ever feel like whining, refer to Rule #1If my fourth graders can handle these topics, you have no excuse. ;-) Follow me at www.twitter.com/DevinAkin Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/articles/consolidation-is-in-the-air/ Title: Consolidation Is In The Air Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/articles/consolidation-is-in-the-air/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Consolidation Is In The Air H2: Consolidation Is In The Air H3: 0 Responses to Consolidation Is In The Air H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Consolidation Is In The Air H2: Consolidation Is In The Air H3: 0 Responses to Consolidation Is In The Air H3: Leave a Reply We've just seen Belden buy Trapeze, Motorola buy AirDefense, and now HP buys Colubris.  All this happened in what...2 months?  Wow.  If this isn't the end-all of WLAN industry consolidation, I'm not sure what is.  We all know Cisco never sits idly by while this kind of thing happens (remember Juniper buying Funk software and Cisco following suit by buying Meetinghouse?), so I'm anxious to see who they scarf up next. I'm also anxious to see if any of the other big players in the industry start getting a little worried about their long-term position.  Consider the following (just my humble rambling, because I'm not privy to anything secret)... 1)  Meru is OEM'd by Foundry Networks.  Foundry is a major player with seriously good routing/switching gear.  Meru makes leading edge WLAN gear, and Foundry is their only OEMer.  With Colubris and Trapeze now gone, that only leaves a small few to choose from, and Foundry can't even *think* about not having a leading-edge WLAN product line with Cisco being their #1 competitor.  Bobby just needs to bite the bullet and put in a bid on Meru. :)  (He'll probably yell at me for posting this)2) Bluesocket - They're small, they're mature, they're very secretive.  Who the heck knows what's going on over there.  They could get bought and nobody know about it. :(  Hey Bluesocket, what's happening over there?  Throw us a bone.  They bought Pingtel, and then they sold it to Nortel...what in the world?  Why didn't Nortel just buy Bluesocket altogether?  That would've been very smart (there's my humble opinion again).  They have very good products and technology.  Right now, Nortel is in bed with Trapeze...uh....Belden, who also OEMs to DLink and 3Com.  Incestuous, no?3) Aerohive - These guys have some seriously smart people, a leading-edge architecture, and a totally new strategy on how to do things.  Their product is still maturing, but anyone with half a brain can see that they make a very good acquisition target for a big network infrastructure company that hasn't yet gotten into Wi-Fi.  Even Cisco/Airespace's mastermind (Bob O'Hara) has recently joined their BoA. http://www.aerohive.com/company/advisors.html  That says ALOT to me.4) AirTight - A leader in the WIPS market with some innovative new offerings.  They're a relatively small company, and like so many others that have recently been purchased, that is likely to make them attractive to many of the infrastructure vendors.  Another big thing with AirTight is that they have been very good at integrating with infrastructure vendors - like Colubris.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see an announcement within the coming months saying that HP just bought AirTight also.  It would be a smart move IMHO.5) AirMagnet - The biggest name in WLAN analysis and surveying with the biggest product line top-to-bottom.  If they aren't on Cisco's radar, I would be shocked.  Everyone everywhere uses their analyzers (Site Survey Pro, Wi-Fi Analyzer Pro, etc) and WIPS, and they have a large and loyal following.  That's just what Cisco typically goes for (remember Aironet?  remember Airespace?  remember Cognio?  remember Meetinghouse?  Holy crap - Hey Cisco, my house is for sale!)6) Extricom - Their gear is just now blossoming into what you could consider to be enterprise-ready, but is still a better fit for the SMB/SME market and certain verticals within the enterprise.   They lost Belden, their biggest OEM, so they are likely to be open to being bought or to partnering with a major industry player.7) Xirrus - Smart people, good marketing, very good and unique product - so unique in fact that I think that may be what holds them back in some cases.  The WLAN Array is a great fit for some situations, but it just doesn't fit everywhere.   Their marketing is so good that they can win a deal right alongside their competitor (see http://www.xirrus.com/customerdeployments/cs_carnegie_mellon.php ).  They've been very successful, but I'm just not sure what will happen with these guys regarding an acquisition...your guess is as good as mine.8) Ruckus Wireless - Holy cow batman. Their antenna technology is smokin!  They NEED 5 GHz radios, and I'm sure they'll have them soon enough.  Their throughput at range is superior, and their ease of deployment and GUI is obscenely perfect.  If you're an SMB/SME and you don't look at this vendor, you're nuts.  If DLink's M&A department understood the quality of these products, there would be a bid on the table the next day. :)  Though DLink OEMs Trapeze, they're not very deeply rooted. They could buy Ruckus with their pocket change, and doing so would put them squarely in front of the SMB/SME wireless market.  Ruckus has recently introduced an enterprise-class controller, but I haven't yet seen it.  Their ZD1000 is a smokin-good SMB controller, but I don't know anything about their new ZD3000.  If it is as-advertised, they should market it to SME - NOT to enterprise.  Per their own marketing literature, their sweetspot is the 80% of the market that is SMB/SME.  Staying in this area is where they will continue to be very successful and draw the most attention from a potential buyer.9)  Intel - www.ciscointelalliance.com - Totally partnered.  'nuff said.10) Proxim - They have pursued other wireless interests such as WiMAX and proprietary wireless bridging.  Apparently they haven't spent much money advertising their Wi-Fi products because they have all but vanished from the Wi-Fi scene.  They didn't even make it onto the Gartner magic quadrant last year at all.  Maybe a big player will scoop up their Wi-Fi offering.  They have a controller, multiple APs, mesh functionality, and a management system, so they're not exactly behind the times.  Whether or not they'd be willing to sell their Wi-Fi offerings apart from their other offerings is anyone's guess of course....and now for something non-acquisition-related...11) Extreme Networks - Excellent routing/switching gear, and they build their own Wi-Fi gear (a fairly comprehensive offering in fact).  In 9 years in this field, I've never seen any of it deployed.  Anyone else ever seen it?  Is it as good as their routing/switching gear?Disclaimer:  These are just my ramblings, and I have no insider or secret knowledge of what's going to happen with any of these companies.  I was just as surprised by the Belden/Trapeze and HP/Colubris buyouts as anyone else, but I did predict (to friends and co-workers) that Motorola would buy AirDefense. :)  Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right?  Share your thoughts. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/aruba-copies-meru-you-decide/ Title: Aruba copies Meru? You decide. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/aruba-copies-meru-you-decide/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Aruba copies Meru? You decide. H2: Aruba copies Meru? You decide. H3: 0 Responses to Aruba copies Meru? You decide. H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Aruba copies Meru? You decide. H2: Aruba copies Meru? You decide. H3: 0 Responses to Aruba copies Meru? You decide. H3: Leave a Reply http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3774851 If you haven't read the articles or gotten the countless press releases, Aruba just released ARM 2.0.  The more I read about ARM 2.0, the more it sounds like Meru...someone who's technology Aruba dedicated a 31-page whitepaper to dismissing earlier this year.  "Coordinated Channel Access", "Airtime Fairness", and "Performance Protection" are all concepts pioneered by Meru and absolutely TRASHED by Aruba in their whitepaper here: http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/technology/whitepapers/wp_RFARCH.pdf So now we trash the ideas and features of the competition publicly in long, detailed, inaccurate whitepapers - immediately followed by announcing the same ideas and features in our own company and products?   What the @!#$&^ ??  It's not like people aren't watching and listening already. I've harped on this topic before...here: http://www.cwnp.com/community/articles/whitepaper_lies.html My mom used to say, "have you no shame?"...I think that's applicable here.  People just don't care what kind of BS their marketing dept throws out there.   As the market gets more competitive, they go to greater lengths to make a dollar - at the expense of their integrity.  Sad really.  Again, I think we need an industry watchdog organization that filters the BS (marketing propaganda), but since I don't know how to start such an organization I'll just volunteer to use this blog to expose this sort of behavior from whatever vendor deserves it. I'll be honest with you about the example I've used here - I have no bone to pick with Aruba.  They listen to product feedback.  They make a top-notch products...a little hard to configure perhaps...but a high-quality product nonetheless. They have some seriously smart people there as well - developers, SEs, and management.  However, they need to chill with the marketing hoopla (including picking on specific other vendors) already.  They, like some others, need to learn that it's "Everybody against Cisco until further notice."  The 5% guy shouldn't pick on another 5% guy when the 70% guy is over there fast becoming the 75% guy.  Comprende? Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/arubas-move-architecture/ Title: Aruba's MOVE Architecture Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/arubas-move-architecture/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Aruba's MOVE Architecture H2: Aruba's MOVE Architecture H3: 0 Responses to Aruba's MOVE Architecture H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Aruba's MOVE Architecture H2: Aruba's MOVE Architecture H3: 0 Responses to Aruba's MOVE Architecture H3: Leave a Reply Aruba announced new stuff today…a lot of new stuff. New software, new hardware, a new perspective on the architecture debate, new market entry, new solutions to consumer device proliferation problems, and the list goes on. I’ll tackle most of them in turn. The networking industry is replete with buzz words that lack real meaning to most of us. We hear about cloud, virtualization, convergence, mobility, context-awareness, consumerization, and plenty more (often misused and misunderstood), but without some down to earth, real-world context, these words are meaningless, and can set me into that glazed mode…fast.  While I don’t think Aruba has over-buzzworded their announcements, there are a few terms in there that at first glance needed some “explain-what-you-mean-by-that” skin, so my goal here is to help make sense of Aruba’s updates and why they’re meaningful. Aruba’s announcements today center on their new approach to delivering user connectivity and services, and this new Aruba architecture is called MOVE (Aruba Mobile Virtual Enterprise). Unifying wired and wireless access, simplifying deployment, and context awareness (one of those marketing terms) are the core themes. Joining HP and Meraki, Aruba announced a three spatial stream 3x3 dual-radio AP, dubbed the AP-134 (external antenna option) and AP-135 (internal only). So, 2011 is beginning to look like the year when 450 Mbps rates become the norm on the infrastructure side. This AP is a helpful boost for Aruba, partly because it releases them from undermining sales of their flagship AP because of spectrum analysis limitations. I wrote a few weeks ago about spectrum analysis limitations in the Atheros chip of the Aruba AP-125 (3x3:2) that is not an issue in the AP-105 (2x2). This limitation prompted an increase in sales of the lower-cost AP-105s where AP-125s may have been preferred. With the AP-134/135, that limitation no longer exists, so the new “flagship” AP can takes its rightful place. In addition to the obvious benefit of a third spatial stream, the AP-134/135 adds other 802.11n features (by virtue of Atheros’ feature support), including TxBF, STBC, and LDPC. The usefulness of TxBF depends upon client device adoption, and perhaps the Qualcomm acquisition of Atheros will encourage this trend along. STBC and LDPC also add minimal gains in range and reliability, but even though their impact is minimal, these features are yet another sign that the industry is maturing and the theoretical features of 802.11n are becoming material. In addition to the new indoor-focused AP, a new AP-175 outdoor AP (2x2) is coming up. This AP looks (physically) like the offspring of Aruba’s recent Azalea acquisition, but it doesn’t seem to be the full byproduct of that acquisition. Look for more from that relationship in the future. Taking a look at the non-hardware additions to their tool belt, we should mention Aruba’s new perspective on the centralized vs. distributed architecture debate. That is, Aruba is introducing a new deployment model called Aruba Instant. Aruba has previously had a lot of success with their remote access platforms, including branch controllers/APs as well as small form factor remote APs for remote sites and home offices. Supplementing that model, Aruba Instant allows physically distributed office environments to deploy APs in a sort of locally controlled cluster without a controller appliance. They call it a virtual controller, but the control functionality has just been moved to a single AP (centralized control, distributed data forwarding) within the Instant group. Aruba Instant scales to 16 IAPs (Instant Access Points), and can be managed either by the limited interface of the virtual controller AP or by AirWave. Speaking of, it looks like a cloud-based AirWave product is back on the table, though I don’t have all the details of availability. I’m a bit divided with Aruba Instant. On the one hand, 16 APs per group is plenty sufficient to meet the needs of most distributed enterprises, and for that, I see it as a brilliant evolution of Aruba’s architecture. The controller doesn’t go away in the large branches, datacenters, and HQ offices, but distributed offices (where a controller for each office gets expensive) have the benefit of lower cost and added simplicity. The cost model is good, because you pay only for the APs. The feature support model is what leaves me with a question mark. Specifically, Aruba Instant is not a full-featured controller-less version of Aruba OS. It is a controller subset deployment model that lacks support for spectrum analysis as well as some of the other standard functions available in their controller-based deployments. Thankfully, it does still support ARM, stateful firewall, WIPS, and stateful QoS, which are big ticket items for Aruba. So on the one hand, Aruba Instant makes perfect sense as a deployment model. On the other hand, why the feature holdout? So, we’ve covered two new APs and a new deployment model. I mentioned at the beginning that part of Aruba’s impressive “new” stuff includes new market entry. That new market is access layer switching with a focus on mobility. The S3500 series is Aruba’s new “mobility access switch.” The specs are about as expected… 24 or 48 GigE ports, optional PoE+, 10 GigE uplinks, 802.1X port-based security, stateful firewall, classic L2 forwarding, and on. What’s novel is that the switches get their configuration and firmware from the controller, so no direct configuration is necessary. So, in a market that seems to be removing services from the controller, Aruba is finding new ways to utilize it. On the roadmap, some controller functionality will be integrated into the switch itself, but it’s too early to tell what this will actually look like. We often hear about the separate panes (or is it pains?) of management between network groups within an enterprise. Part of Aruba’s goal is to piggyback on their earlier network rightsizing campaign by shifting their focus from all wireless (though that is still central, I believe) to expand into all things at the access layer (indoor/outdoor wireless, edge switching, VPN). By broadening their scope in this way, they seek to provide a “truly unified” (ouch, competitive jab) approach to user, device, location, and application aware policies. By running the Aruba OS on Aruba edge switches, aggregating context information in AirWave is much easier both for configuration and monitoring of policies. It also provides a single management console for network-wide user insight from all access methods. That’s a great thing! Perhaps I’m just thick-skulled, but I’d never really thought of each user, device, application, and location pair as a context. But, in its simplest form, that is what it means. Holistic context awareness, then, provides central insight into each aspect of these contexts, which are powerful variables that allow you to differentiate network services with better control and more flexibility. For me, the basic example that best illustrates the value of context awareness is the issue of consumer devices in the enterprise. Is an iPhone or an iPad a business device or a personal device? Is it a data, voice, or video device? To what VLAN should it be segmented? Should the same iDevice network services be available from home and HQ? What QoS policy should they get? What about NAC? Now answer the same questions for corporate laptops, corporate VoIP phones (wired and wireless), and all the heterogeneous device types found on guest networks. Hopefully, these questions should demonstrate that the new burden of consumer mobile devices in the enterprise do not always fit the mold of current design practices or network policies. Today, we often segment the LAN by applications, user groups, or devices. So, we broadcast multiple SSIDs, which are each tied to a specific set of rules, policies, and services. However, with context awareness and smart fingerprinting of devices and apps, we can take a more simplified, flexible, and secure approach by intelligently differentiating services based on the context. We can apply any specific policies (application permission, segmentation, firewalling, QoS, NAC, etc.) according to the device or user or application or location dynamically, instead of relying on static mappings. And, we can implement these once-defined policies across both the wireless and wired access layer. Pretty cool. Aruba’s Context Aware Technology video should help simplify my verbal explanation with a visual flare. In addition to the previously mentioned architecture and product updates, Aruba has expanded their software solutions to include client-side VPNs for Windows/Macs, automated device recognition and profile provisioning for iDevices (called Mobile Device Admission Control—MDAC), guest provisioning enhancements (remember the Amigopod acquisition) that simplify corporate and guest user account deployment, and enhancements to AirWave to facilitate the Aruba MOVE architecture.I’m impressed…x8. For more information, check out their resources at the link below. Their videos are quite helpful at explaining the technologies, but they don’t insult your intelligence. Thanks to Aruba for that! The current Aruba MOVE landing page is a good place to start: http://www.arubanetworks.com/the-lan-is-dead/I also want to thank Aruba for providing access to the 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant: http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/Gartner-WLAN-MQ-2011.pdf Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/attacks-on-wifi-reflections-on-recently-revealed-vulnerabilities/ Title: Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/attacks-on-wifi-reflections-on-recently-revealed-vulnerabilities/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities H2: Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities H3: 0 Responses to Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities H2: Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities H3: 0 Responses to Attacks on WiFi: Reflections on Recently Revealed Vulnerabilities H3: Leave a Reply In the last couple of weeks, we've witnessed a flurry of activities in the wireless security space. Security researchers have revealed a couple of new attacks on WiFi infrastructure – Skyjacking and an improved attack on WPA-TKIP. This post provides a high level overview of both of these attacks. Attack #1: Skyjacking exploits the weak “Over The Air Provisioning” (OTAP) feature of Lightweight Access Points (LAP) in a Cisco WLAN. OTAP is one of the techniques used by LAPs to discover Wireless LAN Controllers (WLC) in a network. A LAP can advertise the associated WLC controller via the wireless medium. Other LAPs can utilize information in these un-encrypted over-the-air frames to discover the available WLCs in the network. This “zero configuration” feature provides an avenue for the following attack. An attacker can inject fake OTAP packets to trick a LAP into connecting to a rogue controller (e.g., on the Internet). Note that just by having a LAP connect to the rogue controller, an attacker may not be able to retrieve any confidential information via the LAP. This is due to the fact that the rogue controller will not be able to authenticate the enterprise wireless users. However, as acknowledged by Cisco, this definitely results in a DoS attack on an enterprise. Attack #2: WPA TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) was originally developed to improve some of the well known weaknesses of WEP encryption. Two of the main improvements are related to robustness against replay attacks and message tampering. Replay protection is achieved using TKIP Sequence Counter (TSC) field in transmitted packets. Packets that have TSC values less than or equal to the TSC of the previous packet are to be dropped by a receiver. Further, protection against message tampering is achieved using a Message Integrity Code (MIC) that is based on the Michael algorithm. On receiving a packet, a receiver compares the MIC embedded in the packet with the value that it calculates. A packet is accepted only if both the calculated and expected values match, otherwise, it is dropped. With these improvements, everyone was happy that WPA had put the problems of WEP into bed. However, in November 2008, researchers (Beck-Tews attack) revealed a clever way to practically defeat the replay protection defined in TKIP. Beck-Tews attack exploits the fact that WiFi devices implementing Quality of Service (QoS) have multiple streams, each with independent sets of TSCs. By replaying packets of one QoS stream on another QoS stream with a lower TSC value, packets can be successfully replayed to the receiver. Using this idea, they were able to successfully launch the “Chopchop” attack on a TKIP WLAN. Chopchop attack is based on a well-known limitation in the checksum mechanism (CRC32) used in TKIP. The checksum mechanism uses a field called Integrity Check Value (ICV) (Note: This is different from MIC, both MIC and ICV are present in an encrypted form in a received TKIP packet). However, one can easily modify any bit in a TKIP packet and “guess” the corresponding bit to be flipped in the ICV field to retain the integrity of the packet. Chopchop works by truncating a packet of M bytes by 1 byte. It then guesses the value of the truncated byte and correspondingly, calculates the new ICV value. It replays the truncated packet along with the ICV. If the packet is “accepted” at the receiver (which can be deduced by the fact a client sends a “MIC failure” packet over the air), then the byte was guessed correctly. If not, it repeats this process with a next guessed value. On an average, it needs 128 attempts to guess the correct value of a byte.  Beck-Tews employed this approach to successfully decrypt small packets such as ARPs in a TKIP WLAN. The attack took about 12 minutes for decrypting ARP packets. Further, they used the information learned from the ARP decryption to inject fake packets in a TKIP-protected WLAN (e.g., ARP packets to launch ARP poisoning attacks). Very recently, Japanese researchers (Ohigashi-Morii) have revealed an improved version of the above attack. The improved version extends the original attack in two ways – it can work with non-QoS implementations and requires much less time to inject fake ARP packets. It works by combining Man-in-the-Middle attack (MITM) with Beck-Tews attack. The attack model assumes a client-AP pair that is not within RF range of each other. A wireless relay is used to launch a MITM attack between such a client and an AP. The key idea is that the device performing MITM attack can “block” selected packets such as ARPs from a sender (e.g., an AP) in reaching a receiver (client). MITM device will instead transmit a modified packet (Chopchop packets) to the receiver (client). This is one simple way to beat the replay protection at the receiver (client) even if it does not implement multiple QoS streams. Please note that this does not mean that WPA is completely broken, though – keys are not being retrieved in this kind of attack! With WiFi assuming mainstream status, the focus on trying to break WiFi will continue. In light of this, assuming that the WiFi protocol suite or the available WLAN implementations will be self-defending is utopia!  Hence, there is a need for a complementary security layer to provide additional monitoring and security capabilities to an enterprise network. Since the wired security world has already successfully adopted the approach of multi-layered security, isn’t the WLAN world better off doing the same?  Please tune-in with your views. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/bandsteering/ Title: 802.11v BSS Transition - Band Steering Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/bandsteering/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Band Steering Complemented with 802.11v | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: Band Steering Complemented with 802.11v | CWNP - Guest Blog ## Main Content: H1: Band Steering Complemented with 802.11v | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: Band Steering Complemented with 802.11v | CWNP - Guest Blog Band steering typically works as follows. When a new device connects to the network, the Access Point (AP) will determine if it is a dual-band device (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz). If so, the AP will push the device to connect to the 5 GHz band by blocking any attempt of the device to connect to the 2.4 GHz band. It depends on the implementation of each vendor, but basically either the Authentication or Association messages received by the 2.4 GHz radio from the client device are ignored. That's the basic implementation of band steering. But what happens once the device is connected to the radio in the 05 GHz band and that device is moved around the coverage area resulting in a decreased signal strength? Each vendor decides on an algorithm to suggest the end device change to a different radio band: An algorithm like this is defined for this purpose: It is important to remark that the algorithm performs a suggestion to the client to change to a different radio band. Each vendor will implement this in a different way. Here is an example using 802.11v (BSS Transition request). Important: The support of 802.11v capability is exchanged between client and AP during probe request/response, association request/response, re-association request/response management frames: 2. The client can answer to this transition request with a positive response. In this case the status code 0 means that this transition was accepted: Each client Wi-Fi chipset may implement their proprietary algorithms for band change that are unwilling to accept the recommendations made by AP, other devices will always accept the recommendations made (802.11v). Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/beaconinterval/ Title: What is a Beacon Interval? | CWNP - Wi-Fi Meta Description: In computer networking and wireless technologies, the beacon transmits management-type frames that show the presence of the base station (Access Point, or AP), which broadcasts not only the SSIDs but also some other important information as well. Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/beaconinterval/ ## Headings Structure: H1: What is a Beacon Interval? | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: What is a Beacon Interval? | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: Conclusion H2: Tools Used for the Lab ## Main Content: H1: What is a Beacon Interval? | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: What is a Beacon Interval? | CWNP - Guest Blog H2: Conclusion H2: Tools Used for the Lab Wikipedia defines a beacon as "an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is a lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port." In computer networking and specifically wireless technologies, the beacon is used for transmitting frames (management type) that show the presence of the base station (Access Point, or AP), which broadcasts not only the SSIDs but also some other important information as well. There are three distinct types of frames transmitted when we use Wi-Fi. In each of the three types, there exist subtypes (for example, the Beacon is a subtype of the Management type). Those frame types are: The management frames are used to manage the wireless network, which we call the BSS (Basic Service Set). These frames allow for associating, authenticating, etc. of clients who connect to the same BSS. To better understand the frame in wireless protocols, imagine there is a big container, and this container is a collection of some small containers which do not serve any purpose up until they come together and form one big container. Now, think of the same container as a frame. The frames are divided into small parts that, by themselves, do not have any meaningful purpose until they come and work together. Let me show you in a simple diagram what I mean. For this blog, I'll try to make it as simple as possible. Figure 1 - 802.11 Frame Format As you can see, the frame is divided into several parts, which are then divided into further parts. For example, the Frame Control part (field) is broken into several sub-parts (subfields). I'll focus on the first three subfields for this article. Each one of the aforementioned has different subtypes, for example, management frames have the following Subtypes: You may be wondering why I used this type of numbering to show the frame subtypes. The reason is that these subtypes are based on 4 bits (binary values) which start from 0, which is the Association Request frame, and the last subtype in the management type is number 15. which in total gives us 16 subtypes. This type of numbering has another benefit, which is to help us filter these subtypes in protocol analyzers such as Wireshark. In this blog, we focus mainly on the Beacon subtype, which is 1000 in binary or number 8. The beacon frame is generated by the AP for the BSS to provide information about its network capabilities and timestamps. It is transmitted periodically, in specific every 102.4 milliseconds or 1024 microseconds. In the documentation, they call this interval the Target Beacon Transmission Time (TBTT). It is the time at which a node (AP in a BSS, Station when in ad hoc mode (IBSS)) must attempt to send the beacon to the stations which are listening for it. Let me show you a beacon frame by using the following filter in Wireshark to show the beacon frames based on an SSID. You can use the same and replace "XYZ" with your SSID: "wlan.ssid==xyz&&wlan.fc.type_subtype==8" Figure 2 - Wireshark Beacon Frame Delta time is 0.1024 Figure 3 - Wireshark Beacon Frame Delta time You may be wondering why the number 102.4 is not the exact number as shown in the frame capture in the delta time column. It's because the AP was not allowed to transmit the beacon at that particular moment. It is because, in Wi-Fi, we are dealing with "Shared Medium." The medium belongs to every wireless-capable device to transmit data across the air. Therefore, there must be a system in place to avoid collisions among those frames over the air so everyone can talk as required without interference. For this purpose, the researchers implemented the idea of using Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance, in short, CSMA/CA, approaches to control the shared medium. That transmitter is going to make sure that there is no significant energy in the air by sensing it before it can transmit data. As you can see in Figure 3, the delta time between frames No.1492 and 1537 is more than 200 milliseconds. So there must be something in between using the medium which did not give any chance for the beacon frame to be broadcast. Let's deep dive and see what was happening in between. I am going to remove the filter and try to see what was transmitted during that time in between. Figure 4 - Frames between 1492 and 1537 As you can see, there are multiple management and data frames in between and before our designated AP found an opportunity to transmit its Beacon frame. That is why you see different timing in Beacon intervals during the capture as some more than that value of 102.4 ms, which is directly related to the channel utilization and contention. The more data is on the air, the less likely the transmitter can broadcast the Beacon frame. In the following screenshot, you can see some Beacon frames are out of the ordinary, which is normal (Not-Preferred) in an environment with multiple SSIDs broadcasted over a single AP, which creates management overhead. Figure 5 - Delta Time Column showing beacon interval of more than 1024 microseconds As previously mentioned, the beacons are not just providing information related to their network. they are also helping all the stations in the network to change their local clocks and synchronize. Beacons are very important frames to manage the wireless network. However, there are some design criteria that a designer must follow to have an effective network with reliable performance. The first and foremost is to reduce management overhead. The simple solution to reduce management overhead is to reduce the number of SSIDs per AP. In my lab, I created three different SSIDs on the same AP. The less SSID each AP has, the less management overhead it produces and, consequently the less channel utilization and more chance for other wireless-capable devices to transmit and receive data across the medium. *-BSSID: Basic Service Set is the term used to describe a collection of Wireless-Capable devices connecting to the AP to be able to communicate together and transmit data. **-IBSS: Independent Basic Service Set, Is the simplest IEEE 802.11 simplest type of network which does not need any infrastructure to be able to connect and transmit data. The other term used for this type of network is Ad-Hoc. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/beam-me-up/ Title: Beam Me Up Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/beam-me-up/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Beam Me Up H2: Beam Me Up H3: 0 Responses to Beam Me Up H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Beam Me Up H2: Beam Me Up H3: 0 Responses to Beam Me Up H3: Leave a Reply On September 11, there was a flurry of excitement about the final ratification of the 802.11n amendment.  We were all glad that the seven years' war was over.  It seemed like the industry was excited to see this completion, but the crickets chirped after the first day or two of headlines.  Within the first few weeks, there have been some important developments, and the next few months should be exciting as well.  Here are a few pseudo-random thoughts on how Wi-Fi will change in the aftermath of the 802.11n-Draft era. COST:  The first major change already happened a few weeks ago when Aruba announced the beginning of 802.11n as a commodity and the terminus for new 802.11a/g deployments.  Other vendors will follow suit, but I’d like to congratulate Aruba for making the first big price splash; this should draw fire from vendors with marketing campaigns that revolve around CAPEX, OPEX, ROI, TCO, and any other price-related abbreviation or acronym.  The use of 2x2 APs at significantly lower cost should also make 802.11n upgrades easier for SMBs and tight-budgeted enterprises.  With thoughtful and aggressive marketing about “right-sizing,” analysts predicting the decline of Ethernet as the primary access technology, and the demand for mobility ever rising, Wi-Fi is gaining tremendous momentum against competing network access technologies like Ethernet.  As vendors implement elegant and eye-catching solutions to common problems, more and more businesses will turn to Wi-Fi.  Economics 101—and Wal-Mart—tells us that when sales volumes increase, prices and margins usually decrease.  I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll be making minimum wage in a few years. TECHNOLOGY:  Exponential technological progress is an amazing thing.  At this point it doesn’t need stating, but 802.11n is a whole new technical tier for Wi-Fi.  Until now, vendors have been cautiously moving forward with implementations of these new technologies.  This gives us time to catch up a little by reading about the technology; however, full-bloom 802.11n is just around the corner so read fast.  Last week, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the creation of new optional 802.11n certifications that will help distinguish between dual (2) or multiple (3) spatial stream devices.  These optional certifications require STBC and A-MPDU support.  I expect that this will motivate many vendors to include support for STBC.  A-MPDU is already close to ubiquitous.  The Wi-Fi Alliance also indicated a new amount of autonomy from the IEEE.  Everyone knows that the IEEE is a little slow, so the WFA is developing a new peer-to-peer specification of its own, which is likely targeted at home users for file and media sharing as well as printing. Ruckus Wireless has a clever group of engineers and marketing pros that have already realized that beamforming has an intoxicating wow factor.  With Xirrus’ static beamforming and Cisco’s proprietary ClientLink, standards-based beamforming technology remains untapped.  When other technologies like spatial multiplexing and frame aggregation have more demonstrable gains in throughput, beamforming gains seem tough to quantify.  And, since standards-based beamforming requires client participation, it is no wonder that early supporters are using proprietary AP-based solutions that work with legacy clients and don’t require client support or awareness.  After all, clients are dumb.  Despite the logic behind proprietary beamforming to-date, I’m eager to see more TxBF in action, especially a Wi-Fi Alliance certification.  I suspect that proprietary solutions will have a nice long tenure as king, but I look forward to seeing the first standards-based implementation.  Either way, beamforming is just cool.  Please beam me up, someone. EDUCATION:  The CWNP blog is really here for us to share our opinions, to teach, and to make a fuss about industry happenings.  However, we’d be amiss if we never made a shameless plug for our training arm by pointing out the fact that 802.11n presents a massive need for training.  There are countless new features, technologies, and implementation and design considerations that arise with 802.11n.  Just think, 802.11n introduces RF, PHY, and MAC enhancements.  If acronyms weren’t already bad, they have gotten considerably worse with 802.11n.  There is plenty to take in… MIMO, HT-OFDM, SM, TxBF, STBC, 40 MHz channels, SMPS, PSMP, MRC, SGI, CDC, A-MPDU, A-MSDU, RIFS, BlockAcks, dual-CTS, MCS, HT-SIG, PCO, and more.  Imagine trying to make an educated decision without knowing what this stuff is.  Or worse, imagine trying to deploy and optimally configure your network without a firm understanding of these concepts.  In addition to these new technologies, 802.11n troubleshooting is much more complex, design is considerably different than 802.11a/g, new features like airtime fairness are more important, and there are hoards of new considerations for backhaul, power, cabling, and the list goes on. The mission-criticality of and budgeting for wireless has never been so great, which means that administrators and decision makers need to understand the technology to make informed purchase decisions and then optimize the deployment.  A little education can go a long way.  With pervasive home Wi-Fi, users’ expectations for wireless performance are very high.  Marketing messages that tout the benefits and capabilities of wireless also raise the bar.  For this reason, the importance of training for wireless professionals simply can’t be overstated.  I’m just sayin… COMPETITION:  With the flood of new 802.11n technologies, vendors have some important decisions regarding feature inclusion—and exclusion—in product roadmaps.  The quality and efficiency of engineering teams at different vendors will become more transparent as some products excel and others stagnate.  The ratification of 802.11n is akin to the discharge of a pistol blank at the beginning of a foot race, or the beginning of a heated presidential election; incumbent leaders defend their positions while emergent leaders—and messages—vie for distinction.  I wouldn’t anticipate drastic changes soon, but let’s not be surprised if the market share landscape is shaded with different vendor hues over the next two years.  As Honda says in their ad, “Mr. Opportunity is here, and he’s knockin.” Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/beamforming-do-over/ Title: Beamforming Do-Over Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/beamforming-do-over/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Beamforming Do-Over H2: Beamforming Do-Over H3: 0 Responses to Beamforming Do-Over H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Beamforming Do-Over H2: Beamforming Do-Over H3: 0 Responses to Beamforming Do-Over H3: Leave a Reply Cisco has officially entered the Transmit Beamforming (TxBF) game.  Let's take a look at their thankfully-updated (inside joke for those of you who missed the first version) whitepaper.http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps10092/white_paper_c11-516389.htmlCisco's TxBF implementation, called ClientLink, is the closest that I've seen in the market thus far to standards-based TxBF, though it's not really all that close to the 802.11n draft implementation.  ClientLink doesn't use explicit or implicit feedback mechanisms (because those are 802.11n draft features), but instead uses the 802.11a/g client's uplink traffic as the feedback mechanism - even though their whitepaper explicitly states, "without requiring feedback."  Using uplink traffic as the feedback mechanism has the obvious problem of sub-optimal beamforming if there isn't a continuous stream of traffic between the AP and client, but there isn't any other way of doing it really.  One thing to point out here is that the smaller the beamformed area, the more continuous uplink feedback is needed. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/become-certified-wireless-network-professional Title: Become Certified Meta Description: Want to become a certified wireless network professional? Get ready for our IT certification exams, including self-study, eLearning, practice tests, and live training.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/become-certified-wireless-network-professional ## Headings Structure: H1: Become Certified Wireless Network Professional H1: Become A Certified Wireless Network Professional ## Main Content: H1: Become Certified Wireless Network Professional H1: Become A Certified Wireless Network Professional Congratulations, you've made the decision to take a CWNP certification and are ready to ignite your career in IT, and specifically, Enterprise Wi-Fi. There are a number of ways to get ready for our IT certification exams, including self-study, eLearning, practice tests, and live training through a CWNP Authorized Learning Center. We encourage you to take advantage of the many learning tools available to you. Click here to visit the CWNP-Prometric Page: Certified Wireless NEtwork Professionals | Prometric I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/become-certified-wireless-network-professional/ Title: Become Certified Meta Description: Want to become a certified wireless network professional? Get ready for our IT certification exams, including self-study, eLearning, practice tests, and live training.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/become-certified-wireless-network-professional/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Become Certified Wireless Network Professional H1: Become A Certified Wireless Network Professional ## Main Content: H1: Become Certified Wireless Network Professional H1: Become A Certified Wireless Network Professional Congratulations, you've made the decision to take a CWNP certification and are ready to ignite your career in IT, and specifically, Enterprise Wi-Fi. There are a number of ways to get ready for our IT certification exams, including self-study, eLearning, practice tests, and live training through a CWNP Authorized Learning Center. We encourage you to take advantage of the many learning tools available to you. Click here to visit the CWNP-Prometric Page: Certified Wireless NEtwork Professionals | Prometric I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/becoming-an-agent-of-change-an-introduction/ Title: Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/becoming-an-agent-of-change-an-introduction/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction H2: Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction H3: 0 Responses to Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction H2: Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction H3: 0 Responses to Becoming an Agent of Change - An Introduction H3: Leave a Reply My name is Mark Elliott I am a former US Coast Guard Officer and a 15 year IT professional manager having served on both sides of the Purchase Order as both an IT Director and as a Post and Pre Sales Engineering Manager. My good friend Kevin Sandlin of CWNP has invited me to start this blog to highlight my faith based humanitarian service and how I use IT technology to change the plight of the poorest and sickest people of this world. In our IT world we view emerging technology as being major agents of change in our profession and our clients’ businesses. I would argue that technology is merely a tool that people in our career field use to bring about paradigm changes in the way corporations perform their critical tasks or deliver their goods.  We the IT professionals, R&D Engineers, Sales Engineers and yes even the sales force themselves are the true agents of change.  We create the technology and then package it and market it to our clients who then use it in their own business models to change the world we live in. Think about the last 20 years we have gone from 9.6 KB dial up connections, to serial connections, to TCP, to 1Mb Ethernet, to Token Ring, to10Mb Ethernet, to 100 Mb Ethernet, to Multi-Trunking, to the Internet and to the 802.11 wireless protocols that now power most businesses, coffee shops and even our homes.  As we have evangelized these new technologies we have not only facilitated in their acceptance but we have also had our own quality life improved through these technologies.  Who could imagine our lives without ATMs, cell phones, PCs, digital cameras and wireless connectivity? On 9/11 I sat in on an Inktomi sales training meeting on the 32nd floor of the Gracie Building in NY.  Our team watched the initial attacks and the aftermath of that cowardly act.  While I support our military’s efforts on the war in terror, I also recognized that we needed to show the poor of this world the compassionate nature of our country.  My family worked the next 3 years to pay off our bills and in March 2004 we left our $250,000 combined salaries and became non-paid volunteers at Mercy Ships, a Christian hospital ship organization that every year provides 25,000 free medical and dental procedures to the poorest people in these war torn countries.  We also perform capacity building programs for the Ministries of Health, training their administrative staff and building medical infrastructure. I have had the opportunity to work on IT and Telemedicine solutions for our ship and these devastated countries as they strive to rebuild their nations and their ability to care of their poorest citizens.  It has truly been the best job in my life, knowing everyday that I am using technology to save and change people’s lives.  This role has great risks for failure because we must not only deal with questionable national governance but also a culture where little is expected from the government systems. In the last 6 years I have had the privilege to serve in the Dominican Republic, Benin, Liberia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Congo, Guinea, Togo, and earthquake ravaged Haiti.  It is my hope that this blog will encourage you to be an agent of change in this world.  Whether it is in your own neighborhood or somewhere on the other side of the world use this technology and skills to make a difference in other people's lives. This cross marks the mass graves holding 120,000 bodies. Haiti the poorest nation in this hemisphere prior to the earth quake lost 85% of it medical infrastructure and staff in the 30 seconds. It also lost its banks, telecoms, and its facilities needed to govern its population.  As this nations rebuilds they can use our technologies to leapfrog past wired based legacy technology and embrace cheaper and more dynamic solutions to meet these people's dire needs.   Are you up for this challenge? Be blessed as you bless others, Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/benefits-of-newer-wlan-products-other-than-speed/ Title: Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/benefits-of-newer-wlan-products-other-than-speed/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) H2: Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) H3: 0 Responses to Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) H2: Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) H3: 0 Responses to Benefits of Newer WLAN Products (Other than Speed) H3: Leave a Reply Because wireless networking speeds are usually lame when compared with wired networking speeds, we often celebrate and focus primarily on speed enhancements when new Wi-Fi products and standards hit the market. 802.11g is 5x faster than 802.11b. The 802.11n spec offers more than 10x the data rate of 802.11a/g. But, if we’re too narrow, we miss a number of other important features that come with hardware upgrades. Vendors and industry leaders often focus on speed gains in marketing and industry articles, citing potential throughput or capacity as the primary criterion by which to justify (or downplay the need for) an equipment upgrade. So we end up asking questions like this: “Do three spatial streams (450 Mbps) provide enough added capacity over two spatial streams (300 Mbps) to justify a refresh?” That question is OK, and in some situations, may be quite relevant if you’re really utilizing the full capacity of a two stream link (very very few are doing so). However, speed is such a small piece of the “should we upgrade?” question.An AnalogyIf you were shopping for a new car for your family, you would laugh yourself silly if the salesman continued to sell you only on top speed. Of course, even if we want a faster car, there are practical restrictions that prevent us from utilizing the car’s top speed. For example, basic driver safety and speed limits (i.e. WAN bottlenecks, rate limits, slow client feature integration, backward compatibility with legacy devices, etc.) keep us at modest speeds. Newer cars provide other improvements, and are usually more efficient with lower emissions, more reliable, more comfortable, and have better safety features while including other new convenience technologies that get us excited. Yesterday’s premium features are tomorrow’s standard fare; it’s the same in auto, networking, and wireless. Further, most 802.11n WLANs today are under-utilized, so speed is not what you're missing. Features that enable bursts of high-speed traffic, like load balancing, band steering, and airtime control, are also important. Businesses want smarter WLANs that solve business problems; they want capabilities like application awareness and control, reliable mobility, spectrum analysis, mobile device provisioning, simplified deployment and network management, and system reliability with redundancy and seamless failover.Better Feature SupportAny wireless product has a limited shelf life, and for chipset manufacturers, software development for new features and fixes for old features eventually stops on existing products. The focus is shifted to next generation products because there are new capabilities; why fix something old if you can sell something new instead. :) For example, look at Atheros’ last generation of 3x3:2 chips, which had spectrum analysis support, but it wasn’t very good, and it wasn’t getting any better because they stopped development on that chip even though there was a large installed base. With hardware, one key feature enhancement with new products is better spectrum analysis support. Previous generations of Wi-Fi chips didn’t have the logic to analyze the RF spectrum, but newer chips have sophisticated spectrum-aware logic. To get this intelligence, you need to make hardware changes. Granted, some earlier chips could do limited spectrum analysis, but next generation chips are immeasurably better. And as electronics improve, wireless devices get better processors, allowing more sophisticated features like integrated spectrum analysis with auto classification of interference sources.RF PerformanceAs the WLAN market becomes more competitive and continues to grow, infrastructure vendors are seeing the benefits of custom radio hardware that enhances the AP’s RF performance. For example, more vendors are utilizing discrete radio components like power amplifiers and low noise amplifiers, which improve communication reliability. Improving RF performance is particularly important with the surge in less capable clients in the mobile revolution. Chipset manufacturers are also including support for new parts of the 802.11 protocols that have not been implemented in previous products, such as transmit beamforming (TxBF), LDPC coding, STBC, and others. Again, these features don’t always motivate customers to sign on the dotted line, but the cumulative gains of these sidebar changes can add up to a noteworthy performance boost, which may make the difference between acceptable performance and unacceptable performance for some applications or devices. WLANs are simply becoming more capable, and when business applications are on the line, speed is not the only enhancement to care about.EfficiencyInterestingly, though most APs are becoming more powerful and more capable; better electronics (processors, memory, radios, etc.)  are also making them more efficient, requiring less power to operate. So, when yesterday’s 802.11n 2x3:2 AP required high-power 802.3at, today’s premium 802.11n 3x3:3 AP only requires 802.3af. More features, more processing, more memory, less operational power. This is especially important if power sourcing infrastructure (Ethernet switches or midspan injectors) has been a point of hesitation for an upgrade.Final Comments and Suggestions (FCS)Should you upgrade to today’s premium APs? With any technology question, the answer is “it depends.” It depends on many factors beyond speed.We focus on speed and throughput because it’s easy. It’s easy to quantify incremental changes within the technology, and it’s easy to compare with other access technologies like Ethernet. But, when wireless has many other important features and performance metrics, focusing only on speed is myopic. One blogger, who happens to be a good friend, raises other points that further question our focus on speed. In light of that, let’s continue to celebrate added capacity with speed gains, but let’s not neglect the many other enhancements that improve how we use the WLAN to run our businesses. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/best-practices-to-achieve-pci-compliance-for-wireless-networks/ Title: Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/best-practices-to-achieve-pci-compliance-for-wireless-networks/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks H2: Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks H3: 0 Responses to Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks H2: Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks H3: 0 Responses to Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks H3: Leave a Reply Wi-Fi security is a big deal. The widespread adoption of Wi-Fi over the last decade combined with early security protocol design flaws, multiple high-profile security breaches, and the recent explosion of mobile commerce initiatives have placed Wi-Fi security at the forefront of industry regulations and corporate IT security budgets. Early Adopters and Lessons LearnedHigh profile security breaches, notably affecting TJ Maxx and Heartland Payment Systems, have brought with them increased scrutiny around proper wireless network security implementation. Many organizations in the retail and banking industries were early adopters of corporate Wi-Fi networking, identifying opportunities for business process and workflow improvement driving operational efficiencies that could dramatically improve their finances and increase profitability. However, the flip side of early adoption is that the adopters usually find that first or second generation technology is quickly outdated. The sunk cost in already deployed hardware or software usually makes spending additional funds for upgrades, or worst case forklift replacements, an unattractive proposition. In the case of Wi-Fi networking, not only did early adopters in the retail and banking industries face quickly outdated technology, they faced serious security risks that were not apparent at the outset. The security flaws inherent in the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol used in first generation Wi-Fi products lead to serious risk of information disclosure and data leakage. In order to combat these risks, organizations that were early adopters of Wi-Fi systems are often forced to upgrade legacy hardware and systems, which means a potentially very large financial expense. For example, many retail organizations rely on mobile devices to provide barcode scanning and inventory management that run on hardware platforms with minimal processing and capacity capabilities. These platforms often only support WEP for basic security and require replacement in order to provide more robust security offered with WPA or WPA2. The Cost of a BreachImplementation of more robust wireless security practices has often taken a backseat to financial performance of the company. Spending additional money to enhance security when the currently deployed equipment and technology meet operational requirements can be a difficult effort. Crafting a proposal for Wi-Fi security upgrades requires sound business justification using either quantitative or qualitative risk analysis, or a combination of both methods. This may include a financial comparison between required security upgrades (the cost of compliance) versus the costs of non-compliance which includes estimated security breach costs, regulatory fines in the event of security breach, non-compliance fees from Acquiring Banks assessed on a regular basis (typically monthly), higher costs or potential loss of permission to process credit card transactions, stricter compliance requirements and higher remediation expense in the future, and damage to brand reputation. Those are some serious financial repercussions for not meeting PCI compliance requirements! With the average cost of a data breach in U.S. around $3.4 million, organizations are increasingly weighing the likelihood of a security incident and including budgetary funds for remediation efforts. There are benefits for the merchant in the PCI DSS audit compliance process as well. Those may include an overall reduced risk of fraud, better understanding of their own environment, and “safe harbor” provisions in the event of a data breach if the merchant is PCI compliant. Retailers Focus on PCIThe focus of most security remediation efforts in retail environments initially lands on meeting the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The PCI DSS standard is an industry regulation requiring organizations that handle cardholder data to meet a minimum set of security standards to minimize the risk of cardholder data theft or loss. Faced with stiff penalties and fines for not meeting PCI guidelines, retail organizations have focused initial remediation efforts on PCI audit compliance. Additional focus is placed on PCI as a first-step remediation effort since the PCI standard is very detailed and specific in nature, providing retailers with a very clear and understandable set of requirements which they must meet. The good news is that retailers have begun making traction in wireless network security because of this industry mandate and the large-scale data breaches experienced by TJ Maxx and Heartland. The downside is that many smaller retailers often lack the technical expertise or resources required to implement wireless security. The recent release of PCI DSS version 2.0 provides a good opportunity to review these “minimum” industry guidelines for wireless networks and provide advice for retail organizations to achieve a successful audit. The Proper Approach to a PCI AuditKnowing the proper approach to completing a PCI audit will go a long way to making the process as efficient as possible, eliminate redundant work, and minimize remediation efforts to manageable portions. Following these guidelines will make the process much simpler for your organization. 1. Limit Scope The golden rule of PCI audit compliance is to limit the scope of the audit. PCI is focused on protecting cardholder data. Therefore, networks and devices that are appropriately segmented from the cardholder data environment (CDE) will not be in scope for the audit. By ensuring that any network or device that does not interact with cardholder data is firewalled from the systems that store, transmit, or process cardholder data will limit the effort required to demonstrate PCI compliance. It is not enough to firewall systems from cardholder data stores, they must also be firewalled from systems that also transmit or process that data. However, limiting scope requires thoughtful network design and thorough documentation of cardholder data and application flows. This is not a trivial undertaking, but is the most efficient method to achieve PCI compliance in the long-run. If the scope is not limited, every single network, client device, and application flow in your environment is subject to PCI audit and requirements. This can exponentially grow the resources required to document, assess, and remediate non-compliant systems in your environment. 2. Evidence Documentation When preparing for a PCI audit, prepare evidence documentation for each applicable requirement section in advance using a standard format. Evidence gathered should include process and procedure documents, screenshots of applicable network device configuration (including timestamps), sample system alerts, and applicable pictures when describing physical components. Organize the documentation based on the PCI requirement sections to make finding and reviewing evidence as simple for the auditor as possible. Documentation for multiple requirements will likely overlap, in which case it may make sense to submit the same document(s) for several requirements. Create a list of the documents being submitted into evidence for each requirement or provide the auditor with some form of evidence matrix to ease the review process. All process documentation should be reviewed quarterly for accuracy, and include version control information within the document. Ultimately, easing the job of the auditor through standard document formatting and clear labeling will reduce confusion and prevent duplication of evidence gathering and discussion. 3. Security as a Continual Process As prescriptive as the PCI DSS standard is in detailing specific requirements, auditors often focus on an organization’s ability to integrate sound security practice into daily operations. The PCI audit is only a snapshot in time of an organization’s compliance, and alone it does guarantee the security of sensitive data. A short-term focus on achieving PCI compliance for the current audit will lead to manual evidence collection, process documentation, and narrowly focused remediation efforts. Instead, focus on secure system design, process establishment and improvement, and integration of remediation efforts into larger systems architecture planning. This will incorporate security practices into ongoing operational activities of the organization, reduce manual effort required to compile and maintain evidence, and put the organization in a better stance to proactively identify and remediate security risks on a continual basis. 4. Present Evidence, Don’t Ask for Guidance Once the time comes for the actual audit, proper communication of the evidence can reduce uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of current systems to secure cardholder data. Organizations should interpret PCI requirements and define how to approach and implement solutions to meet each requirement prior to the audit. The organization is in the best position to understand current systems architecture, analyze security risks, and remediate gaps. Have a well-defined approach that is documented and practiced within the organization. When presenting evidence, detail the solutions in place and be well versed in how they demonstrate compliance. Be confident in your solutions, and let the auditor identify opportunities for improvement. Don’t ask for guidance; it is not the auditor’s job to architect solutions for your organization, and without communicating a solid internal approach it will be clear to the auditor that significant gaps and vulnerabilities likely exist. 5. Establish a Consistent Relationship with the Auditor Maintain the same audit company, and audit individual(s) or teams year over year. This will reduce time and effort to familiarize the auditor with your environment. Ultimately this will reduce audit expense and ease the process so that your organization can focus on remediating gaps and assessing new systems and environments that change from year to year. PCI Requirements for Wireless NetworksWireless network administrators should initially focus their efforts on the following core requirements that are likely to require evidence for in-scope wireless segments by most auditors. The following list of requirements focus on Wi-Fi infrastructure compliance, and do not cover other related systems, such as servers, user database and directory policies, firewall policies, client device hardening, etc., that may or may not be covered by the same engineering group in your organization but wireless networks rely upon. Only a few changes were made between versions 1.2.1 and 2.0 that affect wireless networks. These tips are only guidelines to get your organization started in the right direction. Individual organizations and auditors may require more or less evidence to achieve compliance. 1.1.2. Current Network Diagrams Tip: Maintain high-level wireless network diagrams for each environment you support, depicting logical segmentation of wireless networks from the larger environment. 1.2.3. Firewall between Wireless Networks and the CDE Tip: This is a big focus point for PCI auditors, especially when assessing wireless networks, because proper firewall rules are a key component to preventing data breaches. 2.1. Change Vendor-Supplied Defaults Tip: Ensure all local admin, SNMP, console, and WLAN settings are changed from defaults in the approved internal configuration standards. 2.2. Configuration Standards Tip: Document approved internal wireless equipment configuration settings and establish processes for equipment staging, configuration audit, and remediation on a continual basis. Reference well-known secure configuration guides published by CIS, NIST, ISO, SANS, etc. 2.3. Encrypt all Non-console Administrative Access Tip: Ensure only secure protocols are used for administrative access, including SSHv2, HTTPS, and SNMP version 3. Do not use telnet for system administration. 4.1.1. Wireless Encryption and Authentication Tip: Wi-Fi networks are considered a public / open network by the PCI Council. Therefore, ensure all wireless networks use 802.11i equivalent authentication and encryption. This includes both WPA and WPA2. High preference for 802.1x based authentication. Pre-Shared Keys (PSK) may require demonstration of secure handling and rotation. WEP is no longer allowed, even for legacy installations. 6.1. Install Security Patches Tip: Install critical security patches within one month of announcement. This may require up-to-date maintenance and support contracts with vendors. 6.2. Identify New Security Vulnerabilities Tip: Document the methods through which your organization monitors security advisories, including RSS feeds, vendor support processes, mailing lists, etc. Internal process should include ranking of vulnerabilities based on risk using well-known methods including CVSS, etc. This will be a requirement rather than a recommendation beginning in 2012. 6.4. Establish and Follow Change Control Procedures Tip: Establish corporate processes to formally evaluate, test, approve, implement, and back-out changes to production environments. This ensures consistency of network configuration and formal approval by authorized parties for all system changes. 9.1.3. Restrict Physical Access to Wireless Access Points Tip: Document physical access point installation and security from tampering and theft. Deterrents such as ceiling height and monitoring can also be included to fulfill physical security requirements. 10.1. Establish a Process for Access Logging and Accountability 10.2. Implement Automated Audit Trails10.3.  Audit Trail Information Detail 10.4. Synchronize all Critical System Clocks 10.5. Secure Audit Trails 10.6. Review Logs at least Daily 10.7. Retain Audit Trail History for at least 1 Year Tip: For requirements 10.1 through 10.7, ensure wireless network equipment logs all management access, commands, and security alerts (typically through TACACS+ or RADIUS), logs are reviewed daily by a security team, logs cannot be tampered by implementing file integrity monitoring on log servers, processes are implemented to retain logs for over 1 year, and that network equipment uses automated time synchronization (such as NTP). 11.1. Perform a Wireless Analyzer Scan at least Quarterly Tip: Establish a process for wireless scanning in either an automated or manual fashion. The method used must be “adequate” to detect and identify un-authorized wireless access points (rogues). This requirement is open to broad interpretation, but to minimize recurring expense of manual scans, implement automated scanning typically found in most enterprise-grade wireless equipment. 11.2. Perform Internal and External Vulnerability Scans at least Quarterly Tip: Internal vulnerability scans should be performed and issues remediated immediately. Scans should be re-run until passing results are obtained with all “High” vulnerabilities resolved. 11.3. Perform Internal and External Penetration Testing at least Annually Tip: Exploitable vulnerabilities found must be remediated immediately. 11.4. Use IDS/IPS to Monitor Traffic in the CDE Tip: Implement IDS/IPS systems at the perimeter and at key points within the CDE to limit required traffic to be monitored and analyzed to a manageable quantity. If wireless networks transmit cardholder data directly (such as mobile point of sale systems), a wireless IDS/IPS solution is required. 12.1. Establish, Publish, Maintain and Disseminate a Security Policy 12.3. Develop Acceptable Use Policies 12.9. Implement an Incident Response PlanTip: Although 12.1, 12.3, and 12.9 are not direct requirements for wireless networks, ensure your organization has established policies that guide the security practices and govern the use of technology within your organization. These policies are the fundamental cornerstone of that serve as a reference map for engineers to guide system architecture decisions within your organization. An incident response plan should be documented for handling all security alerts identified for use within the organization and generated by the monitoring systems. ConclusionRemember, achieving PCI compliance does not mean your network is secure, but that it meets minimum industry regulation. Take a proactive approach to integrate security into all aspects of network, system, and application design. Make it a habit and integrate it into your organizational practices. Maintaining a “secure” network is not a one-and-done activity, it is a habitual practice that is continuously refined. Cheers,Andrew vonNagyAndrew vonNagy (CWNE #84) is a Senior Wireless Engineer and Team Lead for a Fortune 30 retail organization by day and an independent network analyst and author of the Revolution Wi-Fi blog at http://revolutionwifi.blogspot.com. Andrew can also be found on Twitter at @revolutionwifi. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in December 2011 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/beyond-wifi-cwsa/ Title: The new CWSA track opens up the world of wireless Meta Description: Tom Carpenter introduces the new Certified Wireless Solutions Administrator (CWSA) track Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/beyond-wifi-cwsa/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Beyond Wi-Fi: Meet the CWSA H2: Beyond Wi-Fi: Meet the CWSA ## Main Content: H1: Beyond Wi-Fi: Meet the CWSA H2: Beyond Wi-Fi: Meet the CWSA A new certification track that opens up the world of wireless! To find out more about the new CWSA certification, click here. And don't forget to register for Wi-Fi Trek 2019, where you can take the first CWSA classes this September! Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/biker-shorts-mms-and-bigdogs/ Title: Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/biker-shorts-mms-and-bigdogs/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs H2: Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs H3: 0 Responses to Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs H2: Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs H3: 0 Responses to Biker shorts, M&Ms, and BigDogs H3: Leave a Reply I spent the end of last week (6th-8th, that is) at Ruckus’ BigDogs partner and customer conference in Atlanta, and I have two words to describe it: fun and irreverent. In fact, I met David Callisch (VP, Marketing) at the reception on Wednesday night and that was the word he used to describe the event: irreverent. I’ll keep this blog short, but I do want to mention a few things about the conference and the company that hosted it. It’s only fair that I first tell you about Ruckus’ antics--though “antics” may be too mild. During what’s referred to as the “hangover slot,” (Friday morning) Callisch made good on a lost bet with the CEO by stripping down to his biker tights in front of everyone. If you’re at a loss for imagery, just imagine Scooby’s (yeah, Scooby Doo) friend Shaggy in, well, biker shorts. That scarring experience balanced out the overwhelming joy of peanut M&Ms in excess. They were served on the conference tables in Ruckus branded doggy dishes. I couldn’t keep my muzzle out of the peanut M&Ms, so I didn’t pay much attention to the oddities of the stage show. :D Actually, it was very funny, even during the hangover slot (though I will qualify that I was not hungover). Prior to the event, I’d heard much about Ruckus’ corporate culture, but only experienced it vicariously or indirectly via phone calls and the web. You’d never believe the openness and honesty of this company. They have a lot of confidence in their products, which is why they encouraged their customers and resellers to openly criticize any and everything about the company and its products for the sake of continual improvement. That’s what I appreciated most about the whole event. It wasn’t controlled and managed in such a way as to keep Ruckus in the hero spotlight. They weren’t shy about asking and answering tough and competitive questions. I had several conversations with their resellers, product managers, marketing team, engineers, and even their CTO, and as I asked them competitive questions, they embraced and acknowledged any of their weaknesses and stayed authentic and honest to the extreme. They admitted areas where they don’t excel and they admitted it right in front of their current and potential customers. If I’m being honest, I think those are virtues on a personal and a corporate level and they’re especially rare at the corporate level. This is like a core lesson in Humanities 101 and Business 101 at the same time. Customers are turned off by consistent spin doctoring and side stepping. If you always don the competitive hat and continually defend your solution, “one-upping” every technical point of argument, it begins to expose an insecurity that is telling. There’s a classic quote in Hamlet that says, “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.” How’s that relevant? In this light, vendors can argue so much that they lose credibility. They expose the fact that they’ve been drinking so much kool-aid that they can’t even think straight, and by exposing their mindless bias and defensiveness, they lose respect. I suspect that Ruckus could have played that card as well as any other vendor, but they didn’t. In so doing, I think they maintained and gained their customer’s respect by treating them like humans instead of treating them like brainless wallets. I like that. I should probably add that GT Hill and I co-presented a wicked session on WLAN security and mobility that caused attendees’ eyes to glaze over like a pair of doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. Knowing what we were stepping in, we had the forethought to title our presentation “Mystifying Wi-Fi Security.” :) Good times. I’ve known GT (CWNE #21) now for a few years, but this was the first time I’d seen him as a presenter in this context. I’m not sure that my words can do proper justice to his skills, but suffice it to say that he is the most entertaining and engaging technical presenter on the planet. His ability to get a group’s attention and keep it is absolutely uncanny. He’s humble too. GT for president!!! We (CWNP) attended as a partner/guest and worked with Ruckus by passing out CWNA books and CWNP Dictionaries to attendees too. A little education goes a long way. If only we could teach everyone to have fun, break the rules, and, as my friends Devin Akin and Mike Hoberg say, “keep it real.” Anyone that serves me peanut M&Ms by the dishful is alright too. My compliments to Ruckus for their behavior…during business hours. ;) Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/bluetooth-devices-and-afh-wlan-foundations/ Title: Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/bluetooth-devices-and-afh-wlan-foundations/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations H2: Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations H3: 0 Responses to Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations H3: Leave a Reply ## Main Content: H1: Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations H2: Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations H3: 0 Responses to Bluetooth Devices and AFH - WLAN Foundations H3: Leave a Reply In the WLAN Foundations series, I will be covering the foundational concepts that longtime WLAN engineers have placed in the deepest recesses of their minds and think little about these days. The WLAN Foundation series blog posts will be short and to the point. In this post, I explain Bluetooth AFH. When a Bluetooth device, using version 1.2 or higher of the Bluetooth standards, detects interference on a frequency being used in the hopping sequence, it removes that frequency from the hopping sequence. Since data is sent and received on the same frequency during a hop, the communicating devices can determine that the data transfer failed because of interference on that frequency (assuming the other frequencies in the hopping sequence have been working fine). In these situations, the Bluetooth devices do not know what caused the interference, which is acceptable since we only need them to stop using the frequency regardless of the interference source. Blog Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within these blog posts are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Certitrek, CWNP or its affiliates. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-it-training-products/ Title: Buy Products Meta Description: Welcome to your one-stop CWNP shop for IT training products. Buy event registration, practice tests, study guides and CWNP swag.
Language: en Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-it-training-products/ ## Headings Structure: H1: Buy IT Training Products H3: Welcome to your one-stop CWNP shop. H2: Hosted Courses ## Main Content: H1: Buy IT Training Products H3: Welcome to your one-stop CWNP shop. H2: Hosted Courses Buy IT Training Products Use the drop-down menu under "Buy Products" above to enter the store, or click on any of the Certification logos below. Event registration. Official CWNP practice tests and study guides. CWNP swag. Choose from the store categories to find what you need. If you're looking for something that is not listed on our website, click here to send us an email or call 866.438.2963 The following courses are hosted by CWNP in partnership with other organizations. We do not create or support the courses, but provide them as a service to the wireless professional community. I literally just came out of the testing centre having taken the CWDP exam. The certification process opened my mind to different techniques and solutions. This knowledge can only broaden your perspective. Great job, CWNP, you have a great thing going on here. Working through the CWNP coursework and certifications helped not only to deepen my technical knowledge and understanding, but also it boosted my confidence. The hard work it took to earn my CWNE has been rewarding in so many ways. I want to commend you and all at CWNP for having a great organization. You really 'raise the bar' on knowing Wi-Fi well. I have learned a ton of information that is helping my job experience and personal career goals, because of my CWAP/CWDP/CWSP studies. Kudos to all at CWNP. --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/c5s Title: C5S Store Meta Description: C5S Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/c5s ## Headings Structure: H1: Store H2: Certified 5G LAN Specialist (C5S) Course and Exam ## Main Content: H1: Store H2: Certified 5G LAN Specialist (C5S) Course and Exam --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwap Title: CWAP Store Meta Description: CWAP Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwap ## Headings Structure: H1: Store H2: CWAP-405 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 Self-Paced Training Kit: Digital Edition (DSG + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 eLearning H2: CWAP-405 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWAP-405 Study and Reference Guide: Digital Edition H2: CWAP-405 Exam Voucher H2: CWAP-405 Practice Test ## Main Content: H1: Store H2: CWAP-405 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 Self-Paced Training Kit: Digital Edition (DSG + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWAP-405 eLearning H2: CWAP-405 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWAP-405 Study and Reference Guide: Digital Edition H2: CWAP-405 Exam Voucher H2: CWAP-405 Practice Test --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwdp Title: CWDP Store Meta Description: CWDP Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwdp ## Headings Structure: H1: Store H2: CWDP-305 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWDP-305 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWDP-305 eLearning H2: CWDP-305 Practice Test H2: CWDP-305 Exam Voucher ## Main Content: H1: Store H2: CWDP-305 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWDP-305 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWDP-305 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWDP-305 eLearning H2: CWDP-305 Practice Test H2: CWDP-305 Exam Voucher --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwicp Title: CWICP Store Meta Description: CWICP Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwicp ## Headings Structure: H1: Store H2: CWICP-202 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWICP-202 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWICP-202 eLearning H2: CWICP-202 Practice Test H2: CWICP-202 Exam Voucher ## Main Content: H1: Store H2: CWICP-202 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWICP-202 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWICP-202 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWICP-202 eLearning H2: CWICP-202 Practice Test H2: CWICP-202 Exam Voucher --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwidp Title: CWIDP Store Meta Description: CWIDP Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwidp ## Headings Structure: H1: Store H2: CWIDP-402 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWIDP-402 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWIDP-402 eLearning H2: CWIDP-402 Practice Test H2: CWIDP-402 Exam Voucher ## Main Content: H1: Store H2: CWIDP-402 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWIDP-402 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWIDP-402 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWIDP-402 eLearning H2: CWIDP-402 Practice Test H2: CWIDP-402 Exam Voucher --- ### Page: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwiip Title: CWIIP Store Meta Description: CWIIP Store Language: en-US Canonical URL: https://www.cwnp.com/buy-products/cwiip ## Headings Structure: H1: Store H2: CWIIP-302 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWIIP-302 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWIIP-302 eLearning H2: CWIIP-302 Practice Test H2: CWIIP-302 Exam Voucher ## Main Content: H1: Store H2: CWIIP-302 All-In Bundle (SG + EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 eLearning Bundle (EL + PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 Self-Paced Training Kit (SG + PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 Test and Go Bundle (PT + EV) H2: CWIIP-302 Official Study and Reference Guide: PDF Version H2: CWIIP-302 Official Study and Reference Guide H2: CWIIP-302 eLearning H2: CWIIP-302 Practice Test H2: CWIIP-302 Exam Voucher ---