Wireless Field Day 3 - Cisco Mobility

Wireless Field Day 3 - Cisco Mobility

By CWNP On 09/14/2012 - 19 Comments

Cisco addressed the topics of Hotspot 2.0 (HS 2.0), 802.11ac, Bonjour and AVC in their presentation at Wireless Field Day 3 (WFD3). Everyone knows what Cisco does, so I'll address some of their comments without more introductory remarks.

 
When it comes to HS 2.0, Cisco began the presentation discussion the "Collision of Two Worlds," with the two worlds being cellular and Wi-Fi. Today, "people don't care how they get their Internet, but they want to get it easier." The suggestion of Cisco is that the next generation hotspot should be detect, connect and engage. Now, that's simple, but how is it accomplished?
 

• Detect = 802.111u
• Connect (securely) = 802.1X
• Engage = GPS and other local service delivery mechanisms

 
It was also suggested that it must be reliable, secure, seamless and profitable. Profitability, it was suggested, may come through context awareness and the local marketing and branding of resources, stores, etc.
 
Next, Cisco moved on to talk about what they're doing with 802.11ac. They demonstrated an actual 802.11ac module as well. The first wave of the one coming out is3x3:3, which makes sense - why go backward from 11n? Antennas will be integrated and the following specs will be supported:
 

• 1.3 Gbps PHY
• 3 spatial streams
• 80 MHz channels
• 256 QAM
• Explicit beam forming support (the only one supported in 11ac)

 
As a module, the 3600 AP will continue to support the 2.4 GHz ISM band while the 11ac module supports the 5 GHz bands. With the module installed, you will need 802.3at PoE because of the power required. As expected, MU-MIMO is not coming until phase 2 sometime in 2014 or 2015.
 
When Cisco demonstrated the 802.11ac transfer, the duty cycles went through the roof. Why? They weren't sure. I can't wait to get my hands on the module and a real client to see the why behind the what.
 
Cisco's Bonjour Gateway features are pretty much the same as other vendors.
 
The AVC stuff is coming in future announcements.
 
Frames Are Food, Tom Tagged with: Cisco, tom carpenter, WFD3, wireless field day, cisco mobility

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