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The computer science graduate students shuffle into class, taking their assigned seats. The professor opens the lesson by asking if there are any questions about the assigned reading.
A student raises her hand and asks, "We live in such a complex world. How could it possibly have been created in just 7 days." Without a moment's hesitation the professor looks up and responds, "Because there was no installed base – it was a new deployment."
Retrofitting 802.11n Wi-Fi to an existing network requires consideration of a number of factors: switch capacity, cable length, cable capacity, power sources. The last item is especially important during the transition to 802.11n. Many 802.11n access points far exceed the current capability of existing 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) sources. Some require an astounding 32 Watts or more, far beyond the capabilities of 802.3af.
Unless you read the fine print in product data sheets you could find yourself exceeding the power delivery capabilities of both power sources and a single Ethernet cable. A Wi-Fi network that was supposed to reduce the cost of IT infrastructure by doing away with unneeded wired ports and switches could instead result in a whopping big bill to replace PoE infrastructure.
The Lessons of Wi-Fi #14: a Wi-Fi network should save money, not waste it. If you have to add supplemental power injectors, especially mid-span power sources, labor and hardware costs will soar. Power-hungry access points and high-current injectors also generate a lot of heat, so you'll incur higher recurring cooling costs. And your carbon footprint will grow.
Aruba's 802.11n access points operate from 802.3af power sources. Always have. In fact, we were the first company to introduce an 802.3af powered 3x3 MIMO access point. The access points also feature a lifetime warranty because the company stands behind what it builds.
As you consider an upgrade to 802.11n, be certain that 802.3af delivers sufficient current to power all of the radios to their full operating mode in every access point. If the data sheet says you need something other than a single 802.3af supply operating over 100m of cable to get full performance, consider yourself warned.
So check out our range of 802.11n access points and leave it to someone else to relearn the lessons of Wi-Fi.
Time was when you left work at the office. Those days are long gone. Enterprises and institutions with workforces, offices, or colleagues spread across time zones often have time- and location-shifted working conditions.
Users might need to work from home, on the road, or at a remote site. In all cases, a user will be most productive if the network experience - and access to applications and network resources - is the same remotely as it is at his or her desk at work.Can the wireless LAN infrastructure that's used in a campus environment pull double duty and be used by remote users, too? The stock answer from most vendors is "nary the twain shall meet" - use a campus wireless LAN at work and a remote access solution like a virtual private network (VPN) everywhere else.
Since using a VPN is very different than accessing a campus network, this means that users need to be trained how and when to use the appropriate access method. And that means Help Desk calls. The end user is stuck with two parallel, non-intersecting networks to buy, maintain, and learn. Ouch!
The Lessons of Wi-Fi #12: your Wi-Fi network should not be a one-trick pony. One common network infrastructure should support both the campus wireless LAN and off-site users. And it should provide an identical end user experience regardless of how or where the network is accessed.
Enter Aruba's Virtual Branch Networking (VBN) technology. VBN uses low-cost Remote Access Points (RAPs) to securely connect remote users, and their Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet devices, back to a controller in the data center. The same controller that runs the campus Wi-Fi network.
Any standard Aruba indoor access point can be used as a RAP. That means one SKU can serve as both a campus AP or a Wi-Fi enabled remote access device for a home, branch office, or road warrior. 
The $99 list price RAP-2 unit pictured here is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket or valise. It works with any IP-based devices - laptops, iPhone, iTouch, PCs, printers, wired and wireless voice over IP phones, wireless projectors - all of which can simultaneously share a single RAP. As can multiple users.
VBN features one-button installation so that a non-technical person can provision a RAP-2 by him or herself. No IT assistance, no user training required. Once commissioned the user just turns on his or her MacBook, PC, iTouch and they're instantly connected to the network...just as they would be on campus.
Data encryption and an integrated firewall provide comprehensive network security for all RAPs, while centralized management ensures speedy diagnostics and updates right over the network.You don't have to suffer a double budget hit to get best-in-class campus Wi-Fi and secure remote access. So check out VBN and leave it to someone else to relearn the lessons of Wi-Fi.
If you walk around most any IT trade show, a harsh reality sinks in. While a lot of engineering goes in hardware and software design, spending is often miserly when it comes to packaging design.
Consumer companies hire world-class designers - or design firms like IDEO - to create products with rakish, timeless good looks. The resulting products fit well in virtually any decor.
Step into the enterprise market and things change. Evidently many enterprise vendors believe that function trumps form. Make a product function well and no one will care that it was hit with the ugly stick. Even if the products are intended for open display - on ceilings in Board Rooms, classrooms, branch offices.
The Lessons of Wi-Fi #11: aesthetics matter. Businesses and institutions spend fortunes, large and small, with architects and interior designers to ensure that their facilities are attractive. Every component that goes into a building - from fire sprinkler heads to smoke detectors to wiring devices - must pass muster. How could any IT vendor believe that the very same aesthetics standards don't also apply to IT gear. Especially publicly visible devices like Wi-Fi access points.
Visit an IT trade show and you'll see shoe-box sized APs, bristling with dark, leg-like antennas. And squat APs, disk-shaped like the calling card of a digital elephant. And bulbous APs shaped like a knight's helmet.
In the landscape of the ceiling, camouflage is paramount: a diminutive, sleek design with neutral colors and a shape that matches other ceiling fixtures fits in best. At Aruba we use world-class packaging designers to help our indoor access points blend into their surroundings. Our AP-105 Access Point is the smallest enterprise-class 802.11n AP on the market, and neutrally blends into any public environment. While its stellar performance calls attention to the product, its packaging does not.
You don't have to compromise aesthetics to get best-in-class Wi-Fi. So check out the AP-105, and leave it to someone else to relearn the lessons of Wi-Fi.
You need a new Wi-Fi network for your school. The legacy system is a patchwork of consumer Wi-Fi gear and
just can't handle your multi-media, throughput, and security requirements. Moreover the old network is a bear to manage because it doesn't provide any diagnostic information about the cause of increasingly frequent network outages.
One of the vendors you call in gives you a nifty sales pitch about their newfangled access points and even throws in a free network survey. When you ask about network management the sales person says they have a system that automatically discovers, configures, and monitors the whole wireless network, and can scale from single sites to cover the whole school district.
"But what if a problem originates in the wired network or in a mobile device? Or I want to manage the wired switches? How do I handle those scenarios?" you ask. All you draw in return is a blank stare.
The Lessons of Wi-Fi #10: to paraphrase a late13th century French proverb, mauvés hostill ne trovera ja bon network - a bad tool will never find a good network. Network management is really about optimizing operations management, about how to keep a network running 99.9999% of the time. Configuration and monitoring are only small pieces of the work that needs to be done.
Physicians train for hundreds and hundreds of hours to properly handle emergencies. Why? Because patients rarely die waiting for routine check-ups. It's in an emergency - when the stakes are high and time is very short - when they must prove their mettle. The same is true for network management tools.
Wireless networks don't work in isolation. Their operation depends on a wired core, closet switches, cabling, and the mobile devices with which they're associated. A fault could happen anywhere along this chain but "look" like it originated in the Wi-Fi network because that's where the problem first surfaced. A monitoring and diagnostics tool that only looks at the operation of the wireless network will stumble badly in this situation. And the consequence? Classes come to a halt, business stops, patients wait. Pretty bad.
Aruba's AirWave 7 tool is different. It's an operations solution that integrates the management of wireless networks, wired infrastructure, and client devices into a single interface. AirWave 7 provides a single point of visibility and control for the entire network edge, including wired and wireless infrastructure as well as individual client devices. In so doing, AirWave 7 reduces the cost and complexity of network management, while improving service quality for users.
A Mobile Device Management module gives IT managers control over mobile client devices from the same intuitive console they use to manage the network infrastructure. From a single console managers can supervise mobile devices, access points, controllers, and wired edge switches, including vital performance data, port utilization statistics and error data. By integrating monitoring of the wired and wireless infrastructure, the software facilitates faster and more accurate root-cause analysis.
And AirWave 7 is a multi-vendor tool. It works with Cisco and HP switches, among others, and supports wireless LANs made by more than 15 vendors, including Aruba, Cisco, HP, and Motorola. You're only out of luck if you own non-standard products or products from small niche vendors.
If you'd like to get the whole picture on network management you've only to visit the AirWave product site to see what real operations management can do for you. And leave it to someone else to relearn the lessons of Wi-Fi.
A loud-talking ranchman applies to a banker for a loan. The banker asks a neighbor if the rancher is a good credit risk. The neighbor ponders for a moment and then replies “Big hat, no cattle.” False bravado is funny when it’s the stuff of fiction, less so in real life – especially for customers snagged by rhetorical barbs.
And yet it happens again and again. Each year the networking world is introduced to “big hat” products with features and specifications so too-good-to-be-true that we let ourselves be reeled in. Why we don’t see through the shiny veneer and ask for proof of pedigree is a wonder. But it happens all the same.
The Lessons of Wi-Fi #9: use analysts and audited financials to validate vendor claims. Neutral independent industry analysts like Burton Group, Canalys, Gartner, IDC, Infonetics, InfoTech, and Yankee Group can quickly assess vendors' technical claims.
And don't forget to check financials - audited financials - because you want your vendor to be in business should you need assistance or spare parts. If a vendor won't give up the numbers - or the numbers are substandard - then you have grounds for real concern.
A quick example will put the discussion in context. In 2008 a “big hat” four-radio 802.11n access point was announced that claimed to deliver 1.2 gigabits-per-second of aggregate capacity. The data sheet claimed that the four radios worked in tandem, enabling users to dramatically reduce the number of access points and additional security sensors, thereby reaping savings on cabling, connection and installation costs.
Still, the press ate it up. A flurry of articles expounded the virtues of delivering multiple HD streams to an entire building, with perfect coverage, at almost no cost. The world would soon be saturated with multi-adio APs, the unwashed masses blanketed with 802.11n. Wow, where do I sign up?
Fast forward to late 2009. The “big hat” super duper access point was no more. It simply vanished from the vendor’s Web site, its demise a secret. Was it ever built? No. But the company received undeserved publicity and that reeled in some unsuspecting customers.
To paraphrase Orson Wells, companies should herd no cattle before their time. Industry analysts can help you separate claims from reality. If an analyst says that a vendor can't excute well, refuses to divulge shipment numbers, and/or lacks technical vision - well, your due diligence is over.
The next time you see or hear about a product that appears to be too good to be true, separate the hats from the herds - kick the tires, test the features, validate the design. Those impressive features might be chimeras or, as with Aruba's AP-105 802.11 Access Point, the genuine article.
By any measure the California State University (CSU) system is enormous, encompassing 23 different campuses, nearly 450,000 students, and 48,000 faculty and staff.
Recently the university system was faced with a massive and potentially hugely expensive wired network refresh to upgrade infrastructure that was approaching the end of its service life. At the same time, the CSU system was experiencing a surge in the demand for network access across all of its campuses. In the absence of a budget for a Wi-Fi solution, which would have allowed one wired port to be simultaneously shared among many users, the IT staff was concerned that the need for Ethernet ports and switches would double.
What would you do in this circumstance? Expand the wired network? Seek additional funds for a wireless initiative? Restrict access to the network?
Those who forget the lessons of Wi-Fi are doomed to repeat them. Lesson #8: you can fund your Wi-Fi deployment by rightsizing your wired LAN.
Cisco suggests that the right solution was to expand the wired network with perhaps a smattering of wireless in lecture halls. Why? In a paper titled True-Sizing the Network, Cisco claims that Ethernet is future proof, more secure, and more reliable than wireless networks. In fact it marginalizes Wi-Fi, relegating it to situations in which Ethernet cannot otherwise be used.
The twisted “true-sizing” message short changes end users because it fails to take into consideration changes in user preferences, markets trends, and technology that have occurred in recent years:
- iSuppli reports that shipments of laptops surpassed desktops (38.6M vs. 38.5M) in 3 Q 08;
- Yankee Group estimates that enterprises with no Wi-Fi access will drop from 43% in 2006 to just 3% in 2012;
- Burton Group states that 802.11n marks the beginning of the end for wired Ethernet as the dominant LAN access technology in the enterprise;
- Best-in-class Wi-Fi networks sport WPA2 encryption, wireless intrusion detection, policy enforcement firewalls, and FIPS 140-2/Common Criteria/DoD validation - making them equal or more secure than most wired networks.
The best solutions for end users originatefrom understanding how and where they want to use the network, and then designing networks that meet those needs.
Aruba's network rightsizing program defines just such a process - measure wired port utilization, consolidate ports in use into fewer switches, and deploy 802.11n wireless to address mobility needs. Use Wi-Fi everywhere you can, wired networks only where you must. If savings are to be had, the rightsizing analysis process will tease them out. If not, then that will also be made clear. Either way, the network rightsizing analysis will offer insights into network and port utilization that might not be intuitively obvious.
Returning to CSU, what the IT staff decided to do was to obtain more data by measuring wired port usage. What they found surprised them: wired ports across all 23 campuses were consistently underutilized. More than half of the wired ports had passed no packets during the previous six months.
Armed with these data, the team decided to embark on a new approach. Instead of upgrading the entire wired network, something they had historically done every 4-5 years, they looked at the opportunity before them with fresh eyes.Wi-Fi was determined to be a reliable, low-cost option for delivering pervasive campus connectivity. Several campuses had already deployed some Aruba wireless LAN equipment, mostly for coverage in selected high-usage areas, and San Diego State University had built a relatively large WLAN on their campus. The Aruba WLAN had proven to be highly secure, scalable and reliable. It also allowed for a scaled-back refresh of the wired network, saving money by limiting upgrades only to the wired ports that were actually used.
CSU's IT staff created a database that included every telecommunication room, the number of ports in each room, and the number of those ports that were actively used. A formula was developed to define the refresh requirements of each of the 23 campuses based on this measurement.
By applying this formula across all 23 campuses, CSU was able to save approximately $30 million by reducing the scale of the wired network refresh and enhancing network access with Aruba’s Wi-Fi solutions.
The CSU system still uses wired networks but they've been rightsized to address actual and projected utilization. Wireless network utilization has risen sharply, because users are taking advantage of the mobility afforded by the expanded 802.11n network. And CSU saved a whopping big chunk of change that can be applied to other programs and opportunities.
Network rightsizing is a proven method of assessing and adjusting your network infrastructure. The California State University rightsizing program is a testament to the validity and value of the rightsizing model.
While the rightsizing mantra is to use wireless wherever you can, wired only where you must, the model makes no presumptions about the right mix of wired and wireless access. Proponents of “true-sizing” maintain no such neutrality. Their bias towards Ethernet marginalizes Wi-Fi, and in so doing deprives end users of the potential cost savings and mobility/efficiency gains that organizations like CSU have obtained.
Introduced in July 1979, the Zilog Z80 was an 8-bit microprocessor that operated on 1, 4, 8, or 16-bit data, had a 16-bit address bus, generated its own RAM refresh signals, and would run programs originally designed for Intel’s 8080 CPU. The flexibility of the design made it suitable for a very wide range of consumer, industrial, and military applications spanning from the Tandy TRS-80 computer to programmable logic controllers to naval weapon systems. Prices fell as volumes rose, and the Z80 was one of the most popular 8-bit CPUs for many years following its original introduction.
One of the wonders of semiconductor technology is that a standard part like the Z80 can find its way into so many different applications. The very same CPUs, memories, amplifiers, voltage regulators, and/or transceivers found in consumer products in your home might be found in automobiles, office equipment, factory production lines, airplanes, or ships. What differs is how the part is applied, packaged, and tested. In other words, you don't always need custom parts made of unobtainium to perform specialized tasks in demanding environments.
What happened to the Z80 in the 1970s is happening today with 802.11n chip sets. Chip set vendors are designing a common set of 802.11n parts for use in enterprise, SMB, gateway, and home access point and router products. Doing so drives up the volume of sales, resulting in production economies that boost profit margins for chip vendors even as prices fall for end users.
One of the largest Wi-Fi chip vendors – Atheros – sells its AR9002AP-4XHG chip set for all of the above referenced applications. The chip set features extensive component integration, a small form factor, and low overall cost. The fact that the AR9002AP-4XHG finds its way into such a diverse range of applications speaks volumes about the potential flexibility and robustness of the design. I say potential because whether the objective is realized or not depends on the implementation of the final Wi-Fi device.
Those who forget the lessons of Wi-Fi are doomed to repeat them. Lesson #7: you don't need unobtainium to build great Wi-Fi products.
Just as naval weapon system vendors leveraged a common Z80 design to create very unique and rugged products, so, too, has Aruba leveraged an 802.11n chip set targeted at a broad market in the design of its unique AP-105 802.11n Access Point. The AP-105 was tailored to demanding enterprise applications, and special care was taken in the design of the packaging, antennas, power supply, and security features to make the product both robust and exceptionally fast. A great AP, with a great standard 802.11n chip set, selling for a great price.
The result is an enterprise-class 802.11n access point that has higher throughput and more features than Cisco access points, yet sells for roughly 40% less money. So much less that Cisco felt compelled to pull apart the AP-105 to find out what makes it tick (they did the same when Aruba's high-end kick-ass AP-125 802.11n Access Point was released).
Their conclusion? The AP-105 is unobtainium-free and therefore no better than a consumer product. You know, like that cell phone you rely on for emergency calls 24x7, or that iPod that has delivered faithful service every day at the gym. Comparing the reliability of the AP-105 to that of a consumer product is not an insult. At the end of the day, Cisco still has to explain why the AP-105 is faster, more feature rich, less expensive, and easier to install than its own run-of-the-mill, over-priced, unobtainium-based access points.
So with the wind of good design at our backs, and unobtainium nowhere to be seen, the AP-105 is flying off the shelves, charting a path the Z80 followed.
Would you ever strap a PC to your ceiling and run it there? Probably not. What about inside the plenum space above the ceiling? Nope.
Accessibility aside, the ceiling and plenum are hostile environments for electronics that aren't specifically designed for the vibration, temperature extremes, and blown dust typical of these locations.If you look inside devices designed for this environment - smoke detectors, passive infrared sensors, quality Wi-Fi access points - what you WON'T find are vibration-sensitive connectors (like SIMM sockets), moving parts (like fans), and modular circuit boards that could wiggle loose. These devices are typically designed to have high mean time between failure (MTBF) ratings, something impossible to achieve with commercial SIMMs or fan-based power supplies. It seems so intuitive...and yet.Those who forget the lessons of Wi-Fi are doomed to repeat them. Lesson #6: sleight-of-hand is no substitute for good product design. Wi-Fi access points need to be designed from the ground-up to withstand the rigors of ceiling and outdoor mounting environments.
Consider Wi-Fi arrays, which are effectively PC motherboards with a fleet of sockets, add-on modules, plug-in connectors, and memory SIMMs. They even conjured up a fan-based PC-like power supply - no standard 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet here. And when it fails you've lost 4+ radios at one time. The only workaround is to double-up the number of arrays, a real budget sink. Arrays just aren't designed with long service life, energy efficiency, or network resiliency in mind. That's the reason why no leading vendors in the Wi-Fi market sell arrays.
Aruba Wi-Fi access points have no fans, no SIMM sockets. Our 802.11n access points are designed for the rigors of ceiling and plenum mounting, and run from standard 802.3af PoE. MTBF ratings are excess of 250,000 hours - more than 28 years. And should an access point go down, Aruba's Adaptive Radio Management adjusts the power of near-by access points to self-heal the coverage gap. Automatically.
They'll provide years of reliable service and are backed by a lifetime warranty. And they cost less than an array-based system. A lot less.
So the next time you consider upgrading your wireless LAN, think about the environment in which the equipment will be used. Reliable products don't happen by magic - they happen by design.
The computer science graduate students shuffle into class, taking their assigned seats. The professor opens the lesson by asking if there are any questions about the assigned reading.
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