Innovation Shouldn't Have To Be Delivered By Forklift

Ever notice how the latest and greatest innovation from some vendors invariably requires replacing the equipment you've already installed? Known as a "forklift" upgrade, these swap-outs benefit the vendor at the expense of the customer's time and money.

Let's face it, forklift upgrades are driven by vendor greed. The worst offenders make no apologies for their inability and/or unwillingness to design upgradable products. It's just not in their DNA. Product design recapitulates corporate philosophy, to paraphrase Haeckel.

There are existence proofs that a forklift is not a mandatory prerogative to obtain a new feature - even one incorporating a profoundly complex new technology. Therefore a forklift-based strategy must originate in a forklift-oriented mentality.

Case in point - spectrum analysis.

Wi-Fi networks operate in environments containing electrical and radio frequency devices that can interfere with network communications. 2.4 GHz cordless phones, microwave ovens, wireless telemetry systems, and even adjacent Wi-Fi networks are all potential sources of interference. Interference sources can be either continuous or intermittent, the latter being the most difficult to isolate.

The task of identifying interference typically falls to a spectrum analyzer, the gold standard for isolating RF impediments. Spectrum analyzers help isolate packet transmission issues, over-the-air quality of service problems, and traffic congestion caused by contention with other devices operating in the same channel or band. They are an essential tool to ensure that networks run as they should.

To be effective the analyzer needs to be in the right place at the right time. The ideal solution is a spectrum analyzer that’s built into the wireless LAN infrastructure, and can examine the spectral composition of the RF environment anywhere in the Wi-Fi network, at any time. Today vendors offer handheld spectrum analyzers as well as ones that require the addition of spectrum analysis monitors (effectively doubling the total number of access points on site for full coverage).

Rumors are that at least one vendor will be offering new access points with integrated spectrum analysis. Consistent with their company policy, however, a forklift upgrade will be required to use it.

Aruba has taken a completely different tack with spectrum analysis. Its recently introduced scientific-grade spectrum analyzer includes traditional tools such as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), spectrograms, and interference source classification. It also includes powerful new features such as interference charts, channel quality measurement, and spectrum recording and playback.

Uniquely, the new spectrum analyzer works with all Aruba 802.11n access points, including those already in service. That is, a customer with an existing Aruba 802.11n deployment can enable spectrum analysis on any of their existing access points without adding any new hardware. None.

And the cost? Zero if you are already using Aruba's Wireless Intrusion Protection (WIPS) Module into which the new analyzer is integrated.

Why does Aruba introduce new features that expand the capabilities of its customers' already deployed networks? Why did it add distributed forwarding without a controller in the data path? E9-1-1 call positioning? Wired switch management?

Because adding features recapitulates our corporate commitment to value, driving growth by enhancing the utility of our customers' investments. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, and one that stands in sharp contrast to a forklift mentality.

The next time you consider an IT vendor consider how they deliver innovative features. With a hand outstretched in partnership or reaching for your wallet.

The Lessons of Wi-Fi #10: A Bad Tool Will Never Find A Good Network

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.