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The best pickpockets create a diversion before they dip and run. They'll bump into you, drop an object nearby, or yell something to catch your attention.
Distracted by the commotion, the extraction proceeds unnoticed. That is until you next reach for your money only to find it's gone missing. Never to be seen again.
This week at Interop Cisco created such a diversion when it announced the availability of a new hardware-based spectrum analyzer. With features remarkably similar to Aruba's recently announced software-based spectrum analyzer - and using words so closely paired to Aruba's that a plagiarist would swoon - Cisco proclaimed that the world at last had a solution for dirty air. The secret: a new line of access points containing - drum roll, please - an embedded ASIC. Did that get your attention?
Now for the dip. In order to get this feature you have to replace your existing access points. If you want clean air everywhere then you have to replace all of the access points in your network. Every single one. Brilliant!
You've got to credit where credit is due. Project "CleanWallet" is really a double-dip - once for new APs and once for the 802.11n APs you only just purchased. Even the Artful Dodger would be impressed.
Silly sods, us. Instead of forcing customers to divvy up cash to replace their access points, our new software-based spectrum analyzer works with all Aruba 802.11n access points, including those already installed. Aruba's spectrum analyzer is feature rich, and includes Fast Fourier Analysis, spectrograms, interference classification, and programmable recording/playback.We don't require any new hardware to make spectrum analysis work, and for customers using our Wireless Intrusion Prevention Module the feature comes for free. Aruba's 802.11n access points are already significantly less expensive than Cisco's, so the entire Wi-Fi system, including spectrum analysis, is easy on your wallet.
If Project "CleanWallet" isn't your thing, give us a call. We'll prove that you don't have to pay through the nose or sacrifice features to get clean air.
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.
One the reasons for creating technical standards is to ensure interoperability between devices that need to work together. In the Wi-Fi world, the 802.11 standards serve this purpose, and encompass a very extensive set of guidelines that manufacturers of infrastructure and devices must follow to create a cohesive wireless system. Why then do we encounter situations in which Wi-Fi infrastructure is incompatible with Wi-Fi devices?
Those who forget the lessons of Wi-Fi are doomed to repeat them. Lesson #2: not all Wi-Fi networks are standards based. Some use proprietary technology that is not compatible with the way other Wi-Fi device manufacturers have designed their products.
Take, for example, Glenelg Country School and Frances Xavier Warde School, both of which experienced dropped connections with wireless classroom multimedia projectors. At Raytown C-2 School District radio interference affected laptops on rolling computer carts, while at Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants interference was so bad that it affected both office and clinical operations. Others have reported issues with different models of PCs or Apple Macintosh computers and iPhones.
What's interesting about these cases is that the problems were traced to one common source: the wireless LAN infrastructure. Once the infrastructure was upgraded - in these cases to Aruba wireless LANs - the problems went away.
All of these sites had used a non-standard, proprietary single-channel wireless LAN architecture. There are only two companies in the industry that make such systems, and both are small niche players with shrinking market share. So why would anyone buy such non-standard products in the first place?
Simple - product differentiation can be very alluring. It offers the opportunity for the adventurous to tout themselves as early adopters of what they hope will be "the next big thing." Wanting to be the first to use a new Apple iPad, Alienware laptop, or Google Nexus One makes perfect sense. These products embody innovative designs that redefine their markets. But they're also designed to work with existing networking infrastructure like 802.11 Wi-Fi - that they didn't redefine.
Where you run into serious trouble is deploying non-standards based infrastructure. That's akin to
being the first to try a 156 Volt, 76 Hz electrical system in your house. Some devices might work, but you run the very considerable risk that others will crash and burn.
And that's what happened to the single channel wireless LAN customers. The reason single channel architecture hasn't caught on isn't because it's a secret waiting to be discovered. It's because there's a secret to what makes it run, and therefore interoperability is not assured.
When it comes to living on the bleeding edge of technology, consider the importance of interoperability. If a new technology has to be seamlessly integrated with other existing devices - as is the case with Wi-Fi networks and devices - then using a non-standards based product is just asking for trouble.
If you'd like to get the whole picture on Wi-Fi architecture you've only to download our free white paper, WLAN RF Architecture Primer. And leave it to someone else to relearn the lessons of Wi-Fi.
The best pickpockets create a diversion before they dip and run. They'll bump into you, drop an object nearby, or yell something to catch your attention.
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