A few weeks ago while on a flight from Minneapolis to Dallas, I passed the two million frequent flier mile mark on American Airlines. This revelation got me to start thinking about all the time that I’ve spent cooped up in a hollow metal tube and how much nicer it would have been with a decent WiFi connection!So far, it seems that market financial forces and the FAA have been the main sticking points keeping WiFi from making its grand entrance at 30,000 feet. The airlines have been under considerable financial pressure for years now and with the high price of Jet A fuel, the prospect of taking a plane out of service for a few days to install WiFi gear is the making of a nightmare for the airline accountants.

Also, the airlines and the FAA have spent years touting the dangers of wireless devices on planes (whether real or imagined, we don’t really know yet). Sorry folks, but it’s going to take a complete ‘about face’ before WiFi on planes moves into the mainstream.

The other issue with WiFi in the Sky is the backhaul links. Just lighting up the inside of a metal tube with 802.11 signals isn’t really the hard part. How do you get the data off the plane and on to the ‘Net?

The two main methods at this point have been to send it to a satellite or send it down to base stations on the ground. I’ve been on customer networks that have had satellite links between their locations and it’s not fun. Email and slow browsing are the facts of life. Slow bandwidth, coupled with high/variable packet latency kills most advanced media from traversing the link.

Ground based stations seem to have the promise of more bandwidth and more control over the network, but placement of base stations can be problematic, unless an already mature technology is used (i.e. EVDO/GPRS).

Whatever the future holds for Internet access in the sky, I sure hope is comes before I hit the next million mile mark!

If anyone thinks the jury is out on 802.11n, check out last week’s AirWave panel on the pros and cons of 802.11n in higher ed for a different perspective.

It’s not a matter of “if”; now it’s a matter of how.

Click here to view the 802.11n in Higher Education Webcast

Our three panelists – Chris Murphy from MIT, Steve Lee from Virginia Tech, and Dan Eklund from Wayne State – were peppered with a non-stop stream of questions about implementation and deployment – concerning multiple radio frequencies, deployment, spacing, transition, capacity planning and more. Chris and Dan are deploying 802.11n now; Steve is holding off for the moment, which provided an interesting counterpoint to discussions.

And while the discussion was solely focused on the campus environment, I think anyone looking to deploy 802.11n in the near future will find this a useful discussion to listen in on, since most of the issues addressed are the same, whether your network serves a college, a company, a school or a government agency.

Feedback was very positive. Over 300 people attended. More are downloading it daily. Sample feedback: “I found this especially interesting and helpful since you featured multiple universities using different wireless vendors.”

Not for the first time, our panelists came across as three tough and experienced customers, who have high standards for their vendors and suppliers and a clear understanding of how to make technology fit the needs and goals of their employers. We’re grateful for their time and efforts.

And for their willingness to answer the tough ones. To me, toughness peaked towards the end of the event, when they were asked the big “What If” question overlying all discussions of 802.11n today: What if the final 802.11n standard differs so much from the current interim standard that you find you have to change hardware?

You could hear a pin drop at that moment. Or at least, I could. Their answers were great, but I don’t have space to report it, so you’re going to have to listen to the recording to hear them.

Recently, while getting some bids for a home construction project, one of them came back with a dollar figure coupled with this caveat: ‘Bigger than a bread box, smaller than a submarine.’ I see this same kind of concept practiced with wireless capacity planning at a lot of the companies that see on a day to day basis.

Why do so many IT departments follow this planning philosophy?

Well, it boils down to not having the reporting and visibility required to make good business decisions to maximize the IT budget.

Over the last year, I have done several webcasts around capacity planning and wireless best practices. Most of these have focused around the wireless side of the equation, but as wireless becomes more ubiquitous, there is now the requirement to look at other pieces of the puzzle as well. Take for example the wireless hotspot marketplace. Many of these locations are served with DSL or cable modem access. Remote office locations are also typically served by these types of links as well. In this case, what component is the weak link in the chain? Of course, the WAN link is the limiting factor!

In the latest version of the AirWave Management Platform, there is now the ability to monitor and report on switches, routers, and other gear in the network that can impact the wireless network. In addition, there is a new Capacity Planning report that not only shows the capacity of the wireless APs and controllers, but can also show capacity available on other network components as well.

In case you missed it, industry expert Craig Mathias was featured on Network World’s podcast series to discuss his selection for the WLAN industry’s “Category-Breaker,” defined as “products that go above and beyond to solve IT issues.”

We here at AirWave were absolutely smitten when we found out that the AirWave Wireless Management Suite Version 5.3 was chosen; in addition, Craig did an excellent job providing those unfamiliar with our solution an excellent synopsis of the features and benefits of our solution. If you’ve not yet heard it, click here to listen to Network World’s Category Buster: AWMS 5.3.

Summary from the Network World site:

As part of the Best Products 2008 coverage, we present a special podcast with Network World blogger and IT Roadmap presenter Craig Mathias, who talks about the distinguishing features and functionality of the latest Air[W]ave Wireless Management suite (12:01).

I encourage all of you to give it a listen and/or pass it on to anyone who you feel could benefit from understanding the features and functionalities of AWMS.

It’s great to finally see the industry recognizing WLAN management as a criticial component of an organization’s infrastructure.

For more Craig Mathias, click here.

In case you missed it, we hosted our 2nd-highest attended webcast ever on Tuesday, “Troubleshooting the Wireless LAN.”

Beyond the large attendance, the demand for a recording of the webcast post-event has been overwhelming!

So, without further ado, we present to you our newest addition to AirWaves:

Click to view “Troubleshooting the Wireless LAN” Webcast

If you have any questions or comments regarding the show, please direct them to the forum!

Here are a couple of slides that we went over, giving you an idea of the show:

Enjoy!

In the ‘Troubleshooting the WLAN’ webcast that I did earlier this week, I talked about the technical items that the helpdesk really needs to know to move from a ‘Production Metric’ helpdesk to a ‘Customer Service’ helpdesk. The helpdesk industry over the last decade has really moved from being an organization that is geared around hold times, abandonment rates, tickets opened, calls received, and other production metrics to an organization that starts to value the ‘softer’ side of the call center.

These ‘softer’ customer service metrics are geared around first call resolution, reopened ticket percentage, and other items that revolve around how the caller feels about the experience, rather than just how fast the helpdesk can pick up the phone. If we look out at the IT industry as a whole, there have been several recent examples of large IT companies who forgot that customer satisfaction is just as important as how fast you answer the phone! Now, those companies are paying for it with reduced sales, a falling stock price, and erosion of their corporate brand value.

So, to take this down from an overall corporate view and apply it to the wireless helpdesk, what do we need to give to our front line employees to improve their customer service metrics? Well, it boils down to giving them the applications to solve problems immediately, and if they can’t be solved at their level, the ability to escalate to the proper team for a quick resolution.

In the wireless space, it’s all about letting the helpdesk view real time user information, visually displaying RF information in an easy to read format (remember, the helpdesk is not staffed with RF engineers), trending information (see my earlier blog on ‘Troubleshooting Deltas’), and other troubleshooting dashboards. This way, the helpdesk can accurately diagnose the problem and either fix the issue, or get the trouble ticket to the correct place in the least amount of time.

Once the helpdesk is able to start focusing on the ‘softer’ side of their business, the user satisfaction rates will go up and the ROI of the wireless network starts to really take hold.

 

 AirWaves Podcast with Manatee Schools [20:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this latest installment of AirWaves, I spoke with Ron Jones who is one of the Network Systems Managers for Manatee County School District, one of the largest in the country with over 49,000 students and 7,000 employees.

Like most school districts, the wireless network at Manatee has grown over time. Manatee CSD now has about 2,000 wireless access points from Cisco and ProCurve by HP and serves up wireless access to just about every campus in the district.

As you can imagine, Ron has his hands full and has found ways to use his AirWave Management Platform to streamline many of the manual processes.

Managed Service Providers (or MSP’s) have been participating in a pretty high growth business environment over the last few years. These organizations range from the major Telcos (Verizon and AT&T) to major hardware vendors (IBM and HP) to major System Integrators (CSC and Accenture) to regional niche players. It seems that just about anyone who is involved in IT wants to join the lucrative business of outsourcing or co-sourcing their customers networks and environments.

As WLANs become more prevalent and mission critical, this new area of networking is drawing the attention of many of these players. A year and a half ago, Verizon Business was one of the first to jump in a public way into this arena. It makes sense with Verizon’s history of wireless, networking, and now outsourcing, that they would be a leader in WLAN management. But Verizon Business is not alone in this field. Just about every MSP that offers network management is preparing to also offer WLAN management.

As these organizations enter into the WLAN management arena there are a few pitfalls they need to be aware of:

1. WLANs need to be managed differently the LANs. Due to the inherent nature of wireless, these devices need to be monitored in very different ways than their router and switch brethren. MSPs who make the mistake of just offering simple “up/down” status will not be doing their customer any favors - it is critical to provide RF management and optimization to ensure that not only are devices up, but that the network is actually working.
2. WLAN management needs to be integrated with LAN management. I think MSPs grasp this one pretty quickly - from a purely cost perspective. If the MSP has to build out a parallel infrastructure just for WLAN management then it will take them a long time to make a profit. By integrating WLAN specific tools into their existing operational infrastructure they can gain leverage and re-use many of the skill sets and processes that they have in house.
3. WLAN is just the beginning. Any MSP who starts discussing with their customer about managing their WLAN needs to understand that its not just the APs and/or controllers that need to be managed…it’s all the rest of the network as well. This includes the authentication infrastructure, the wired network that the wireless devices connect to, power, firewalls, etc. This is a great opportunity for the MSP to showcase all of their wares but they have to have this mindset from the beginning.

MSPs have a great opportunity in the WLAN space and can provide a fantastic service to their clients. As this market matures this level of service is going to become more and more important.

Many people assume that WiFi mesh networking is a technology only for the municipal wireless market, and not for the enterprise. In reality, we see many corporations and enterprises using mesh technology to deliver wireless connectivity in certain types of environments. Few enterprises are using mesh devices to provide coverage in carpeted office areas where it’s not too difficult to provide an ethernet connection. But many are using mesh where it’s more challenging and costly to deliver ethernet: in large warehouses or manufacturing floors, in mines, in large airport terminals, etc. In these areas, the cost of delivering an ethernet connection can be many times the price of a wireless access point.

Where this is the case, mesh technology’s ability to extend the reach of wireless without costly cable drop offers significant cost savings and a very attractive value proposition. Over the past several years, we’ve seen IT organizations become much more sophisticated in the design of their wireless networks. Rather than trying to find a single ‘one-size-fits-all’ technology, they’re selecting the best technology for each operating environment and to support the applications that will be used in that area.

At AirWave, we often talk about how wireless networks inherently become more heterogeneous as they mature and expand. The selective, intelligent use of different wireless technologies is just one more example of this heterogeneity.

At AirWave, people constantly ask us “Why is it important to select a vendor-neutral wireless management solution if I have an ‘all-Cisco’ [or all-Aruba, all-Symbol, all-Anyone…] network?”

A few things to consider:

• You might have a heterogeneous network and not even know it — In large organizations, the left hand often doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Is it possible [likely?] that a division somewhere in the world purchased some equipment that you don’t know about? If you use only proprietary single-vendor management tools that only discover APs and controllers manufactured by your primary hardware vendor, you may never find out — and if you do have some other equipment out there, you won’t be able to manage it and enforce your security policies using your proprietary tool.
• Wireless technology is still evolving — and so are wireless product lines. WiFi is so ubiquitous that people forget that the technology is still young. Many new technologies and standards [802.11n, anyone?] are still being developed. Hardware vendors will implement these technologies on different schedules and in different ways. Using a vendor-neutral management solution gives you the ability to evaluate new offerings as they come out — and to select the ones that best meet your needs, even if they’re from someone other than your primary vendor.
• Mergers & acquisitions — in the U.S. alone, there were more than 11,000 mergers in 2006. Every time corporations merge, IT has to knit together the diverse infrastructure of the two entities. Smart IT organizations understand this and select vendor-neutral management tools that enable them to control the infrastructure they have today — and what they’re going to inherit tomorrow.
• Maintain flexibility and control your own destiny. If you rely on proprietary management solution, you don’t control your network — your vendor does. If your vendor end-of-lifes management support for your product, you’re stuck. Time to upgrade. When you’re negotiating the price of your hardware, you’re not going to get much of a discount if your provider knows that your management solution won’t allow you to switch to a competitive product. If you’ve got flexibility, you’ve got leverage.