EXPERIENCEAnd the many way’s to get it…

Understanding the full data pathFor WiFi Engineers

#WLPC_EU Talk

Chris Avants 

@RockstarWiFi

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\\ Chris Avants Sr. Instructor / Author / Consultant

http://www.chrisavants.comhttp://twitter.com/RockstarWiFihttp://wifitraining.comhttp://linkedin.com/in/chrisavants

Recent ProjectsRockstar Wireless Networking – WiFi Training

CCIE Wireless v3.0 Workbook – Fast Lane (Dec 2016)

CCIE Wireless v.31 Workbook – WiFi Training / Fast Lane (March 18)35+ Certifications, still learning

\\ The point(s) of this discussion …

Understanding RF / WiFi is KeyUnderstanding the full data path, is now required.

New technology is always coming / changing…

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\\ Not enough to point fingers, anymore…

They may point them right back…

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\\ Enterprise Campus 3 Layer Design

• Campus Access Layer

• WiFi is of course #1 network access method (Can’t nobody hold us now)

• APs aggregate users to switch

• Access aggregates to distribution.

• Distribution to core.

• Most WiFi Engineers comfortable with this concept, right?

• Great is their more to know?

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\\ Survey’s are Great / Required!•One way or another, you have to do surveys. We knowthat.

•People have different approaches, spend time learning, (see Experience Presentation).

•Find what works, but be open to new ideas.

•Would you feel comfortable doing a greenfield or brownfield design and having no say, or no understanding of the rest of the infrastructure?

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\\ Design for Location \ Is that all?• RF must be designed correctly

• APs must be staged/primed, and placed correctly (name, HA, venue, floor)

• Maps must be imported i.e. Prime / CMX (no small or easy job here)

• Calibration phase

• Vendors have specific latency and sizing requirements, b/w, etc.

CMX Analytics

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\\ There’s a larger picture…• Several new WiFi – AP / Controller Deployment Models (Centralized, Flex,

Autonomous (Fat), Lightweight (thin), Converged, CLOUD

• What about IDF’s / MDF’s?

• Are you sure cabling support’s environment? (Distance, CATX)

• What about uplinks between Access, Distribution, Core, Data Center, Layers?

• What about WAN availability?

• What about all the network protocols?

• What is this scary new SDN concept?

• Every network design designers goal should be QoE. Quality of Experience. Truth is lots of variables other than RF affect this.

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\\ IDF / MDF Locations• Images are worth 1000 words.

• Some can also be worth NO words at all

• Are APs within 100m of the closets?

• Do you have access port real-estate?

• Do we have required PoE? (many variables)

• What about our uplinks?

• Will adding APs, strain already strained uplinks?

• Can we verify cabling? (Air Check G2, Cable Testers, etc. etc.)

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\\ The Wireless Enterprise…

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\\ A look at Service Layers (Blocks)

• Service blocks create smaller focused segments of technology

• Different skillset’s required for each service block

• Not saying you need to be able to configure everything, at a min just understand traffic path from WiFi users

• Also good to understand technologies around controller integrations, protocols and traffic generated by them

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\\ Centrally Switched Aps (Split Mac)• Deployment likely most are

familiar with.

• Controller’s at the head end

• APs managed via Controller at headend

• Security at Central Site

• Simple controller redundancy

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\\ FLEX / Local Switch / Centrally Managed Deployments

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\\ Cloud & Hybrid Deployments• WAN / Internet Service Blocks

very important.

• Client traffic terminated locally

• May integrate Enterprise platforms to Cloud for branch.

• That’s Enterprise to Cloud, Cloud to Branch, and visa-versa.

• No the APs wont just work without a good RF design.

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\\ What about our protocols and Mobility? • We are all likely familiar with CAPWAP

• What about Mobility Messaging (EoIP, CAPWAP)

• What about security protocols? 802.1X, RADIUS,EAP(s), Web-Auth, ACL’s

• What about application requirements?- Big variable; Depends on Application (DoA)

• What about EtherChannel, LACP, for controller, switch redundancy.

• What about HSRP / VRRP, FHR Protocols?

• What about QoS / AVC?

• How does this new SDN factor in to design?

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\\ Just a few L2 protocols…ARP Address Resolution Protocol

ARCnet Attached Resource Computer NETwork

CDP Cisco Discovery Protocol

DCAP Data Link Switching Client Access Protocol

Distributed Multi-Link Trunking

Distributed Split Multi-Link Trunking

Dynamic Trunking Protocol

Ethernet

FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface

Frame Relay

HDLC High-Level Data Link Control

LACP Link Aggregation Control Protocol

LocalTalk

L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol

LAPD Link Access Procedures on the D channel

LLDP Link Layer Discovery Protocol

LLDP-MED Link Layer Discovery Protocol - Media Endpoint Discovery

PAgP - Cisco Systems proprietary link aggregation protocol

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

Q.710 Simplified Message Transfer Part

Multi-link trunking Protocol

NDP Neighbor Discovery Protocol

StarLAN

STP Spanning Tree Protocol

VTP VLAN Trunking Protocol

VLAN Virtual Local Area Network

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\\ SDN Overview • How does this change your RF designs?

• Still will not fix poor RF Designs

• As far as Wired side, several things changing

• Ability to streamline required L2/L3 protocols & QoS without manual reconfiguration of the enterprise.

• Application request priority from the network

• Only allowed / selected applications receive the priority.

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\\ SDN / ACI Demo

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\\ Take Away• WiFi Engineers need to understand the full data path, understand user traffic flows.

• No technology can fix poor RF / WiFi Design

• Site Survey’s are crucial, planning crucial…

• Several deployment architectures now, not only centralized (split-mac) learn them

• If you don’t understand the architectures, protocols, where they begin and end (see first Experience presentation)

• Networks are evolving, new opportunities in SDN

• Most companies are still few years away from refreshing or adoption full SDN

• Never programmed, want to know where to get started? Microsoft (Learn to Code, Free), would also recommend Python for beginners class

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\\ Questions?

@RockstarWiFi

Chris@WiFiTraining.com

THANK YOUExperts are always Learning!!

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