Cutting The Cords

The success and pain of all wireless student housing.

Presented by David Wallace

Senior Network Design Engineer

Cutting The Cords

Abstract:

• The Kent Campus provides the resources and facilities of a large(42,185), diverse Ohio university, while offering the friendly casual atmosphere of a small liberal arts colleges.

• During the summer of 2011, the Information Services Division partnered with Residence Services and the Office of the University Architect to implement the refresh of network edge devices located throughout all the residence halls as well as the installation of 600+ new access points across 22 buildings to expand ubiquitous wireless coverage into residence halls.

• The following presentation discusses the challenges encountered during pre-implementation ,initial roll out and lessons learned.

Pre-implementation Network Status

• Legacy Network switches approaching ten years in age.• 287 Edge switches installed in residence halls. 240 24-port 10/100

ethernet switches and 47 48-port 10/100 ethernet switches. 8016 ports in total.

• Very limited construction season and access to rooms.• Demand for ubiquitous wireless coverage equivalent to academic

areas.• 50/50 Usage by KSU credentialed users of unsecure FLASHZONE

SSID versus FLASHZONE-WPA SSID.• End of Life of CCA NAC implementation in Residence Halls

supporting 6000+ users daily.• 22 Residence Halls with a variety of wireless deployments. • KSU Kent campus has several SSID’s in production.

(Flashzone, Flashzone-WPA, Kent State Guest, Classroom, KSUWVOIP, and SNET6, Commencement.)

Cutting The Cords

Kent Campus Residence Hall Wireless Coverage(Spring 2008)

5%

70%

13%

10%Complete Wireless Coverage

Partial Wireless Coverage

No Wireless Coverage

In Progress/Scheduled

40%

40%

20%Complete Wireless Coverage

Partial Wireless Coverage

No Wireless Coverage

Kent Campus Residence Hall Wireless Coverage (Fall 2010)

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

Aug-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11

Wireless Users

Residence Hall

Flashzone-WPA

FLASHZONE

KSU Guest

Gaming

• Budgeting of Time and Financial Resources required project to spend dollars across multiple fiscal periods.

• Spent time planning installation schedule with Residence Services to maximize construction opportunities while at the same time minimize impact to students living in halls.

• In several instances access point cabling was installed in advanced of ap installation by 6 months or more.

• Residence Services staff approached NTS engineers about providing a way to support Game consoles via the wireless network.

Cutting The Cords Planning

Switch Distribution Schedule of Deployment

Building

Bldg Pkg

Complete # WAP

# 12

port

# 24

port

# 48

port SFPs WAP Cabling

Forecast

WAPS avail WAP install

Contractor

Completion

Deadline Halls Occupied

Forecast SW

avail

Target Sw

Install Week Bldg Completion Notes

LEE Y 86 1 0 14 23 complete Deployed complete 13-May May 22-Fall Ready complete Week 1 complete

Johnson Y 0 0 1 3 0 complete Deployed n/a n/a May 21-Fall Ready complete Week 1 complete

Stopher Y 0 0 1 3 0 complete Deployed n/a n/a May 21-Jul 31 Ready complete Week 1 complete

TWT Y 6 0 1 0 1 complete Deployed complete 13-May May 18-Jul 16 Ready complete Week 1 complete

CCA Y 22 0 1 4 0 complete Deployed complete 27-May May 30-Fall Ready complete Week 2 complete

CCB Y 21 0 1 4 0 complete Deployed complete 27-May May 30-Fall Ready complete Week 2 complete

KOO Y 58 1 2 10 19 complete Deployed complete 27-May May 30-Fall Ready complete Week 2 complete

KORB Y 0 0 0 3 8 n/a n/a n/a n/a May 30-Fall Ready complete Week 2 complete

WRT Y 58 1 2 10 19 complete Deployed complete 27-May May 30-Fall Ready complete Week 3 complete

BEA Y 48 0 0 9 8 complete Deployed complete 27-May May 30-Jul 31 Ready complete Week 3 complete

Allerton 0 0 0 7 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a Ready complete Week 3 complete

CCC Y 24 0 0 6 0 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 4 complete

CCD Y 21 0 1 4 0 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 4 complete

MCD Y 48 0 0 9 7 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 4 complete

VER Y 36 0 0 5 1 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 5 complete

DUN Y 32 0 0 4 1 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 5 complete

Lake Y 32 0 0 4 2 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 5 complete

Olson Y 32 0 0 4 3 complete ASB complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 6 WIP Resolving Aps with ECHO24

PRN Y 31 0 0 4 1 complete Deployed complete 22-Jul Ready complete Week 6 complete

TRT Y 4 0 0 1 0 complete Deployed WIP n/a Ready complete Week 5 WIP APs being hung

CCE Y 0 0 0 4 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a Ready complete Week 7 complete

CCF Y 0 0 0 4 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a Ready complete Week 7 complete

ENG Y 25 0 1 5 1 WIP Deployed WIP 22-Jul Ready complete Week 8

VNC N/A 0 0 0 0 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a WIP Week 8

No new switches, just port

config/discconect wired

Allyn Y 0 0 0 5 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a May 18-Jul 16 Ready 18-Jul Week 11

needs to be before May 18 or

after July 16

Clark Y 0 0 0 5 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a May 18-Jul 16 Ready 18-Jul Week 11

needs to be before May 18 or

after July 16

Fletcher Y 0 0 0 5 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a May 18-Jul 16 Ready 20-Jul Week 11

needs to be before May 18 or

after July 16

Manchester Y 0 0 0 5 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a May 18-Jul 16 Ready 20-Jul Week 11

needs to be before May 18 or

after July 16

Res Building Equipment Totals

584 * Access Points

3 * 12 port switches

11 * 24-port Switches

141 * 48-port switches includes NTS 3 loaners for Allerton

110 * SFPs

Cutting The Cords DesignSpring 2011 Wired Design; 336 ports on 12 switches redesigned to …

Cutting The Cords Design…5 Gigabit POE switches. Including wireless. Reduction of 96 ports.

Cutting the Cords Design

Cutting The Cords Design

– Challenge of securing consumer grade wireless devices easily with minimum user/IT support.

– Initial plan was to create SSID that NAT’s to internet with no access to KSU resources.

– MAC address filter was required by Security team for access to this SSID.

– Gaming SSID is only broadcast in residence halls.

Gaming SSID Design

• Support Channels

– Web page refresh and re-design for Fall 2011

– Xpress Connect tool for Flashzone-WPA client configuration

– Scheduling of support during Freshman Move In

– Training of ResNet Tech Spot staff

– Introduction of “new” wireless services to RD’s, Resident Assistants and Area Desk staff during training.

Cutting The Cords Implementation

Cutting The Cords (Spring 2011)

Cutting The CordsImplementation

Welcome Weekend

ThursdayAug. 25, 20113:00-8:00 PM

FridayAug. 26, 20117:30-9:30 AM3:00-8:00 PM

SaturdayAug. 27, 201112:00-3:00 PM

SundayAug. 28, 20112:00-6:00 PM

Allyn/Clark Glass Lounge X X

Fletcher/Manchester Glass Lounge X XResNet in Tri-Towers Rotunda X X X X

Twin Towers Area Desk X X X X

Dunbar Area Desk X X X X

Stopher Area Desk X X X X

Cutting The CordsImplementation

FLASHZONEWeb Authentication, least

secure, requires KSU credentials.

FLASHZONE-WPAMost secure, requires KSU

credentials, credentials cached. Can be configured via Xpress Connect

installer.

Kent State Guest No security, no credentials, restricted from KSU sites

and resources.

Gaming SSID, client must make request to have MAC address of

Gaming console entered into DHCP for access

Wireless Cheat sheet for RD’s, RA’s and

desk staff.

• We require students to register the game console MAC address so that they can associate to the Gaming SSID. . (Security policy on WLAN SSID prevents clients from hard coding IP on subnet and gaining network access.)

• Nintendo Wii, requires wireless network it associates with to support 1 and 2MBs data rates. While this is of little consequence on the testbed; in reality it was bad for the overall RF environment. We discovered clients were associating to AP’s several floors away as they could connect at the lowest data rates. Disabling these rates forced NTS to withdraw support for the Wii’s native wireless.

• Later reports from clients identified an issue with the Xbox networking component, where certain applications did not function properly under an enterprise NAT solution. ( Xbox LIVE under some titles requires the client hosting to “open” ports on the gateway to set up online communications between other Xbox users.)

Cutting The CordsImplementation

“Gaming”

• Soon after start of semester requests came in from users for access to Gaming SSID for devices outside original scope. (Roku, AppleTV, Sony Blu-Ray Players as well as several models of flatscreen televisions.)

“Gaming” Implementation

Cutting The Cord

• Go Live – Early reports positive. User count soared very quickly.– 1st time in memory Tech Spot had no line for getting

PC’s setup to connect to NAC.– Early on network experienced significant latency and

throughput issues caused by our implementation of NAT on layer3 core switches.

– Several client impacting outages were experienced.– Isolating issue to design took some time.– Clients experienced service issues to internet.– Users reported complaints via class of 2015 Facebook

page.

Cutting The Cord – Fall 2011• What the students are saying:

FreshmanAeronautical Systems Technology Engineering “The first days we were here it kept cutting off, and then we couldn’t even connect. The connection has been laggy, slow and now you’re lucky if you even get it at all.”

SeniorComputer Information Systems “It’s all right, but it could use some improvement. Connection has been slow. Sometimes it takes more than one try to sign in.”

FreshmanExploratory “So far I haven’t had any problems with it. I have never had a problem with the gaming network.”

SophomoreArchitectural Studies “Sometimes it disconnects, but so far it’s done pretty well. It’s actually improved. I would rather have an Ethernet port, but as far as Wi-Fi goes, it’s working pretty well.”

SeniorPsychology “At first I wasn’t a big fan of it because they had the strict settings on way too high. As soon as I got a wired connection for my computer, the wireless signal going to my room has been superb.”

• Complaints in the evenings during peak usage guided the decision to expand client support later into the evenings with student employees living in residence halls to help support and perform basic 1st level troubleshooting.

• NTS provided training to student workers, also gave us a chance to educate students on how the technology works, and some of the differences from their home network.

Cutting The Cord – Tech@Night

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12

Wireless Users

Flashzone-WPA

FLASHZONE

KSU Guest

Gaming

Gains• Successful migration of users to Flashzone-WPA SSID. Increase

of users on secure SSID by 50% over last school year.

• Retirement of 1 port per pillow infrastructure model serving residential users.

• Reduction of switched port count in Residence halls by equivalent of 33 48-port switches.

• Overall port count reduced from 8016 to 6432, equals a 19% reduction in overall port count.

• Switch count reduced down to 134 48-port Gigabit PoEswitches.

• 100% wireless coverage available in all residence halls.

• 97% utilization of wireless by residents in halls.

• SmartNet savings on switched deployment.

Pains• Nintendo Wii & unintended consequences of consumer grade devices on

enterprise wireless network.• On campus residents are using 3 or more IP’s simultaneously and at the same

time. IP exhaustion issues required maintaining lease time to 15 minutes. • Nintendo Wii, requires wireless network it associates with to support 1 and 2MBs

data rates. While this is of little consequence on the testbed; in practice it was bad for the overall RF environment. We discovered clients were associating to AP’s several floors away as they could connect at the lowest data rates. Disabling these rates forced NTS to withdraw support for the Wii’s native wireless.

• Later reports from clients identified an issue with the Xbox networking component, where certain applications did not function properly under an enterprise NAT solution. ( Xbox LIVE under some titles requires the client hosting to “open” ports on the gateway to set up online communications between other Xbox users.)

• Facebook is Feedback…clients expressed their frustration on Facebook, long before they would open a ticket.

KSU Wireless Stats• Spring 2011 Kent campus supported over 5800 concurrent users at peak.• Summer of 2011 NTS wireless team installed just over 600 wireless access points

in approximately 108 days.• NTS wireless team brought 19 buildings online with full building-wide wireless

coverage.• Wireless usage from Spring 2011 to Spring 2012 has more than doubled.• Kent campus has just under 2200 access points deployed. Just under 900 access

points are installed in residence halls. • Fall 2011 Kent campus supported over 10500 concurrent users at peak.• Spring 2012 Kent campus supported over 12000 concurrent users at peak.• 97% of Residence Hall students on wireless full time.• KSU wireless network has supported over 19,000 unique wireless devices in the

past 7 days.• KSU wireless network has seen over 12,000 unique devices in a 6 hour period of

time.• Over 2600 Access Points Deployed.• 97% of Residence Hall students on wireless full time.• Over 2000 unique Apple devices have been seen on the KSU wireless network.• KSU wireless network has seen over 12,000 unique devices in a 6 hour period of

time.

Cutting The Cords – The Future

• Summer 2012– Migrate rest of residential clients to 10.X.X.X IP’s– Re-survey residence halls and make adjustments.– Enlarge Gaming subnet to expand capacity.– Wireless adaptor testing for vending machines.– Wireless printer support