We have all seen Steve Job’s disbelief when he unveiled the iPhone 4 Live Demo, and it didn’t work.  Can this happen to you in your enterprise?  Yes. We’re running a webinar that discusses the iPhone 4 Demo-bacle but we are not talking about Steve Job’s or the iPhone 4 “wifi meltdown”.  We’re talking about you – because in a critical moment this could actually happen to any enterprise running Wi-Fi^TM – and you need to understand how this happened and how such a failure could have been easily prevented.

Join Craig Mathias, Principal of the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group, and wireless networking experts from Meru Networks right here on Signal2Noise for a frank and revealing discussion of the problems seen at the iPhone 4 Demo-FAIL and the solutions available in building robust, reliable, and, yes, large-scale Wi-Fi installations that could’ve made the conversations this week very different from where they are today.

In this free one-hour, interactive webinar you’ll hear from industry experts on:

• The iPhone 4 demo and how something like this happens
• Achieving service assurance with 99.99% availability
• Handling high density environments without problems
• Proactively detecting and resolving network issues
• Delivering toll-quality voice and high quality video at scale
• Making the right architectural choices for mission-critical WLAN

iPhone’s WiFi^TM Meltdown:

Wakeup Call for Your Enterprise

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
11am PST/2pm EST

There has been a fair amount of recent news coverage of a faster version of Wi-Fi coming, called WiGig and capable of greater than 1Gbps.

WiGig is an IEEE 802.11 amendment, specifically 802.11ad, for 60GHz operation at greater than a gigabit speed. The high-frequency spectrum used prevents the network from reaching through walls or around corners, and thus is really targeted for home entertainment (such as a wireless HDMI replacement). Nevertheless, through our position in the Wi-Fi Alliance, with whom the WiGig Alliance just agreed to work closely with, and IEEE, we are monitoring the development of this new technology. At the moment, it does not seem that this technology will have significant enterprise applicability.

IEEE has a companion project, 802.11ac, for gigabit operation within the standard Wi-Fi spectrum. This amendment builds upon 802.11n, to provide higher throughput by, in part, using even wider channels and more than four spatial streams. This technology is just in the exploratory stages, and it will be a few years before it reaches commercial products. We are closely monitoring the developments there as well.

Related articles

• Wi-Fi Alliance and WiGig Join Up For 60GHz Wi-Fi Products [Wireless] (gizmodo.com)
• Alliance of Wi-Fi and WiGig Standards in 60 GHz (Glenn Fleishman/Wi-Fi Networking News) (techmeme.com)
• WiGig Alliance Publishes Multi-Gigabit Wireless Specification and Launches Adopter Program (eon.businesswire.com)
• WiGig group opens way to gigabit wireless devices (news.cnet.com)
• Wireless Gigabit set to become next-gen Wi-Fi? (go.theregister.com)
• Next-Gen Wi-Fi specs promise 10x transfer speed, Apple seen as driving adoption (edibleapple.com)
• WiGig Alliance teams with Wi-Fi group for superfast wireless (infoworld.com)
• Next-gen gigabit wireless spec formalized with 7Gbps speeds (arstechnica.com)
• New Frequency Set to Turbocharge Wi-Fi (wired.com)

Last week was a busy one for Meru.  Spread across the country, our team participated in both the RSA and HIMSS conferences on a number of levels. We love the opportunity to reconnect face-to-face with our customers and partners, discuss wireless networking advances in the enterprise with our industry colleagues, and of course the chance to meet potential customers.

Here in the Bay Area, on our home turf, Meru Founder and CTO Dr. Vaduvur Bharghavan attended RSA and joined Meru customer Myron Freeman, an IT director at MIT and John Kindervag, senior analyst at Forrester to present key best practices for securing the growing wireless enterprise. A popular session, the “Wireless Evolution: How Security Must Change in a Migration to 802.11n” panel was attended by over 200 RSA attendees and highlighted the importance of addressing security implications in the all-wireless enterprise and what steps organizations can take to ensure optimal security for their wireless  environments.   Notably, the questions posed in the Q&A portion of the session revolved around Wireless Intrusion Detection and Prevention and the trade offs between knowing what is happening all the time on all channels and the cost of dedicated sensors. It was clear that the additional security challenges with 802.11n such as Beam Forming that Meru presented were new to the audience at RSA.

Meanwhile, Ram Appalaraju, Meru senior vice president of Marketing was across the nation in Atlanta meeting with customers and partners at this year’s HIMSS conference, which drew roughly 28,000 attendees, up from 27,000 in 2009.  On Tuesday morning Ram joined FierceHealthcare Editor-in-Chief Sue Marek, as well as other select healthcare and telecom industry luminaries, to discuss the latest developments in mobile healthcare.  It was great to see such good turnout – approximately 76 people attended the roundtable.  The healthcare space, a market where Meru is heavily engaged with customers to help them enable new healthcare technologies such as nurse call systems, bedside carts and asset tracking to improve overall patient care and cut operating costs, has widely embraced wireless.  The morning session gave panelists the chance to discuss and debate the growing demand for wireless and how it may or may not affect performance. To create a wireless infrastructure that mirrors the performance and capabilities of a wired environment, Meru encourages hospitals and healthcare organizations to not only pay close attention in the initial network design process, but to also provide maintenance and diagnostics to ensure performance.

While a busy week for Meru executives, the time with our customers, partners and industry peers discussing “what’s next”, and discovering how Meru is an important facet of these next steps was as valuable as ever.

For wireless networking to succeed in taking over from Ethernet, it has to become dependable—as dependable as wires. People will look back at the development of WLANs to now—even with the launch of 802.11n—and think of the time as the “early days”. This may sound surprising, with WLANs so prevalent in our daily lives, at work, on the road, and in home. But without dependability, WLANs mostly have been just for convenience, and although wireless can now go faster than many wired ports, they have not been as dependable.

So, how do we get to this goal of dependability—the one thing wireless doesn’t have that wires do? We all have to do one additional thing for wireless. We have to perform service level assurance. Service level assurance is the category of networking where service levels are actively measured by injecting traffic into live networks: constant testing of real, live networks, with traffic that represents the applications that mean the most for that network. Put another way, wireless networks can and do change in ways wireline networks don’t, and so they need to always be put through their paces, to make sure they can deliver as expected.

Many organizations do try to do dry runs of applications on wireless—usually, right before the network is deployed. They may gather a few laptops into a room, run some download scripts, and try to estimate how much work their network can do. But once the network is live, the laptops are gone, and there is no more testing taking place. Instead, administrators only monitor the network, looking for changes in graphs and numbers and item counts, hoping to tease out some information on how the network might do. These techniques are all very reactive, and don’t tell a thing on the night before a big meeting, for example, when the network will be used to its fullest.

What wireless needs is for this testing to be proactive, for throughput, loss, and delay tests to be ran on a regular, if not continual, basis. That’s the way to determine whether the network is still functioning at peak capacity, before users find out when it isn’t. Commercial web sites do this all of the time. Utilities do this too. If your network services are critical, you too should be proactively testing your network. But how? It has to be built in to the network. You don’t have the time to drag around laptops. And you probably don’t have the extra budget to install another complete network of sensors. Instead, you really just want the network to test itself, with no additional wireless radios. Until now, there has been no practical solution.

We are changing that with the newly-introduced Meru E(z)RF Service Assurance Manager™ (SAM). SAM overlays onto an existing deployed network, sitting on already-installed hardware as a software blade, proactively injecting end-to-end traffic onto the wireless network. In order for the traffic to get on the air, each access point creates a virtual client. While the access point is running, serving its users, it also is able to act as a client and connect to the access points surrounding it, without disruption. These virtual clients connect from every access point in the network, sending real traffic through the air.

The traffic starts from the Meru services appliance (SA), which already hosts the E(z)RF Network Manager™. From there, it goes to an access point’s virtual client, which connects to another access point and sends that traffic. That traffic then crosses the entire wireless and wireline networks—exactly as real client traffic does, passing through controllers, switches, and routers—before arriving back at the services appliance. In other words, SAM injects live traffic on each access point, sending it back to itself over the complete network, so that it can now measure service levels. Because these are real connections, SAM tests the real network services, including DHCP, security, routing, and quality of service, and reports back on any changes or violations of expected service levels. Every day, SAM sends out a health check email, reporting on the service levels for every access point in the network.

This technology is unique to Meru. There is a solid architectural reason for this. Meru deployments use channel layering. This allows a Meru access point to communicate with its neighbors without disruption—both it and its neighbors are always on the same channel. This way, a Meru access point can perform a “neighborhood watch”, checking on its neighbors by connecting and sending traffic with no penalty to the existing network. Microcell networks cannot do this, and so an access point would have to disconnect all of its clients and change channels just to communicate with its neighbors.

Service level assurance is the key to making wireless networks as dependable as wired networks. Proactive assurance, versus the reactive “detect-then-diagnose” method familiar to legions of wireless network administrators today, prevents IT from being caught off-guard by wireless problems. Users can depend on the network providing the level of service they need for their applications—they know the network has already been verified that day. And IT staff can rely on the network being up to the task, without having to put in any additional effort on their part.

This year marked the tenth anniversary of both the Wi-Fi Alliance and the IEEE 802.11b standard around which it was originally based. In that decade, wireless LANs have gone from proprietary systems used only in areas where cabling was impossible to an almost ubiquitous means of network connectivity. And the pace of change is accelerating, with 2008 featuring critical new innovations in wireless performance, security and management and 2009 marking the much anticipated (and assumed by now final) ratification of the 802.11n standard.

The real impact of these innovations will be felt this year as IT departments come under increased pressure from both users and corporate management. Users want mobility and the ability to work from anywhere; management needs to cut costs. Both can now be achieved at once thanks to technologies like 802.11n, perimeter wireless security and WLAN Virtualization. Used together, these will enable enterprises to make wireless the primary means of network connectivity.

IEEE 802.11n: End of Ethernet Edge (EEE)?

High-speed wireless LANs may not entirely replace Ethernet, but they are already marching deeper into the network. The biggest driver is the 802.11n standard, which with its speed of up to 300 Mbps makes wireless competitive with Fast Ethernet in terms of raw speed. Though Meru Networks shipped the first enterprise 802.11n products in 2007, the technology was not adopted in volume until 2008, when major Meru customers proved that it worked on a large scale.

Most other vendors have now shipped or announced 802.11n APs, and the standard is set for even wider adoption in 2009. With 802.11n built into new enterprise laptops, client-side adoption will follow the PC replacement cycle. Already at 30%, 802.11n penetration in the installed base of laptops is likely to be over 50% by the year’s end. Wi-Fi Alliance certification of 802.11n draft 2.0 ensures that customers can be certain of interoperability.

The higher speed of 802.11n means that most enterprises will not need to invest in cabling upgrades to edge Ethernet. Gartner predicts that 70% of all new connections will be wireless by 2011. The Burton Group goes further, saying that wireless LANs will eventually mean the end of Ethernet as the main network access method. Most users will view wireless as the default, not just an option

Security Moves to the Perimeter

For 802.11 networks to truly replace Ethernet, they need more than raw speed. Users and applications expect Ethernet to be reliable, whereas wireless networks have a reputation for vulnerability to interference. Wireless is also sometimes thought of as complex and hard to manage. Worst of all, many organizations still see it as insecure, thanks to well-known vulnerabilities that plagued early 802.11b networks.

Although 802.11i encryption, 802.1x authentication and the over-the-air scanning for intruders or rogues means that wireless networks are secure against physical attacks, they have traditionally lacked the physical security that comes as standard with wires: Ethernet attackers need to get inside a building, while wireless attackers can sit outside and take advantage of radio waves’ ability to pass through walls. That changed in 2008 with Meru Networks’ RF Barrier, the first security system able to protect the wireless physical perimeter.

Using directional antennas mounted on the outside of a building, RF Barrier selectively blocks transmissions from an individual wireless network, lowering the signal-to-noise ratio so that no-one outside can even detect that a wireless network exists. Unlike radio jamming systems, other radio technologies like cell phones and even 802.11 networks on different channels are unaffected. This enables even the most tightly-regulated and security-conscious organizations to use wireless networks with confidence.

Virtualization Meets the Wireless LAN

The most significant innovation in 2008 was Wireless LAN Virtualization, a technology designed for the future needs of both end users and IT managers. The former get a wireless network with the reliability and predictability of Ethernet; the latter get the same agility and control over their network infrastructure that virtualization has already brought to other areas of IT such as servers and storage.

The key innovation in Wireless LAN Virtualization is the Virtual Port, which gives each client its own private network link. Like a switched Ethernet link, the port is dedicated to one device and follows that client around the network, eliminating the roaming and contention issues found in traditional wireless LANs. Unlike an Ethernet link, the Virtual Port is mobile and its precise characteristics are customizable to suit any application. Network managers can reallocate wireless bandwidth on-demand while the network automatically adapts to different applications including voice and high-definition video.

Wireless LAN Virtualization is set for rapid adoption during 2009, for the same reason that virtualization has proven so popular in so many other sectors: the need to use resources more efficiently while quickly adapting to new user requirements. Along with 802.11n, it means that most users have little need to plug into an Ethernet socket. After all, are you reading this on a wired or a wireless connection? And if you are plugged into a physical port, wouldn’t you rather not be? As 2010 begins, many more users will have been freed from wires forever.

You must have heard or read about new wireless LAN systems being referred to as 3×3 capable or 2×2 capable, or some combination of the two. What does all this mean? Let’s decode the true meaning of these terms.

Products based on the latest and greatest wireless standard, 802.11n, use a technology known as MIMO. MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out) utilizes multiple radio chains (and hence multiple antennas) at both the transmitter and the receiver to help increase the throughput and transmit larger amounts of data over the wireless link. At least two chains are required for MIMO functionality; but most systems have more 2 chains. Additionally MIMO utilizes a technique called SDM (Spatial Division Multiplexing) that takes advantage of the multiple transmit and receive radio chains making it possible to send multiple streams of data simultaneously on the same channel, thereby increasing the data rate and overall throughput. All products certified by the WiFi Alliance for 802.11n  must support at least two spatial streams. The IEEE 802.11n specification offers options for up to four spatial streams, though as of now there are no systems available with this feature.

In the industry, 802.11n products are typically described in terms of their MIMO attributes, denoted by TxR where “T” is the number of transmit radio chains and “R” is the number of receive radio chains. (I think that this description is not adequate and generally leads to confusion, but more on that later in this blog). Most of the 802.11n enterprise APs are either 2×3 or 3×3 systems while most of the early 802.11n clients are 2×2 systems. Other combinations are also possible. In addition to the radio chains (and respective antennas), every 802.11n device must have multiple spatial streams, which is rarely talked about or referred to. Rather than the number of radio chains or antennas, the number of spatial streams is the key factor in determining the capability of the wireless device. The number of streams is a property of the radio chipset. All commercially available chipsets on the market today support a maximum of 2 streams for the access point and clients with the exception of Intel 5300 that support 3 streams for the clients. (Intel does not provide chipsets for the Access Points).

Assuming a clear signal, a two spatial stream link will achieve twice the throughput of a single spatial stream in the same channel. Each spatial stream provides data rate up to 150 Mbps while a Draft 2.0 802.11n system with two spatial streams will support up to 300 Mbps. Key point here is that as long as the system supports 2 spatial streams, you can achieve 300 Mbps data rates, regardless of the number of radios chains.

All the systems depicted next have 2 spatial streams and support 300Mpbs data rates with various combinations of transmit and receive chains.

The picture below shows a 3×3 MIMO system with 3 transmitters and 3 receivers on both the AP and the client and 2 spatial streams (denoted by dotted yellow lines). However since the system supports only 2 spatial streams, one pair of antenna is not used for transmission / reception and maybe used for diversity.

This picture shows a 3×2 MIMO system with 3 transmitters and 2 receivers, still supporting 2 spatial streams.

This picture shows a 2×3 MIMO system with 2 transmitters and 3 receivers with 2 spatial streams.

This picture shows a 2×2 MIMO system with 2 transmitters and 2 receivers, again with 2 spatial streams.

As you can see, to describe true capabilities of the system, both the number of radio chains and the number of spatial steams are important to know. While its not the norm, I think that 802.11n products should be described in terms of their MIMO attributes, denoted by TxR:S where T is the number of transmit radio chains, R is the number of receive radio chains and S is the number of spatial streams. Using the S attribute in addition to the T and R attributes, will create more clarity for the end user and help choosing the right product