Managing multi-vendor wireless access points in Wi-Fi networks

Any large Wi-Fi network has existing investments in Thin and Thick Access Points (For differences between the two, click on this link). So, upgrading the wireless network from thick access points to thin access points for better management does not always require companies to abandon all their existing thick access points and going in for a total thin access point – controller based wireless network. There are software applications available that manage multi-vendor (thick and thin) access points from a central location allowing organizations to retain their thick existing access points (at least in places like remote branch offices / retail stores etc) and expand with controller based thin access points but still manage the whole wireless network through a single management interface. These applications do not exactly provide all the features of a controller based thin access point (single vendor) network, but they provide a surprisingly lot of management functionalities for multi-vendor access points when compared to the controllers, which often only manage the access points from the same vendor. Let us see some of them.

Multi-vendor Wireless network management:

These multi-vendor wireless network management software applications allow the organizations to manage both individual devices and individual users (in the Wi-FI network). So, they help in monitoring how many wireless devices (Some of them can monitor even up to 5000+ wireless devices) are connected in a network/ segment, how many users are connected to each segment, a visual representation of the same for each network segment etc. In the same way, they help in monitoring individual wireless user level parameters like the bandwidth utilized by individual users or signal strength with which they connect to the access points etc. over a period of time (perhaps hourly, daily averages). These are very important parameters for monitoring a wireless network that is physically in disparate locations across the world.

Both Thin and Thick access points can be managed by them. In fact, the vendors put up a list of access point companies that can be managed by their software applications in their websites. Most of them monitor only enterprise grade thick access points and not the home grade thick access points.

The firmware upgrades for individual access points are uniformly applied from their respective vendors to all the access points supplied by that particular vendor across the network automatically, without manual intervention, which is a boon in a huge wireless network.

Heat Maps:

Some such multi-vendor access point management applications allow the floor plans of an organization to be uploaded and integrated with them so that the users can view the wireless network in real time. They can see the devices, their location, the number of people connected to each device, RF signal strength at all the locations (This may be indicated by varying colour levels – brighter colours indicating stronger signal strengths etc.). The wireless network can be viewed on a real time, making it possible for organizations to see not only their signal strengths but also the signal strengths from the neighbouring access points which may interfere with their wireless network. This is also useful on a maintenance perspective – if a user complains of slow connections – the administrator can first see the signal levels in his location, change the position of access points to see the results of such a change in his location, and if satisfied with the results, he can arrange to change the location of the access point physically.

Some multi-vendor access point management vendors also give a site plan tool. This is basically a software module which can take the floor plans and dimensions of a new area that needs wireless coverage and gives an estimate on the number of access points required in that place based on parameters like minimum assured bandwidth required per user etc. This helps in a bigger network.

Security:

One of the major concerns for such organizations having a large number of multi-vendor access points is the mis-configuration of individual access points. There are, many such mis-configured individual access points in a large network opening the door for intruders to get in to the wireless network easily. So, these management applications help verify the configuration of each and every access point and report them or if possible repair them. Another common wireless threat is the rogue access point that is the home grade access point brought by employees in non-wireless areas or the ones brought by visitors/ external intruders (honey pots) to make employees connect to them to gain network access. Such rogue access points are generally monitored over the wireless network and wired network (in places where wireless network is not available) and reported to the adminstrator, if any of them are found.

excITingIP.com

You could stay up to date on the various computer networking technologies by subscribing to this blog with your email address in the sidebar box that says ‘Get email updates when new articles are published’