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The Rise of the Machine Learning Solutions

Published by Shaun Neal

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Heading into Aruba Atmosphere this year I was most excited to see Aruba’s new Niara solution in action and learn more about this product as it solves a very real need in every network. Inherently any network policy grants some sort of access to the network and users are free to work within the confines of that policy. Even using 802.1X-based authentication and dynamically provisioned VLANs, access roles, downloadable ACLs, etc. isn’t necessarily enough. Niara solves for these issues in an appealing way and lessens the workloads for SecOps teams.

Case #1: Stolen Credentials
A known valid user can operate within their policy, but what happens if they are compromised either through social engineering, weak passwords, poor password management, etc.? Niara builds a profile of what is typical behavior of a specific user, if their patterns change this will be identified by the system. Perhaps the user starts attempting to access new areas or is visiting new websites—by a change in behavior, it is possible to identify a need for a change in policy, alert the SecOps team, or eventually automate remediation or lockdown of the user. Comparing to a baseline as well as other similar users gives Niara a frame of reference for the user under evaluation.

Case #2: Malware and Viruses
Both malware and viruses are capable of changing the behavior of network attached clients, while numerous tools already exist to help combat these Niara could serve as a welcome tool to identify and isolate infected clients or in a perfect world learn about how a Day Zero Attack might attempt to compromise the network and automatically harden the network in anticipation of this attack. The combination of these capabilities along with Aruba’s open APIs using Aruba’s Exchange offers some very interesting possibilities by enabling the collection of data from ecosystem partners with a greater speciality in the malware and virus arena. Imagine a world in which your firewall vendor has detected a new type of malware, shares that data with Aruba ClearPass and Niara via APIs, syslog, SIEM, or other similar routes and then the network automatically reacts to prevent the spread of that malware at the same time you are being notified.

Case #3: Software Bugs/Anomalous Behavior
If an application is updated and begins to operate differently on the network, Niara can identify this and enable teams to understand the new behavior. New behaviors deemed as risky can be mitigated against and feedback can be provided to the company’s development team. A specific example of this was provided at the conference in a popular file share company who’s update generated unwanted traffic on the network. Niara’s machine learning was able to identify and allow this undesirable behavior to be stopped.

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company opens the door to a world of possibilities with the addition of machine learning and extends those capabilities elegantly through their open architecture in Aruba Exchange. I would anticipate that this field of machine learning is going to explode in the networking world as IT teams are facing increasingly difficult security challenges and are being asked to do more with less people and less resources. Automation of detection and defense should be able to solve 75-80% of the issues out there, enabling IT to focus on the most challenging and highest value problems out there.

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Investing in Others

Published by Shaun Neal

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February is an exciting month this year as there are two of my favorite conferences held back to back weeks—Wireless LAN Pros Conference in Phoenix, AZ and then Aruba Atmosphere in Nashville, TN. This year I have opted to present at the WLPC conference on the WLAN Engineer’s role in Digital Disruption and was invited to participate in the Tech Field Day live panel for Atmosphere. I have allocated a portion of my weekends in preparing for these events to ensure that I do my best and that the group benefits from the time that I have been allocated. Despite this being my third year doing these events, I am always amazed how much I learn from preparing to teach others. My goals for these two events for this year are the following:

Keeping it Simple
We have a varied demographic at these events, so one of my goals is to explain the content in a simple way without “dumbing it down". I’ve found this to be a great source of my own personal learning as I need to ensure that I fully understand the topic first to do so without destroying what it is that I am trying to get across.

Share Perspective
Everyone that attends these events comes from a different background and has their own life experiences that contribute to their value base and their viewpoints. I strive to share my perspective in my presentations and when I have the opportunity to field questions or discuss the content, learn from others perspectives.

Challenge Others
My first presentations were the result of Keith Parsons challenging people to step up and share. There are guys who present on some amazing technical material and it can be intimidating, however real world experience is what these conferences are all about and sharing experiences either through a presentation, through the questions that get asked, or even social discussions at the bar are welcome.

I look forward to the discussions ahead and both sharing with and learning from the other attendees.

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Aruba Extends Feature Velocity to Partners

Published by Shaun Neal

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One of the most promising announcements at Mobility Field Day Live with Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company for me had to be the introduction of ClearPass Extensions. The concept behind this feature is to leverage a repository within ClearPass, such that new features may be created and ran without compromising the integrity of the system and the underlying code with some sort of “engineering special". This functionality adds substantial value to an already feature rich ClearPass product.


ClearPass Extensions enabled Aruba partners such as Microsoft, Intel Security, Kasada, and Envoy to develop innovative features that may be released ahead of a major release of code which improves feature velocity and more importantly client satisfaction.
Currently this is a relatively closed system with Aruba handling the development as a professional services engagement, but as a service oriented partner we see the light at the end of the tunnel and are looking to truly create some differentiating features for our customers that provide tight integration of ClearPass with the business.
Aruba’s vision for where ClearPass Extensions will go includes a developer community and an “app store" enabling customers to download or purchase apps that have been developed specifically for ClearPass. Customers can also develop their own features, or engage any third party to do the integration for them in the future.
Creating an opportunity for partners to differentiate themselves from each other and rewarding those that truly understand their customer’s business is an appealing idea. Waiting on features that may take six months to be released during a standard release punishes those companies who are creative and forward looking.
This model rewards these organizations instead by giving them a competitive advantage and an option to potentially generate additional revenues depending on how the app stores comes to light. The potential opportunities of these extensions are seemingly infinite and the upside for organizations investing in this are tremendous.
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A Foundation for a Mobile First World

Published by Shaun Neal

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Aruba, a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise company, unveiled their new Mobile First Platform last week and I had a front row seat as one of the Mobility Field Day Live delegates. Aruba’s announcement was made a day prior to our session, so it was pretty exciting to discuss such a fresh topic. The foundation that Aruba is creating here is impressive and the implications are tremendous, especially if we look at extrapolating this in the near future.
Aruba announced the release of AOS version 8.0, which marks the first major overhaul of the code in quite some time. This release is at the center of Aruba’s Mobile First Platform and is designed to handle the next ten years of wireless, which is quite an ambitious goal as the near future has 802.11ax (aka Ten Gigabit Wi-Fi). Aruba highlighted that the intelligent layer of services required to run networks today is reaching its limits on controllers, so they have created a new alternative in the form of a Mobility Master that can run these intelligent services on behalf of the controller hardware. The Aruba Mobility Master has been virtualized so that it can run on an x86 virtual machine in VMWare (KVM coming soon with version 8.0.1). This new role replaces the now legacy Master Controller so most environments will benefit from a reduced amount of hardware on-site and can leverage investments already made for the new architecture where desired. Also of interest for most is that there is zero cost for these virtual machines, the only thing that matters is the number of access points are being managed. The primary tradeoff between a controller-based and virtualized infrastructure today is throughput as the VM-based controllers do not have hardware encryption modules and as a result they cap out around 4-5 Gbps.


Aruba has also introduced a new UI with AOS 8.0, which is a welcome feature as it had been fairly complicated for a new user. The new UI brings some much needed features such as simplified profiles, tab completion for profile names in the CLI, multithreading in the CLI, etc.
In-Service Upgrades are also new with the advent of AOS 8.0 and the Mobility Master. The increased compute and storage allow for services that now reside on the Mobility Master to be upgraded and impact the environment immediately without requiring an upgrade to access points or controller infrastructure.
Watch more on AOS8 via the Tech Field Day YouTube Channel.
Zero Touch Provisioning
Included in the move to a Mobility Master, is Aruba Zero Touch Provisioning which allows the Mobility Master to handle all configuration for controllers throughout the environment. Additionally, the previous requirement for the Mobility Controller and Access Controllers to be running the same version of code has been removed. The Mobility Master must run the latest code supported in the environment, but will be backwards compatible with older versions of code running on the controllers. This feature will greatly benefit risk adverse customers to quickly take advantage of the new features in administrative buildings, but maybe roll out slowly to a hospital or manufacturing site.
Multizone
The Multizone architecture allows for SSIDs to terminate to multiple controllers, creating an end-to-end encrypted session from client to controller when in tunneled mode. Terminating SSIDs on different controllers extends beyond the data flow and into how the AP is managed. Controller 1, as the primary, gets to set all of the AP settings (IP address, dhcp, etc..). Controller 2 gets to set only the settings for SSID 2. An admin of controller 2 cannot see any of the info for controller 1 including SSIDs, security types, auth servers, users, etc.

Clustering
Aruba AOS8 brings controller clustering to the table. All elements in the cluster must be running the same code and be part of the same family (e.g. All 72XXs running 8.0 code). State information is maintained for clients and access points with a designated backup controller within the cluster. The clusters also participate in user load balancing. Primary and Backup controller per user is maintained in the cluster and will be shared with AirWave later in the year. This is useful across all customer types, but especially those with very large campuses (e.g. higher education or Fortune 500 headquarters, etc.). Clusters scale to 12 controllers with 72XX series and 4 with 70XX controllers.


Clarity
Aruba Clarity allows the access points to associate to another access point and run synthetic tests from the “client AP" to the Clarity server, effectively building a baseline and providing tremendous visibility especially for remote sites. Clarity Live tracks DHCP and DNS requests and responses in real-time to profile the typical health of the network. Clarity Synthetic allows for RF performance testing, iPerf, web page loads to a URL (Salesforce, etc.) Upcoming features that were hinted at but not confirmed include scheduling and wired line monitoring and testing.



Another feature of AOS8 is Aruba’s new AirMatch feature that enables better channel reuse. This feature is important as legacy radio management was designed for a previous era of wireless networks. In today’s high capacity world that needs to support users and things the old way of doing things is not good enough. AirMatch looks at the system as a whole to maximize channel reuse and capacity on a daily basis and determines based on a day of usage what the best wireless combination of radios include. Advanced users will be able to tune AirMatch functionality to meet their needs from the command line, but this will be obscured from the GUI to protect users from causing harm.
APIs
The Mobility Master will have the context aware APIs that exist with Aruba’s Location Engine (ALE) to enable integrations with other systems via REST or published to other resources using a ZeroMQ to move that data to a database. Configuration APIs have also been enabled to allow APIs configure the network, SSIDs, etc.
AppRF
Enhancements have been added that enable categorization of applications and grouping of applications. For instance, a group called “Students" or “Nurses" could be created simplifying management. Custom applications are now supported and AppRF definitions are now treated like antivirus updates and can be updated without impact to the network.
In all I was impressed with what was announced for this release. Our delegate panel kept asking for more, but when you look at what has been accomplished, our requests were in line with what you’d expect this roadmap to look like as it unfolds. The shift to an API driven infrastructure is exactly where the world needs to be heading and abstracting software from hardware is inline with every other major shift in the industry. I am looking forward to the APs themselves running microservices in the future that can be upgraded, restarted, etc. with no impact to end users—it seems to be an inevitability at this point. This Mobile First Platform is well thought out and perfectly aligned with the automated and intelligent future that we are all looking for as it allows us to focus on the core business and offers much needed agility.
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Bluetooth World - Day One Recap

Published by Shaun Neal

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My Bluetooth World day one started with a great conversation over breakfast as I presented on the need and opportunity for innovation in healthcare using Bluetooth enabled solutions. Our group opened up and had some fantastic discussion around some of the barriers that are currently challenging this industry such as limited numbers of Bluetooth radios being integrated into medical device solutions for connectivity. We progressed to discussion on all of the possible use cases as well as the opportunity for the data from an IoT-enabled world of healthcare to create new use cases as we better understand interactions between machines and humans.

The keynote speeches and individual presentations had great information, I was most interested in the direction of Bluetooth and the features that are coming shortly, especially the improvements to the meshing capabilities and range as these will open the door for great new use cases.

Also of personal interest was Kiyo Kubo’s talk about Bluetooth LE at Levi’s Stadium and the pain of getting to where it is today. Kiyo had gone through all of the challenges around Apple reducing their probing rates to almost nil and randomization of MAC addresses in the probing frames, forcing a change over to Bluetooth. They then had to develop a number of tools to make it a success both from an initial deployment and long term manageability.

The Expo floor had a wide variety of use cases from BLE managed LED lighting that synced with car audio to IoT-enabled hearing aids that would use location and ambient sound to automatically adjust their sound levels and noise filtration via a cloud interface.
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Designing Wireless Networks for Clinical Communications

Published by Shaun Neal

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Healthcare presents one of the most challenging wireless environments in today's networking world. The unique blend of critical network applications and expectation of high speed ubiquitous wireless access for everyone is challenge enough and then numerous devices are layered on top. Clinical communications are critical to providing a high quality of care and has become an especially challenging environment to plan for. This post is intended to offer some guidance in designing these networks.

The Emergence of the Smartphone as a Clinical Communications Tool

Smartphones are joining the healthcare scene at increasing rates, companies such as Voalte, Mobile Heartbeat, PatientSafe and Vocera are bringing new features and functionality to market and are transforming communications at the point of care. These devices are typically either Apple iPhones or the Motorola MC40, however plenty of other variations exist. Each of these phones have numerous differences in how they behave. This differences vary from when they roam to how they handle packet loss, etc.

Access Point Transmit Power

In preparing to design for a clinical communications network a desired endpoint should be known. In almost all cases, Smartphones tend to have lower transmit power than what most admins are used to. As a result, we are designing wireless networks with transmit power of 10-12dBm rather than 14-17dBm as many legacy networks were built. This reduction in access point transmit power drives up the number of access points required to cover a facility by 25-50% depending on construction.

Data Rates

Disable lower data rates to reduce network overhead and functional cell size.

Access Point Placement

Fast roaming is critical to the performance of Voice over WiFi and for Smartphones this typically means leveraging 802.11r and 802.11k. Understanding how these protocols work and their impact on roaming is essential for success of any network being designed to support clinical communications. As a wireless engineer tasked with this design, the goal is to create small, clearly delineated cells with enough overlap to facilitate the roaming behavior of these mobile devices. If designed poorly, 802.11k can be a detriment to device roaming. Some general guidelines to follow:

  • Access points should be mounted in patient rooms and out of hallways whenever possible
  • Leverage interior service rooms to cover longer hallways--clean storage, food prep, case management offices, etc.
  • If you must place an AP in a hallway
    • consider planning to use short cross unit hallways rather than the long hallways wherever possible
    • consider using alcoves to your advantage to reduce the spread of the RF signal
  • Leverage known RF obstructions to help create clean roaming conditions that favor 802.11k
  • Overlap may need to be as much as 20% due to roaming algorithms in the smartphones
  • Pay attention to the location of patient bathrooms, facilities where these rooms are in the front of the patient room (near hallway) offer far more challenges than those where it is in the back of the room
  • Stagger APs between floors such that they are not vertically stacked on each other

Voice SSID

Configure for a single band whenever possible - you'll find that some vendors are still only comfortable with 2.4GHz. From experience this can work, but is not without issues either. As a general rule, I recommend using AppRF to view the applications using the SSID and prioritize them properly. Smartphones are always talking via multiple apps on multiple ports and this should be accounted for.

All Apps Are Not Created Equal

Certain mobile communications apps are simply not ready for the demands of a healthcare environment. Take the time to understand exactly how these apps are being used, on multiple occasions I've seen perceived "dropped" calls as an app issue rather than anything to do with the wireless network itself.

Test, Test, Test

This is still a relatively new application for Voice over WiFi and it will require effort to get it right. Extensive testing is typically needed to get these deployments 100% dialed in. Tuning from AP placements to transmit power tweaks should be expected to some degree.
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Aruba Networks Sensors Everything

Published by Shaun Neal

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In case you missed it, Aruba Networks, an HP Enterprise Company announced the availability of their new Aruba Sensor product this week. This was spoken about at Atmosphere back in March, but then had seemingly disappeared. This new sensor enables Aruba Network's Meridian cloud analytics and wayfinding solution and best in class beacon management capabilities to be used on any wireless network. These sensors have a Low-Energy Bluetooth (BLE) radio to act as a beacon and manage other beacons in within a 25 meter radius and a wireless radio to provide network connectivity. Power is delivered through either AC power or USB and both power options offer security locks to ensure the safety of the Sensor. Making the same solution available for any wireless network is a huge deal as it allows for standardization of an engagement solution. ClearPass, Meridian and the Aruba Sensor/Beacon offer tremendous capabilities for any organization's network. Kudos to the team for embracing the market as a whole!



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Who's Got it Better Than Aruba? Nobody, When It's Integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Published by Shaun Neal

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Wireless Field Day wrapped up last week with an incredible visit to Levi's Stadium, home of my San Francisco 49ers. As both a rabid football and Wi-Fi fan, it doesn't get any better than this to culminate an already awesome week. Aruba Networks and Levi's Stadium have set a new bar in terms of connectivity, engagement with the fan base and building for the mobile generation. Mobile Engagement at the stadium is done leveraging a custom app that has been location enabled using Aruba's Meridian SDK and a hybrid Wi-Fi and low energy bluetooth (BLE) infrastructure. If you aren't familiar with beacons and low energy bluetooth, please refer to my previous posts on the subject as they will serve as a good primer.

Managing and Deploying a Beacon Infrastructure
We've all seen a lot of hype around what BLE can do for you, but little has been mentioned about some of the challenges around managing these infrastructures. I had an opportunity to spend some time with Aruba Meridian back in January of this year and go through a class in which we built an underlying beacon infrastructure configuration and then developed an app that used that infrastructure. This process involved using the Aruba Beacons app and individually configuring each beacon. This process applies for firmware upgrades and reprogramming the beacons as well, even after deployment unless some other system is in place. Inherently beacons require that you are within their proximity 30-50' typically to do this kind of work. Needless to say in an environment like Levi's Stadium this would be unmanageable.


The Aruba Advantage
Aruba's infrastructure enables the management of beacons via bluetooth radios resident on their new access points or retrofit on the previous generation of APs via a USB bluetooth beacon. Aruba entered the hardware world of beacons to do right by their customers in developing an end-to-end solution that is supportable. This configuration enables beacon configuration and firmware updates to be executed via the Meridian cloud and pushed down to the beacons via controllers/instant APs and over the bluetooth radios to the beacons themselves.

Meridian
I have been a fan of Meridian Apps from the beginning and commend Aruba for pulling the trigger and acquiring the company. The "better together" mantra definitely rings true here as Meridian simplifies the most difficult piece of engaging customers--the mobile app. If you've never explored this world, it is a confusing mix of custom app developers, SDKs, etc. each with their own pros and cons. Meridian offers two levels of integration, one is the Meridian app maker and the second is the their SDK.

AppMaker and Navigation
The AppMaker simplifies the app creation process so much that most organizations could do this themselves if desired. I do recommend some guidance around the structure and design of the app, but it is built so that a marketing person could actually construct the app. My first go at building an app that included some points of interest, wayfinding, etc. took a couple of hours for something that would pass as an enterprise-grade mobile app. I've made multiple comments on social media about the wayfinding capabilities, especially the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) routing. The mobile app creator simply draws in the "roads" and the Meridian engine handles the routing. For each of these roads there is a flag as to whether or not that road is ADA accessible, enabling a user to request accessible routing if desired.

BluDot
"Google Maps, but Indoors" is one of the phrases heard most when it comes to describing what wayfinding is to the layperson. Aruba's BluDot solution gives you that real-time blue dot experience that shows you your current position. This makes finding directions easier as there is no need to enter a source and a destination, you simply need to know where you want to go. BluDot is powered by a combination of beacons and the Meridian cloud service and is the best in the business at doing this. The maps use a scalar vector floor plan to ensure navigation and zooming in/out look great and enable the app creator to create points of interest throughout the map.


Campaigns
Campaigns are the traditional push messaging of the beaconing world and allow for interaction with end users. Campaigns can be configured to run once, on a set schedule, or for a particular zone. Again Aruba does a brilliant job in making this easy to implement and understand. These push messages can make your visitors aware of a guest network, offer incentives, make them aware of current promotions, etc.


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Wireless Field Day 8 - Day Two

Published by Shaun Neal

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Thursday October 1st marks day two of Wireless Field Day. Follow us live at http://techfieldday.com/event/wfd8/ and if you want to join in on the conversation, reach out to me or any of the other delegates as we can ask questions on your behalf. Follow us on twitter at #WFD8. I will be blogging about the event throughout the next two days, so stay tuned for additional information. Video recordings will be made available shortly after Wireless Field Day comes to a conclusion.

Cisco Systems (9-11am PST)
Cisco enables people to make powerful connections--whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible--providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company's inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 65,225 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company's core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies such as home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, and wireless technology. In addition to its products, Cisco provides a broad range of service offerings, including technical support and advanced services. Cisco sells its products and services, both directly through its own sales force as well as through its channel partners, to large enterprises, commercial businesses, service providers, and consumers.
Learn more at http://www.cisco.com.

Zebra Technologies (12:30-2:30pm PST)
Zebra Technologies Corporation builds actionable information and insight, giving companies unprecedented visibility into their businesses by giving physical things a digital voice. Zebra’s extensive portfolio of solutions give real-time visibility into everything from products and physical assets to people, providing very precise operational data not only about where things are, but what condition they are in. This allows business leaders to use data to make better, more informed decisions, respond, and ultimately, help businesses understand how they work, and how they could work better.
Learn more at http://www.zebra.com.

Aruba Networks (3:30-5:30pm PST)
Aruba Networks, an HP company, is a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and delivers Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and #GenMobile, a new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their mobile devices for every aspect of work and personal communication. To create a mobility experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance optimization and trigger security actions that used to require manual IT intervention. The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower operational costs.
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Thank you Wireless Field Day

Published by Shaun Neal

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I've been watching the content published on Wireless Field Day ever since I had first heard about it late in 2011. The presenters have to be on point given their demanding immediate audience and the results are fantastic. The team is interested in real world performance rather than marketing spin. Going under the hood and digging into the inner workings of the technologies in a public setting is such a great way to build confidence in a product and it enables me to better set expectations for my customers when I am out educating them on the market. I recently went to the site to check out the upcoming event and found that there was interest in finding new delegates for Wireless Field Day, so I reached out and am so glad that I did. After a few discussions, I was officially offered a delegate spot for Wireless Field Day 8 and couldn't be more thrilled about it.

For me, this is where the work begins. I am honored to be part of this group, but also feel challenged to step up and contribute like some of others in our great community do. Thank you WFD, I am excited and humbled by the offer and look to make this the best WFD yet.

Tune in Oct 30-Sept 2 at the site below.
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Shaun Neal

Shaun Neal

Technical blog sharing my thoughts on the state of the industry, especially as it pertains to location-enabling wireless, security and the Internet of Things. Posts and opinions here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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