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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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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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Hyperlocation, A New Era of Location Services

Published by Shaun Neal

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I had the opportunity this week to visit Cisco Systems with the the Wireless Field Day 8 crew this past week to discuss the updates to the Cisco location services roadmap. This space has been a passion of mine for a number of years and to see major advances in the last 12-18 months has really gotten me energized again about the possibilities that are out there.


Cisco provided a recap of how we got to where we are today and I wanted to do the same to ensure that the concepts here are captured properly.

Triangulation
Location services use the triangulation concept to position a device within some probability of accuracy. In the example below, the object being tracked is roughly equidistant from the access points in the upper and left access points and a bit further from the right access point. As you may already know, under most conditions the best accuracy that can be expected is 3-5 meters and there is no certainty that the tracked client will be in a specific room as it could be on the other side of a wall, etc. This has lead to minimal adoption of location services as often this information simply isn't good enough to be useful. It's also important to note as Cisco mentioned in their discussion that for a packet to be seen by all three APs in this scenario, it must be a broadcast packet. On many devices, broadcast packets are becoming more uncommon while associated to an access point. This means that the refresh rate of this location information is slowing down, decreasing its usefulness further.


FastLocate
One of Cisco's recent innovations to assist this refresh rate issue is known as FastLocate. This uses data packets to improve the rate at which we see packets. Since data packets only exist between the client and the AP that it is associated (green arrow in the FastLocate diagram), the other APs have to go off-channel briefly to hear these packets as well. This process improves the refresh rate from approximately 1 frame per 60 seconds to 1 frame per 10 seconds. It's important to note that while this does not improve the actual location measurements, it does provide more data points which allows for better overall resolution and causes less "jumping" in which clients appear to teleport from one location to another.


Cisco's Hyperlocation Module (HALO)
The HALO module was the highlight of the Cisco presentation for me as I had not seen one of these up close yet. The HALO module leverages a 32 element (16 2.4GHz and 32 dual-band 2.4/5GHz) phased array antenna that sits on a collar surrounding the access point and attaches via a special connector on the new wireless security module. This array is comprised of directional antennas which enables far greater location accuracy and is truly the first real leap in wireless location accuracy in quite some time. Since each of these antennas are facing different directions and are all slightly located apart from each other, it is possible for the APs to calculate Angle of Arrival (AoA) in the wireless signal. This combined with the traditional triangulation allows for very specific accuracy down to approximately 1 meter, which is competitive with BLE capabilities. Further testing will be required to see if these claims hold up and if we can see actual room level (or better yet bed, etc.) accuracy, but I believe strongly that this will be the case in most situations. Currently this limited to associated clients only, but there is a near term roadmap for products that beacon on regular intervals such as RTLS tags. Tracking unassociated devices is of lesser priority right now, but is on the road map.



Halo to Usher in a New Era of Location Services for Healthcare
Enabling an infrastructure with serious location capabilities isn't cheap at roughly $1000 per access point (MSRP), so the use cases need to be substantial. HALO is a premium engagement and location offering that will not be adopted by the masses, however those who can leverage it effectively stand to offer tremendous value to their customers, patients, stakeholders, etc. Hospital environments to be the single most valuable environment for HALO, especially after RTLS tags are added to the mix. This environment is highly mobile and ripe for disruptive location technologies that can automate work flow and enable meaningful interactions and engagement. Hospitals today leverage multiple location systems that facilitate portions of work flow, however very infrequently are they integrated together well enough to gain additional actionable insights. There are a number of point products addressing nurse rounding, locating wheelchairs and beds, theft prevention (babies and assets), etc. Some of the "bleeding edge" use cases include playing a loved one's voice over IP speakers to coax an elderly patient back into bed or having a display cheer up a child who is battling cancer when they near the screen. In theory, this HALO module is enabling a world in which we know where every associated wireless device is down to a matter of feet, without necessitating RTLS tags. This opens the data floodgates for actionable intelligence at unprecedented levels.

Work Flow Optimization
RTLS vendors have been selling their solutions for years to address these issues and while there are clear ROIs in most cases, it still doesn't get adopted due to significant cost and/or limitations for a single purpose system. HALO offers the ability to gain insight into numerous inefficiencies within a hospital and can improve any investment already made in tags and RTLS systems. More importantly a truly location-enabled work flow could facilitate meaningful interruption ensuring that nurses are only getting notifications when absolutely necessary and routing other requests to someone who is better positioned to assist a patient quickly. These use cases have been well defined over the years and HALO is an enabler to making these a reality.

Throughput Analytics
Integrated with Prime and the MSE, HALO can provide improved throughput analytics for the waiting rooms. I'd expect this to get down to individual care arcs in which an organization could track a single patient progressing through their visit and providing trends. This would provide feedback into the work flow optimization process and enable further analysis of the changes made to the work flow processes.

Patient Engagement
There has been a lot of buzz around "mobile engagement" lately and as a professional in this field I can attest that there certainly are many options and the jury is out as to which is the best one at this point. I am a huge proponent of the Low-Energy Bluetooth solutions out there, however HALO may be the first "Wi-Fi only" offering that offers the ability to truly engage with BLE-like location capabilities. Organizations evaluating these solutions need to account for the care and feeding of a BLE-based solution as like many of the RTLS offerings there is a battery powered infrastructure that has to be maintained.

Turning Low-Energy Bluetooth (BLE) Upside Down
One of the major limitations to the Low-Energy Bluetooth solutions is that they are almost exactly backwards from RTLS solutions in that mobile assets are required to interact with fixed (usually) assets. This typically means an app on a Smartphone (carried by a mobile user) is the typical mode of engagement and this is an active process. A few use cases of cropped up recently in which a BLE-beacon is strapped to a patient to monitor them as they move through an environment. To accomplish this the interaction points along the way require a tablet mounted to the wall to pick up on the patient's tag and initiate the engagement work flow. This reverse BLE-solution is somewhat innovative and solves a specific problem, however we need a world in which mobile assets are interacting with other assets on demand and relative proximity to each other should be irrelevant as long as I have access to the back end data. I believe that HALO is positioned to do exactly this as it evolves and in doing so will allow the use of Wi-Fi based geofencing capabilities indoor, reducing or possibly even eliminating the need for traditional fixed beacons. At the very least this will provide us new deployment options and can be combined with a BLE infrastructure to offer infinite interaction capabilities.

Internet of Things
The items above all point towards enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) and allowing real time interactions between devices to the betterment of the healthcare environment. An example of this could be the lifecycle of an infusion pump. These devices follow a predictable cycle in which they move from being clean through being attached to a patient and ultimately wind up having to be cleaned again before being released back to the care areas. In this scenario, alarms could be triggered by a device that has not been put in a maintenance mode and is following an unexpected path, possibly avoiding a dirty pump being brought to a patient, etc.

Using HALO
Effectively using HALO requires that the APs are mounted to the ceiling grid as they need clear line of sight. Density is expected to be at least one AP every 50' with each covering roughly 2500 square feet. Environments using smartphones, etc. will typically see smaller square footages per AP due to the requirements of those smartphones, so the density of these modules will be higher.

Installations are expected to take longer due to specific needs around mounting locations. X,Y,Z coordinates need to be exact as well as the HALO module rotational orientation and alignment with antenna 0 of the 32 element array. These positions must be set in Prime 3.0 to provide proper location capabilities.


HALO Requirements
Cisco 3600/3700 AP (and future access points)
Cisco Wireless LAN Controller running 8.1 MR3 (8.1.123.x)
Cisco Prime 3.0
Cisco Mobility Services Engine
Cisco Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) 10.2.1


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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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Wireless Field Day 8 is here!

Published by Shaun Neal

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Today marks the beginning of Wireless Field Day 8! 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.

Cambium Networks (10-Noon PST)
Cambium Networks is a leading global provider of wireless broadband solutions that connect the unconnected. Through its extensive portfolio of reliable, scalable and secure wireless broadband point-to-point (PTP) and point-to-multipoint (PMP) platforms, Cambium Networks makes it possible for all service providers; enterprises; governmental and military agencies; oil, gas and utility companies; Internet service providers; and public safety networks to build powerful, easily sustainable communications networks. The company currently has over four million of its access and backhaul radios deployed in thousands of demanding networks in more than 150 countries. Headquartered outside Chicago and with R&D centers in the U.S., Ashburton, U.K. and Bangalore, India, Cambium Networks sells through a range of trusted global distributors.


Cradlepoint (1-3pm PST)
Cradlepoint is the global leader in cloud-managed 4G LTE networking solutions, providing business-grade and secure connectivity to distributed enterprises with hundreds or thousands of locations. Specializing in failover solutions with OOBM, M2M/IoT, transportation and Parallel Networking, Cradlepoint's award-winning solutions are purpose built for PCI-compliant networks. Cradlepoint was the first to pioneer and fully enable high-speed LTE solutions to maximize the potential of the cloud for businesses worldwide. Cradlepoint is a privately held company in Boise, Idaho.


Ruckus Wireless (4-6pm PST)
Ruckus Wireless is a pioneer in the wireless infrastructure market, enabling carriers and enterprises to stay ahead of the exploding demand for high-bandwidth applications and services. The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi technology redefines what’s possible in wireless network performance with flexibility, reliability, and affordability.

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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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