Today I am sitting in on the first Asia Pacific #WiFiDesignDay - kindly brought to Sydney, Australia by @ekahau. Here is a brief play by play as it runs...

Mark Krischer from Cisco kicked off the day of guest presentations explaining the fundamentals of RF. The key take away was revealed nice and early. “You have two levers” which are increasing signal and reducing noise. This is a great lesson for newcomers to the WiFi space but equally important as a reminder to old-hats. To the new comer it creates new questions about how you might go about achieving positive outcomes with these levers. For old hats it should keep their minds wizzing around the concepts and realities of what these levers truly encompass.

Matt Fowler (Mist) Discussed A.I. I’m not a fan of using the term A.I. to-date because it simply is a misnomer in the context it’s used. To be fair he also spoke a lot of Machine Learning which is actually the technology being implemented today (and called often wrongly labelled A.I.). It was great to see where Machine Learning can, Will and does improve our Wi-Fi networks and the workflows of those managing Wi-Fi networks.

Jim Steinbacher from WatchGuard talked us through the present day threats and reality of hacking WiFi. The climax of Jim’s presentation was when he admitted he had been running a Karma attack using a discreetly placed Wi-Fi Pineapple. Jim was able to demonstrate how the attendees clients were sharing too much as he listed off the SSIDs many thought were private at their homes. It was cool to see the disbelief across the room. A lot of the attendees were initially stumped as to how this was happening.

Having Keith Parsons (WLAN Professionals) in town was a treat. These days Keith comes to Australia a lot more than he used to to run various training courses (ESCE and CWNA). Keith started by encouraging those in the room who weren’t on Twitter or blogging to start both today. It was the classic hands up to solemnly swear they’ll get on it.

Then Keith got to the meat... He explained that WiFi is working, even when the experience is bad.
Keith showed the group that a system can be brittle if you don’t follow design rules. His analogy was brilliant, utilising LEGO and a simple set of requirements. What a great introduction. Keith is a master of story telling - and this is why you should do whatever it takes to go and sit in on one of Keith’s training courses. Even (if not especially) if you think you know it all about Wi-Fi.

More to come after lunch...

Aaron Scott (Aruba) has been spending a lot of time designing and overseeing the installation of a sports stadium in Sydney. He shared today some of his experiences on this project. After overcoming some extreme voice attenuation caused by a massive flame-red beard Aaron kicked off by outlining the great variation in requirements across the different areas and user scenarios in a stadium (from Media personnel to spectators lining up for food). Not everyone will have the pleasure of designing Wi-Fi for a stadium but a lot of the theory that goes in to planning this type of environment can be very useful across other designs. Aaron explained a method to calculating the total system throughput which can aid the backhaul planning requirements wired and Internet connectivity.

From multi-stage stadium deployments (over years) to half covered, half non covered stadiums - Aaron has met many challenges which had to be overcome. Cost considerations and engineering experiences were great insights throughout the presentation.

The day’s formalities were finalised with an expert panel prepared to answer the toughest attendees questions. Matt Fowler, Aaron Scott, Stephen Cooper, Keith Parsons and Jussi Kiviniemi sat up front and shared knowledge and opinion about:

• LTE-U as a threat to Wi-Fi
  • Keith reminded the room that LTE-U is NOT the same as 5G
  • He also stated that it poses a great threat to Wi-Fi and that carriers are only interested in ARPU aka Average Revenue Per User
  • LTE-U has the potential to completely overwhelm the frequency we currently have available for Wi-Fi
• 6GHz as an unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum (more than 1 GHz of channel)
  • The FCC could possibly have auctioned that spectrum off for half a trillion dollars, but they saw the economic benefit of making it free
  • This frequency is not available for use in Australia or New Zealand to date
• Packet Captures to deeper understand issues
• Further standards to simplify client behavior
• Shaving minimum basic rates, check retry rates
  • Keith explained at pace how you can use WireShark to grab the key data from a packet capture. MetaGeek’s Eye PA, OmniPeek can all help to show this data. MCS, Data Rate and Retry rates are all valuable knowledge.
• Will 802.11ax help in high density designs? Should we drop backwards compatibility?
  • The PHY is referred to as High Efficiency
  • .11ax will bring better efficiencies of airtime use, but it is reliant on client capability
  • We aren’t efficient today because we have to be backwards compatible. Two preambles are required today for VHT packets. People are lobbying for the dropping of backwards compatility  6GHz space.
• Will Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) test interoperability testing for roaming?
  • The practicality of this was questioned. Roaming is highly proprietary.
  • Is there a benefit to the WFA? 
• Is there anything exciting you would like to see come from the industry?
  • Jussi wanted to see 60GHz hit the indoor space for high throughput. Surprising the only vendor to do this in the enterprise space was Aruba with an outdoor point to point AP.
  • 60GHz is covered by 802.11ad and 802.11ay. The latter may have more benefits indoor according to Stephen.
  • Matthew is excited about complementary technologies including BLE or gateway type devices. Analytics and health data communicated by API out of the WiFi system in to other systems.
• Will we see a new standard that allows us to move away from the pre shared key?
  • Maybe, but we’re stuck with it for a while (Jim)
• Will we see tri-radio chipsets or clients?
  • This is largely outside of the decision making of the AP vendors as they use third party chips. It’s about waiting and seeing what comes.
  • You are good to survey for .11ax with your sidekick because .11ac chips are good at this
• Can we do something within the wireless network to help overcome the difficiencies of Internet (think nbn) here in Australia?
  • Knowledge sharing and use of tools to prove that these issues are not occurring at the WiFi. 
  • Keith says the worlds beat WiFi looks terrible with the worlds worst backhaul. WiFi is simply a transport for these other services. We cannot do anything on WiFi to improve the experience of bad backhaul.
• Can we help the end user troubleshoot and understand where in the infrastructure issues exist?
  • Jussi hinted that he cannot comment on roadmap! Yay!
  • Then we heard a tip about an Easter egg in the Ookla speedtest app
  • A reminder to mark QoS appropriately throughout the link.
• What benefits does WPA3 bring?
  • Vendors need to better work together.
• Could you use Cloud check to better understand the link?
  • Cloud check is good, but not a trustable data. But it does provide assistance in understanding the ratio between local vs internet traffic.
  • The use of some of Adrian Granados tools can help too.
• Can things like 802.11k or vendor proprietary roaming “fixes” help?
  • Focus on the basics first. Channel and transmit powers can have an enormous effect on roaming.
  • Clients must be capable of using .11k v or r and then the way that is implemented may different between client types.
  • Seperate band SSIDs can reduce these issues.
• Thoughts on Single Channel Virtual Cell?
  • There is a certain amount of frequency space and air time and a limitation of bits that can be sent within those realms. But roaming can be fantastic with this type of design.
  • A representative from Fortinet spoke and stated that the roaming decision is taken away fro the client, roaming can go down to as fast as 3ms. It’s not utilised in high density scenarios.
  • Keith said it’s a really neat trick for roaming but as long as you are under the capacity of a single channel.

There is an Easter Egg on the iOS version of the Ookla Speedtest app. Hold down the Go button for a long period of time until your phone starts vibrating.

Then there was Beer! Thanks for following along.

Have you ever been asked if Wi-Fi is bad for our health? If you work with Wi-Fi you will have faced this question at least once, if not once every other month. There is a lot of misinformation, but lets not start with that.

Recently I was asked to provide advice on the safety of Wi-Fi in regards to human health - this came up because I had made a recommendation to place Access Points underneath seats in a tiered seat (cinema style) theatre. The under-seat design is a story for another time. It occurred to me that the audience who had raised the concern of the proximity of Access Points to people would most likely be non-technical and would not had heard "The Spiel" before. I wanted to be as prepared as possible and armed with the most up to date information I could find. So I spent an entire Saturday reading through information - here is what I found.

When reading about the effects of electromagnetic energy exposure it is important to note the radio frequencies of Wi-Fi are limited in range. Many of the studies and documents that are available relate to much wider frequencies (e.g. 0 - 300 GHz) or very targeted frequencies used in other technologies such as cellular base stations for mobile phones. The most common frequencies used for Wi-Fi occur between 2.4 GHz and 5.9 GHz.

It is also important to note that the majority of Wi-Fi deployments will operate at a transmission power much lower to the services in other frequencies such as cellular, TV and Radio broadcast.

While I've provided links to the various articles and content I have also included snippets for those who find it all a bit TLDR.

ARPANSA - Australian Radiaton Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
Australian Government’s primary authority on radiation protection and nuclear safety. ARPANSA protect the Australian people and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation through understanding risks, best practice regulation, research, policy, services, partnerships and engaging with the community.

ACMA - Australian Communications and Media Authority
The independent statutory authority tasked with ensuring most elements of Australia's media and communications legislation, related regulations, and numerous derived standards and codes of practice operate effectively and efficiently, and in the public interest. ACMA is a 'converged' regulator, created to oversee the convergence of the four 'worlds' of telecommunications, broadcasting, radio communications and the internet.

WHO - World Health Organisation
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The IEEE Standards Authority is an organization within IEEE that develops global standards in a broad range of industries, including: power and energy, biomedical and health care, information technology and robotics, telecommunication among others.

The Wi-Fi Alliance and Wi-Fi equipment manufacturers (aka Vendors) also submit perspectives and points of information to the mix. I deliberately leave material sourced from these organisations to last as it is, in most cases, referencing other material already covered by other organisations. It's also worth noting that both vendors and the Wi-Fi Alliance have an obvious bias towards finding and presenting the positive side of the story.

It is my opinion that the Wi-Fi Alliance should not be considered a reliable source for health or medical based information. Vendor information should be followed for safe use and operation guidelines but like information from the Wi-Fi Alliance should not be used as the basis for medical advice.

WFA - Wi-Fi Alliance
Wi-Fi Alliance defines innovative, standards-based Wi-Fi technologies and programs, certifies products that meet quality, performance, security, and capability standards, provides industry thought leadership, and advocates globally for fair spectrum rules.

WFA: Wi-Fi® and Health/Safety Brochure
https://www.wi-fi.org/download.php?file=/sites/default/files/private/Wi-Fi_and_Health_Brochure_2015_0.pdf
The wireless industry continually monitors information about RF health and related regulatory or policy changes to stay informed of up-to-date research and to be sure that the public can continue to have confidence in the safety of its products. In addition, Wi-Fi Alliance® supported two independent research studies both published in Health Physics, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The first was an independent exposure study that conducted 356 measurements at 55 sites (including schools and hospitals) in four countries around the world. This study concluded that in all cases, the measured Wi-Fi signal levels were very far below international exposure limits (IEEE C95.1-2005 and ICNIRP) and in nearly all cases, far below other RF signals in the same environments.

WFA: Wi-Fi and Health
https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-and-health
Due to the ubiquity of Wi-Fi technology, questions about the safety of radio waves and Wi-Fi devices tend to arise from time to time. The wireless industry takes these concerns very seriously.

There is always a possibility that the organisations referenced above will adopt new testing or theories which bring a different perspective. I recommend you stay informed and periodically review the information available. If you do find what I've shared here useful please let me know with a comment below.