Wireless Planning and Management

Today's online world technology is no longer limited. We need to pay attention to the same management and planning technology. Here we will detail how to effectively manage networks in enterprises.

Nowadays, new businesses and new applications of enterprises are in urgent need of mobility brought about by wireless networks. However, how to better add wireless layers on the basis of the original network so that they can be fully integrated into the enterprise network without affecting the original network has become an important issue in front of the next-generation enterprise network. In biology, it is necessary to have the same or similar components in the internal structure, physiology, and genetics of the ear and root stocks, so that the survival rate of grafting is higher. Wireless grafting also provides similar guidance methods.

How to embody Enterprise Mobility

To solve the grafting problem of wireless networks, we must first understand the meaning of enterprise mobility. In this regard, Yang Hua, general manager of Aruba China, said: "In Aruba's view, the mobility of enterprise networks is reflected in the identification of user identities, the network usage scope, access permissions, policies, and security are all moved with the user. the user is not limited to the port and Access Point of the physical network, instead, the network can be securely used anywhere within the enterprise network." The customer-centric network strategy promoted by Aruba reflects the mobility of enterprises. Under such architecture, users at the edge of the access layer can freely move within the enterprise and access the network with the same identity and policy. The reason why users can achieve mobility at the edge of the network is the centralized control of wireless switches.

Content and principles of wireless Planning

Since the development of enterprise mobility is to allow users to move on the wireless layer, the wireless network planning at the early stage of "grafting" is crucial, enterprises must follow relevant methods and design principles when re-planning the overall network architecture.

Chu bin said that the wireless network plan is mainly to test the connectivity of wireless signals, and whether the signal coverage and strength can meet user requirements. This requires on-site investigation. using various tools, the edge signal strength should be no less than 60%. The planning of wireless performance is actually a three-in-one plan of coverage, performance, and security. It is mainly about Whether AP's concurrency capability can meet the functional characteristics required by enterprises, and whether the distribution of AP dynamic ACL can be equivalent to that of wired. In addition, it is more important to achieve unified security of wired and wireless networks in the enterprise network.

Pay attention to actual deployment

What should I pay attention to when I understand the content and principles of wireless planning in actual deployment? Fluke is a vendor specializing in network and communication testing equipment. The company's Beijing Office Technical Expert Wu Shijun said: Wireless planning includes initial deployment and planned expansion. Before planning, we must first clarify the objectives and coverage requirements for laying wireless networks. Then, the site survey should be started based on detailed and clear technical requirements. These technical parameters include the expected access rate, the AP coverage and the number of APs, and the number of users connected to wireless networks now and in the future, signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio (allowable RF interference intensity ). Special attention should be paid to the identification through wireless spectrum analysis that there will be no serious RF interference problems in the future wireless networks. Note that you must be proactive when considering the technical requirements of wireless planning. For example, if the number of users increases in the future and the deployment of high-bandwidth applications needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Wireless Planning

In the actual deployment process, wireless planning and performance analysis tools are also used. Wu Shijun said that network engineers often use three Fluke tools: Fluke InterpretAir Wireless LAN analysis software, the software can check coverage and optimize network performance before and after the wireless LAN deployment. The second is AnalyzeAir Wi-Fi smart spectrum analyzer, by detecting, identifying, and locating RF interference in the 802.11 WLAN, you can plan, deploy, verify, and expand your wireless LAN to ensure seamless coverage of Wireless LAN signals. The next step is EtherScope network access, this device can be used for hand-held network troubleshooting of 10 MB, MB, and MB copper wires, optical fibers, and WLAN. In addition, the site survey software package is also needed to show how WLAN configurations change performance and coverage. More importantly, the AP settings are corrected through surveys, improve WLAN performance and coverage by adding AP or other methods.

In fact, various wireless network device manufacturers have their own network testing and analysis software. For example, the RingMaster software of Trapeze is used to input parameters such as building floor, room CAD drawings, wall loss parameters, and bandwidth to be provided by each AP, you can determine the number, location, spectrum planning, estimated AP power, and other output parameters of the AP. You can also get an image coverage chart and a wireless network layout sequence planning table.

Unified management and security of Wired/Wireless Networks

For wireless grafting, the first step is to plan and deploy the wireless network. The problem of "grafting is easy to survive" also exists in the enterprise network. At present, the enterprise network is not good at accessing and managing mobile devices, and thus the overall security risk is also serious. Therefore, it is critical for enterprise networks with wireless networks to achieve unified management of wired and wireless networks to ensure network security consistency.

Integrated Management Platform

Network management involves two aspects: network device management and user management. The unified management mentioned here is actually a problem of user identity consistency in the entire network compared with the user management layer. Lin Tao said that currently, in many enterprise networks, authentication gateways are used to manage users' access to the Internet through wired access. After joining the wireless network, you can achieve unified management by sharing the user database of the existing authentication system, and authenticate users' wireless access through Web Portal. Zhang yaosheng also believes that the network platform has similar wired/wireless authentication methods. wired and wireless users can use the same authentication method and Access Gateway to assign unified access permissions to users, in this way, no matter whether the user is connected to a wireless network or a wired network, their access permissions to the network are the same. In addition, the two network management tools can be integrated. For example, Trapeze's RingMaster (supporting SNMP) can be integrated into HP's ProCurve OpenView to form a unified management platform for Wired/wireless networks.

In terms of device management, wireless networks and wired networks are also similar, which are all about configuration and monitoring. However, the two have the biggest difference in details. Wang Zhuo said that because the spectrum environment of the wireless network is changing at any time, it is also necessary for the wireless network to have environmental detection and adaptive and optimization functions for changes.