Best Practices for branch office wireless networks

The popularity of mobile devices has made the network of branch offices more and more demanding Wi-Fi. A wide range of companies are deployed in dozens of locations, even if they do not need to deploy branch office wireless networks in hundreds of places. Mainstream network providers are aware of these challenges and provide branch office wireless network solutions that meet these needs.

"The problem with the remote office is that there is usually no support from IT department. "said Paul de Bias, vice president of wireless and mobile applications at Gartner Inc. Few companies have arranged for administrators in the company to deploy and manage branch wireless networks, Debias said, a branch solution must meet certain requirements, for example, a wireless branch network must be easy to install, centralized diagnostics, remote functionality, and relatively inexpensive.

"Almost every supplier will have some branch office solutions. "Most businesses end up with the same suppliers as their headquarters, and the affiliates use the same stuff," he said. For example, the company headquarters uses Cisco, then the division also uses Cisco. ”

Branch Office wireless network products There are some key differences, enterprises should know the following points before selecting suppliers for branch offices.

Remote Diagnostics

Resolving a network connection is a problem for a branch office because you can't see the wireless signal. And that's where the spectrum analysis technology works. At the corporate headquarters, you can use a handheld spectrum analyzer with your IT staff to identify sources of interference. And in the Wireless branch network, you have to put the same technology into the wireless access point. Debias recommends that enterprises only deploy access points with embedded spectrum analysis technology. This will allow for remote identification of interference. If you do not, then the problem will not be resolved.

Spectrum analysis technology is available in most providers ' access points. However, Cisco's hardware-based cleanair charge higher, while companies such as Aruba Networks and Motorola use commercial silicon to build this functionality. "Wi-Fi chips and all applications have spectrum analysis, so they don't charge an extra fee. He said, "Cisco says they work better." Aruba said ' We have solved the problem, so no extra charge is required. ' When consumers decide whether to buy an item, they will consider whether the item is worth the money. ”

Network Management System

In addition to the visible Wi-Fi spectrum, the network team also needs to access historical data to troubleshoot problems in branch office wireless networks. Wi-Fi troubleshooting differs from Wired, because the wireless problem depends on the location and is temporary. Wireless problems vary with the location of the connection and change over time. For example, a user in a division might contact technical support to tell him that he cannot connect to a wireless network for hours. When the technician receives his call, the wireless connection may not be a problem, but the cause of the failure can not be identified.

In order to solve the network problem of Wireless branch office, it needs a wireless network management system, including a database which records the real-time state of the network, and associates it with the information data of the partition organization. "A network management system needs to collect information about each access point-error rate, interference, and number of devices-and when a problem is received from a division call, technical support can determine the crux of the matter through the records of the past few hours." "Not every wireless management system can collect data based on time and place," Debias said. This is the key aspect of the system. ”

Branch Office wireless network architecture

Wireless Branch office network products are also very different in architecture, especially its controller function. The control plane of the Wireless branch office network can be in the access point itself, in the cloud environment or in the central location: often at the enterprise headquarters of the data center. In a centralized, controller-based architecture, the Wireless LAN controller determines how wireless traffic is handled. This method increases latency when the access point sends packets to the controller.

Cisco has a controller-based architecture that can centrally forward data-traffic is sent to a central controller via a Cisco hybrid remote edge access point (H-REAP). Aruba's architecture is similar to Cisco's, but it adjusts the access point to make forwarding decisions at branch offices. The Aruba Mobile Virtual Enterprise (move) architecture allows branch offices to have up to 16 stand-alone access points, one of which serves as a controller for branch office wireless networks.

Debias said: "Aerohive controller is relatively small, Meraki is based on the cloud controller." Motorola's architecture has a central control device, but it is embedded with the Wing 5 architecture into the access point so that the branch's access point can be forwarded to the decision. This is a controller based architecture that allows for distributed forwarding. Traffic may slow down when sent to the controller, and vendors who do not need a central controller say this creates bottlenecks. However, they can be configured so that the traffic in the branch office remains local. ”