Wireless Update

1 Byron Early & Chad Burnham

University Technology Services

January 12, 2006 @ Westnet Meetings

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Overview of Topics

 General Overview of Current Wireless Deployment at DU  Wireless Point-to-MultiPoint Backbone Links Upgrade  Wireless Management Software (Airwave)

Expanding Wireless @ DU:

 Most new laptops have built-in Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g “Tri-Mode” 3  Student Survey Results:  They want more “wireless hotspots”  Several requests for wireless coverage inside dorm rooms (currently 10/100 ports)  Faculty/Departmental Requests:  Classroom Flexibility (indoors & outdoors)  Conference/ Meeting Areas

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Expanding Wireless @ DU (cont.)

 Current Installed Base:  257 Access Points/ Bridges  54 wireless VLANs

Upgrading APs from 802.11b to “g” @ DU 5

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 257 Total APs 218 802.11g

39 802.11b

Supporting Wireless Clients

 Devices Supported:  Windows XP Pro and Mac OS 10+ ONLY !

 Wireless Radio Cards Supported:  Most are built-in now – “ALL” supported  NO ISSUES during Orientation  1200 new students, 99% laptops w/ built-in Wi-Fi  PDAs becoming VERY popular among DU community  Not officially supporting yet – Alpha Testing Mode 6

Supporting Wireless Clients (cont.) PDA Connectivity Options  No VPN client provided by Cisco  AnthaVPN (old Movian, recommended by Cisco)  Very Expensive ~ $90 per client  Built-in VPN (PPTP or L2TP over IPsec) 7  WebVPN: works on Pocket Internet Explorer 2003 ONLY  Not supported on PDAs running PalmOS

Supporting Wireless Clients (cont.) WEB VPN Update  Web VPN Client  Limited application capability  MUST stay within browser window (No streaming, IM, etc.) 8  SSL VPN Client (VPN 3000 Rev: 4.7.2)  Same functionality as VPN client!!

 Only supported under Windows 2000/XP  IE, Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox  Active X Controls or Java Required

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Wireless Point to Multi-Point Backbone Links

 DU provides network access via wireless links to:  Several University Housing Buildings  Most Greek Houses

Wireless Point to Multi-Point Links (cont.) Backbone Reason for Upgrading 10  Replace Legacy Equipment (Orinoco OR1100s)  Originally installed to support only a few users per house – NOW 99% of residents have laptops  Performance Increase  Move backbone links to unlicensed “less crowded” air space (802.11a)  Increase the throughput (11Mbps to 54Mbps)

Proxim MP-11a

 MP-11a: Lowest Cost Uplink Option  Others: Milliwave, Laser, etc. - $$!!

 MP-11a Architecture  Star Network Design (vs. Mesh) 11

Proxim MP-11a (cont.)

Benefits  Uses a “polling” protocol (WORP) to share its medium vs. 802.11’s CDMA/CA  48-54 Mbps with DDRS  Data rate adjusts

dynamically

based on signal strength value. This helps compensate for temporary link degradation (heavy snow/rain) maintaining connectivity BUT at lower data rates.

 Separate data rates for each link  One “slow leg” does NOT reduce the data rates of the others 12

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Proxim MP-11a (cont.)

 BU – SU mutual authentication  Prevents man-in-the middle attacks and rogue SUs  128-bit AES between BSU and SU  802.1Q VLAN Support (256 Vlans/BU)  Storm Thresholds (packets per second)  Protects against network overloading

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Proxim MP-11a (cont.)

 MP11a Versions:  MP11 Base Unit (BU)  Supports up to 250 SUs  MP11 Subscriber Unit (SU)  MP11 Residential Subscriber Unit (RSU)  Up to 7 Mac-Addresses (clients)  No PoE  Rugged and Non-Rugged Versions

MP-11a NON-RUGGED 15

MP-11a RUGGED

SU w/ built-in antenna BU w/ external antenna

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Wireless Network

Management  Proxim dropped support of WiNMA (mgt. soft)   They now recommend WaveLink DU selected “Airwave” after looking @ several vendors, including WaveLink  WaveLink was less expensive, but didn’t have key features:  RADIUS Integration  Legacy Equipment Support  Aid in RF troubleshooting and capacity planning  Access via HTTP/S  MP11a SUPPORT (as of Summer 2005) 17

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Airwave – Radius Integration

19 Airwave – Radius Integration (cont.)

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Airwave – Capacity Planning

21 Airwave – Capacity Planning (cont.)

Airwave – New Products

22  Rapids  Rogue AP detection via fingerprinting  A LOT of false positives since we turned it on.

 Airwave Wireless Site Plan (AWSP)  Drag and Drop APs into your floor plan  AWSP displays RF coverage information  What about furniture, bldg material, etc. ????

 Visual RF  Creates coverage maps of wireless networks  Shows physical location of users in the network and potential rogue access points.

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QUESTIONS ????