Cloud Managed Wireless Solution : Cisco Meraki MR52

Today I am going to talk about the Cisco Meraki solution which is totally a cloud based managed system and the product name is Cisco Meraki MR52. It is based on the next generation wireless systems that can be deployed in various departments like Education systems, Manufacturing units, Offices, Enterprise networks and so on. The way Cisco Meraki works is totally a next generation revolution where all management can be done via cloud and you just need to deploy the hardware in your network to work.

What is the purpose to deploy and how much time it takes to configure Cisco Meraki MR52 ?
Well if you have the requirement to have the wireless network with various SSIDs you should go with the site surveys and on the basis of it you should go with the suitable model of the wireless WLCs. If I talk about the Cisco Meraki cloud managed MR52, It is simple to deploy and self configured via cloud. So you need not to require any resource for the configuration of the Meraki MR52 at the remote sites.

What is the throughput of the Cisco Meraki MR52 ?
Well Cisco Meraki MR52 is a high performance box and will provides Continue reading

Cloud Managed Wireless Systems : Cisco Meraki MR52

Today I am going to talk about the Cisco Meraki solution which is totally a cloud based managed system and the product name is Cisco Meraki MR52. It is based on the next generation wireless systems that can be deployed in various departments like Education systems, Manufacturing units, Offices, Enterprise networks and so on. The way Cisco Meraki works is totally a next generation revolution where all management can be done via cloud and you just need to deploy the hardware in your network to work.

What is the purpose to deploy and how much time it takes to configure Cisco Meraki MR52 ?
Well if you have the requirement to have the wireless network with various SSIDs you should go with the site surveys and on the basis of it you should go with the suitable model of the wireless WLCs. If I talk about the Cisco Meraki cloud managed MR52, It is simple to deploy and self configured via cloud. So you need not to require any resource for the configuration of the Meraki MR52 at the remote sites.

Fig 1.1- Cisco Meraki MR25 Wireless Systems

What is the throughput of the Cisco Meraki MR52 ?
Well Cisco Meraki Continue reading

The TOP500 is Dead, Long Live The TOP500

Twice a year, the TOP500 project publishes a list of the 500 most powerful computer systems, aka supercomputers. The TOP500 list is widely considered to be HPC-related, and many analyze the list statistics to understand the HPC market and technology trends. As the rules of the list do not preclude non-HPC systems to be submitted and listed, various OEMs have regularly submitted non-HPC platforms to the list in order to improve their apparent market position in the HPC arena. Thus, the task of analyzing the list for HPC markets and trends has grown more complicated.

In 2007, I published an

The TOP500 is Dead, Long Live The TOP500 was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Dell EMC Wants to Take AI Mainstream

One of the challenges vendors are trying address when it comes to artificial intelligence is expanding the technology and its elements of machine learning and deep learning beyond the realm of hyoerscalers and some HPC centers and into the enterprise, where businesses can leverage them for such workloads as simulations, modeling, and analytics.

For the past several years, system makers have been trying to crack the code that will make it easier for mainstream enterprises to adopt and deploy traditional HPC technologies, and now they want to dovetail those efforts with the expanding AI opportunity. The difference with enterprises is

Dell EMC Wants to Take AI Mainstream was written by Jeffrey Burt at The Next Platform.

Manage user performance, not the network, with machine learning-based tools

Over the past decade, network management tools have evolved from being fault based to performance based. This has become a critical element in running infrastructure because faults don’t matter as much.That might seem like a strange thing to say, but consider the fact that critical infrastructure such as switches, routers, Wi-Fi access points and servers are deployed in a way to protect against outages. Infrastructure is built so redundantly today that any hardware device can go down and its likely no one will notice.Also on Network World: 7 must-have network tools A bigger problem is managing user performance. Often users calling about a certain application not working well, but when the engineer looks at the dashboard, everything is green. Performance problems are much harder to diagnose and can kill employee productivity. To read this article in full, please click here

Manage user performance, not the network, with machine learning-based tools

Over the past decade, network management tools have evolved from being fault based to performance based. This has become a critical element in running infrastructure because faults don’t matter as much.That might seem like a strange thing to say, but consider the fact that critical infrastructure such as switches, routers, Wi-Fi access points and servers are deployed in a way to protect against outages. Infrastructure is built so redundantly today that any hardware device can go down and its likely no one will notice.Also on Network World: 7 must-have network tools A bigger problem is managing user performance. Often users calling about a certain application not working well, but when the engineer looks at the dashboard, everything is green. Performance problems are much harder to diagnose and can kill employee productivity. To read this article in full, please click here

Real-time WiFi heat map

Real-time Wifi-Traffic Heatmap (source code GitHub: cod3monk/showfloor-heatmap) displays real-time WiFi traffic from SC17 (The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, November 12-17, 2017). Click on the link to see live data.

The Cisco Wireless access points in the conference network don't currently support sFlow, however, the access points are connected to Juniper EX switches which stream sFlow telemetry to an instance of sFlow-RT analytics software that provides real-time usage metrics for the heat map.

Wireless describes the additional visibility delivered by sFlow capable wireless access points, including: air time, channel, retransmissions, receive / transmit speeds, power, signal to noise ratio, etc. With sFlow enabled wireless access points, additional information could be layered on the heat map. The sFlow.org web site lists network products and vendors that support the sFlow standard.

Next-Generation Assurance in NFV Networks

next-generation assurance Download the Huawei White Paper,  In the digital era, communications service providers (CSPs) are undergoing a technological evolution, and network virtualization is playing a key role—in particular, network functions virtualization (NFV).  NFV offers reduced time to market, agility, innovation, an open ecosystem to avoid vendor lock-in, and future CAPEX and OPEX reduction. However, operational transformation... Read more →

Developing a Hybrid Plan for SD-WAN Q&A

Developing a Hybrid Plan for SD-WAN Q&A Thanks to all who joined us for the Comcast Business 2017 SD-WAN and Virtual Edge Report webinar, Developing  a Hybrid Plan for SD-WAN, where they discussed how to ease into SD-WAN to test and experience new business capabilities across a distributed enterprise. After the webinar we took questions from the audience. Unfortunately we ran out... Read more →

Wi-Fi Capacity Infographic

Learn tips and tricks for building a high-performance WLAN!

I teamed up with the great staff at Ekahau to put together this infographic about how to design and deploy high capacity Wi-Fi. It's the second poster in the series, following the Wi-Fi Design Poster that focused on radio frequency (RF) factors.

The Wi-Fi Capacity Infographic covers:

  • An overview of airtime and why it is important
  • Understanding the two primary factors affecting airtime:
    1. Airtime within a cell
    2. Airtime across cells
  • Methods to maximize airtime efficiency to get the most out of your WLAN
  • Channel inventory as it relates to capacity
  • How client capabilities affect airtime consumption, and hence capacity, in a WLAN
  • Factors to consider when selecting infrastructure to deploy
  • Factors to consider with infrastructure placement and configuration
  • Features available within Ekahau Site Survey to set you up for success

Download the Wi-Fi Capacity Infographic today!

High capacity-magnifying glass-landing page image.png

Making AWS re:Invent More Family-Friendly

AWS re:Invent is just around the corner, and Spousetivities will be there to help bring a new level of family friendliness to the event. If you’re thinking of bringing a spouse, partner, or significant other with you to Las Vegas, I’d encourage you to strongly consider getting him or her involved in Spousetivities.

Want a sneak peek at what’s planned? Have a look:

  • Monday’s activity is a full-day trip to Death Valley, including a stop at Bad Water Basin (significant because it is 280 feet below sea level, making it the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere!). Lunch is included, of course.
  • On Tuesday, Spousetivities participants will get to visit a number of locations on the Las Vegas Strip, including Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden, the Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo, and the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Transportion is provided for longer connections, but there will be some walking involved—wear comfortable shoes!
  • Wednesday includes a visit to Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam. There will some opportunities for short sightseeing walks in Red Rock Canyon (plus the 13-mile scenic drive), and the Hoover Dam tour includes access to the generator room (a very cool sight).
  • Wrapping up the Continue reading

NetDevOpEd: The power of network verification

Microsoft just published information on their internal tool called “CrystalNet” which Microsoft defines as “a high-fidelity, cloud-scale network emulator in daily use at Microsoft. We built CrystalNet to help our engineers in their quest to improve the overall reliability of our networking infrastructure.” You can read more about their tool in this detailed ACM Paper. But what I want to talk about is how this amazing technology is accessible to you, at any organization, right now, with network verification using Cumulus VX.

What Microsoft has accomplished is truly amazing. They can simulate their network environment and prevent nearly 70% of the network issues they experienced in a two-year period. They have the ability to spin up hundreds of nodes with the exact same configurations and protocols they run in production. Then applying network tests, they verify if proposed changes will have negative impact on applications and services. This work took the team of Microsoft researchers over two years to develop. It’s really quite the feat!

What I find exciting about this is it validates exactly what we at Cumulus have been preaching for the last two years as well. The ability to make a 1:1 mirror of Continue reading

Learning to Ask Questions

One thing I’m often asked in email and in person is: why should I bother learning theory? After all, you don’t install SPF in your network; you install a router or switch, which you then configure OSPF or IS-IS on. The SPF algorithm is not exposed to the user, and does not seem to really have any impact on the operation of the network. Such internal functionality might be neat to know, but ultimately–who cares? Maybe it will be useful in some projected troubleshooting situation, but the key to effective troubleshooting is understanding the output of the device, rather than in understanding what the device is doing.

In other words, there is no reason to treat network devices as anything more than black boxes. You put some stuff in, other stuff comes out, and the vendor takes care of everything in the middle. I dealt with a related line of thinking in this video, but what about this black box argument? Do network engineers really need to know what goes on inside the vendor’s black box?

Let me anser this question with another question. Wen you shift to a new piece of hardware, how do you know what you are Continue reading