CTS 111 – Why You Shouldn’t Skip WLPC

This year, Rowell wasn’t able to attend WLPC. But François made it to Phoenix and presented too! Why You Shoulnd’t Skip WLPC WLPC 2018 was packed with a lot of great presentations by different people in the Wi-Fi industry. The format of this years’ conference was a little different: * 3 Main sessions of 55 mins * 13 Short sessions of 30 mins * 29 TEN talks of 10mins * Deep Dive sessions (2x 2.5h) on different topics (Every attendee had to choose one when registering) The trends for WLPC 2018 * 802.11ax * AI * Dual 5GHz APs (A little less than last year) * Programming (deep dive on Python + template report) * IoT ready APs What to look for in the Future * Talk on 5G with Peter Thornycroft from Aruba * 5G is not well defined yet but might change a lot of things in our industry * Talked about all the different technology involved (LAA, LWA, Multifire, Wi-Fi) * WPA3. We got a little more details on what it will be from Heather Williams * Enhancement of WPA2 (802.11w mandatory, KRACK mitigation, * What’s coming with WPA3 * Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (protect against stupid passwords) * Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) (Some protection for open SSID) * Device Provisioning Protocol (DPP) (IoT device protection) The Community * Talk on blogging by Lee Badman * Talk on the Wi-Fi Pro slack group from Manon Lessard and Samuel Clements * Update from the WLA from Peter MacKenzie and Mark Raats * Harnessing the Power of community from Tom Hollingsworth * Explained what a community is * Explain how to engage with a community (Wi-Fi community) * How to handle divergent viewpoints: stay civil and respect each other * Presentation of the conference from Keith Parsons * Apart from the presentations, other event got organized * Morning runs * Morning Yoga * Morning prayers * Retro video game night * Whiskey and Wireless podcast recording Interesting Sessions * Impact of LTE-U on Wi-Fi in 5GHz by VEli-Pekka Ketonen * Polarizing Figures by Scott Lester – Talk on external antennas * Interesting stats: 90% to 98% of AP sold with internal integrated antennas * Deep dive into PoE by Jonathan Smith * Does it matter what AP you buy from Wes Purvis * Data comparing different types of APs (2×2:2 vs 3×3:3 vs 4×4:4, 11n vs 11ac w1, 11ac w2) * Get up to 28% performance with higher end APs * Low-end AP can reach hardware limitation * 3×3 offers up to 10% less throughput improvement vs 4×4 (lower retry rate + maintaining 3SS easier) * Challenges in Modeling Campus by Vladan Jevremovic * Showed us how to model a outdoor park * Airport Utility – Monitor iOS devices + Python scripting by Eric Garnel * RRM by Blake Krone * Talked about how different vendors do it (Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus) * Talked about what to do when you enable it (configuration) * Talked about what you do once it’s on (monitoring) * When a WLAN Pro starts a WISP by Steve McKim * RSSI Revealed by GRegor Vucajnk Useful Sessions * Do you have a Mac from Adrian Granados * A lot of good information for Wi-Fi Explorer users * Filtering and coloring Frames with wireshark from Joel Crane Announcements * Wi-Fi Alliance announced the launch of their Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Optimized Connectivity. Talk from Ortiz Consuelo * WLA released their transparent book * Ekahau announced the support for BLE design in ESS in the near future