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Here’s an inspiring video for you to start off your work week. 
If you read my latest posts, you already know that I attended the Certified Wireless Analysis Professional beta course hosted by the CWNP program in Atlanta, GA last week.
I really enjoyed all the side bar discussions between attendees. There were at least 3-4 vendors represented, as well as VARs/Integrators and enterprise wireless network administrators. I spoke about my favorite side-bar discussion, which was about locating wireless devices through spectrum analysis on my Computerworld blog.
Attending the course also really reinforced what a big believer I am in the CWNP program. It’s great to see a vendor neutral training and certification body in our field. I really think that along with the IEEE and Wi-Fi Alliance, they have done a great job promoting and educating the community about wireless technology, which helps drive growth / adoption, which is good for everyone involved.
Therefore, I wanted to take the time to interview one of the CWNP co-founders, Kevin Sandlin, to have him explain about the program and how it fits an emerging trend in the marketplace:
A little levity regarding the ever-expanding nature of wireless… Happy Friday!
I told you there was more to come on this one…
The project for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) was done in conjunction with a partner of ours, Signal Share. I can tell you, Signal Share is doing some exciting things in the wireless space.
The U.S. Open also had other arrays that were installed in a more permanent fashion. This is a picture of one such array taken from the perspective of where array in the first array was located.
It’s been awhile since I have done a “Super Tuesday” poll, so I thought I would throw one in today. You should answer this question for your primary computer, whether that be a desktop, a laptop, a tablet PC, or whatever.
I can’t give any “I voted” stickers away, but take satisfaction in the fact that you are shaping the (wireless) direction of America….
Related Posts:
There are only a few more shopping days before Christmas. If you have procrastinated until this point, perhaps you should view the “wireless gift guide” I recently published on my Computerworld blog.
I have one addition to the list:
- BlueAnt Supertooth Light – I can’t believe I excluded this one from the list because I actually *received* one of these as a Christmas gift this year. It’s a Bluetooth speakerphone/microphone that hangs on a car sun visor. And as Sheldon from the TV show, Big Bang Theory says, “Everything is better with Bluetooth”. I actually had a similar device from a different manufacturer and didn’t like it –mostly because it wasn’t loud enough. The call quality on both ends is excellent with the BlueAnt device.
I also wanted to expand on two of the original suggestions:
- PlayStation3 – The Wi-Fi on this does a lot more than I originally anticipated. Not only does it allow for free online game play, but it facilitates game updates. Once such example of this is in sports games where updated team rosters can be downloaded from online servers. You can also stream movies directly to the PS3 from NetFlix.
- Pet Rock – My Computerworld editor actually pointed out this reincarnation of the pet rock: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/c208/ Oddly enough, this version of the pet rock *isn’t* wireless. Uhg…
If you have been following my blog, you know that I have a poll regarding the greatest challenges to 802.11n deployment in the enterprise. (Here’s your chance to rock the vote!)
One challenge for replacing desktop Ethernet with wireless is speed. Perhaps the widest publicized enhancement to 802.11n is that of MIMO (“my-moe”) antennas, which stands for “Multiple Input, Multiple Output”. How does MIMO work?
To answer that question, let’s look at how a classic 802.11 wireless transmitter operates:
802.11 Classic Transmitter
In this case, the signal is sent out of one antenna. The signal is received by both antennas at the other end, but only one signal is processed and sent up to the MAC layer. Antenna diversity helps in the fact that the best signal is the one that is processed, but remember that it is still a single antenna that processes the receives and processes the RF energy.
Let’s compare that to a MIMO antenna structure:
MIMO Signal Processing
In this case, we have three transmit antennas and three receive antennas (often referred to as 3×3 MIMO). The black, green, and red lines above each represent their own signal. With MIMO all three signals are received and processed up the stack. This significantly improves the receiver’s “ability to hear” and it represented in the graph above by the orange line.
You may hear different implementations of MIMO such as 2×3 and 3×3. The first number is the number of transmit antennas and the second number is the number of receive antennas. If you hear 3x3x2, the last number refers to the number of spatial streams, which I will discuss in another post.
For those of you in the Phoenix area, you can hear me speak about “Replacing Desktop Ethernet with WiFi” this afternoon at the Phoenix ISSA meeting. My company, Xirrus, had some messaging around this with their “Ditch the Switch” campaign at last year’s INTEROP. Come see how 802.11n, 802.11e, and other improvements in the IEEE specs are making wireless as fast, safe, and reliable as Ethernet to the desktop.
The ISSA meeting is held at ITT Technical Institute from Noon until 5PM:
5005 S. Wendler Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85282
Directions:
(NW Corner, I-10 & Baseline, Across from Fry’s Electronics)
- Exit Interstate 10 at Baseline Road in Tempe, and turn West.
- Go 1 block, and Turn North (Right) on Wendler,(the 1st light and 1st street past the underpass).
- ITT Technical Institute is on the right beyond Denny’s.
I will post information about my upcoming speaking engagements in a more timely manner. Stay tuned!
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