WLAN Management
This section describes the WLAN management feature, including the definition, benefits, functions, principles, and key indicators of the feature.
Benefits
The introduction of WLANs does not mean that the enterprises will allocate more administrators for management. In addition, WLANs are complex and different from wired networks. Administrators need to quickly master how to manage WLANs efficiently. According to statistics, WLAN problems mainly occur on users' terminals, wireless devices, and the interference side, among which the terminals have encountered the largest number of problems. How to ensure user experience is a challenge for daily WLAN management.
WLAN management provided by the WLAN lifecycle O&M solution allows network administrators to perform efficient Operations and Management (O&M) on WLANs including planning, design, service rollout, daily monitoring, and fault diagnosis.
WLAN management supports efficient and professional network planning and provides visualized and predictable WLAN planning without blind spots. Three-step configuration allows services to be quickly provided. In addition, relying on network monitoring based on user experience, administrators can clearly know the WLAN status. The point-to-point (P2P) and one-click fault diagnosis integrating users, wired networks, and wireless networks help O&M personnel quickly locate faults.
Functions
Configuration Management
An AC controls and manages APs on WLAN. With AC management, you can connect an AP to WLAN in any of the following modes: confirm AP identities, add an AP in offline mode, and add an AP to the whitelist. (Note: This function applies to WLAN V200R006 and earlier versions only.)
- Unauthorized AP
The Unauthorized AP page displays APs whose MAC addresses or SNs are not in the whitelist. On this page, you can acknowledge unauthorized APs in batches to add them to the whitelist. Then, APs in the whitelist are brought online.
- AP whitelist
Network administrators can add MAC addresses of APs or AP SNs to an AP whitelist to allow the APs to go online normally.
- AP blacklist
Network administrators can add MAC addresses of APs to an AP blacklist, preventing unauthorized APs from going online.
- Client blacklist
Network administrators can add MAC addresses of wireless clients to a blacklist, preventing unauthorized clients from connecting to APs. Network administrators can also blacklist unauthorized clients and set the AP countermeasure mode to client blacklist. The system performs countermeasure against devices from the client blacklist.
Configuration and Deployment
Compared with earlier versions, the configuration mode in WLAN V2R6 changes a lot. In V2R6, configuration is completed based on AP group profiles. eSight provides the WLAN configuration and deployment function to adapt to this change. This function provides profile-based configuration for WLAN devices of V2R6 and later versions.
- You can configure VLAN IF interfaces and IP address pools for ACs and X7-series switches.
- You can configure global parameters for ACs.
- You can configure channels for interface groups.
- The AP group service deployment allows users to configure an AC. In addition, AP group management and profile management are added in the Object Manager of each WLAN device of V200R006 or a later version. You can create, delete, modify AP groups, and manage group members and profiles on ACs.
Network Resource Monitoring
The Region Object Manager provides the following information: physical resources over the entire network or in each region, resource statistics, performance statistics, user statistics, and Wireless Intrusion Detection System (WIDS).
- Physical resources
AC: AC status, name, type, IP address, AP authentication mode, forwarding type, country code, subnets, total number of APs, number of online APs, and number of online clients
AP: AP status, name, alias, type, category, SN, MAC address, IP address, countermeasure, radio's working mode, AC name, home region, location, WLAN location, subnets, and number of online clients
The name, alias, and location of an AP can be modified.
The inventory of access points can be exported, including the status, name, alias, type, category, SN, MAC address, IP address, countermeasure, radio's working mode, AC name, home region, location, subnet, and number of online users.
User: include the user name (user login), MAC address, IP address, status, access type, access device (access point), access interface, access VLAN, sending rate, IPv6 address, parent device, signal quality, association start time, transmitted traffic, received traffic, terminal type, terminal operating system, and receiving rate.
The terminal type and terminal operating system are used to identify the terminal connected to the AC. Data of the terminal type and terminal operating system comes from the Agile Controller. Therefore, the terminal type and terminal operating system can be properly displayed only after eSight is interconnected with the Agile Controller.
SSID: SSID, AC name, ESS profile name, and Fat AP name
Region: region name, total number of APs, total number of online APs, and total number of online clients
Link: link display and link statistics
- Resource statistics
Network overview: includes online WLAN client statistics, Top N SSID client statistics, and radio resource statistics.
- Performance statistics
Displays terminals associated with APs, AP physical resources, AP traffic, radio traffic, client traffic, and real-time WIDS attacks.
- Current access client
Information about current access clients, including the device type, role, operating system, and vendor information. (eSight can display the information only after it is successfully connected to the Agile Controller-Campus.)
- Client access history
Historical data about client access.
- Security
eSight monitors and recognizes unauthorized devices, clients, interference sources, and attacks based on user-defined rules, sends remote alarm notifications, and offers protection measures.
1. Supports the statistics collection, display, and countermeasure of unauthorized devices. Unauthorized clients associated with unauthorized APs can be displayed.
2. Supports the display, countermeasure, and suppression access protection of unauthorized clients.
3. Supports the statistics collection and display of non-Wi-Fi interference sources.
4. Supports the statistics collection, display, and countermeasure of attacks.
5. Classifies unauthorized APs into rogue, suspected-rogue, adjacent, suspected-adjacent, and interference APs. Supported rules include adjacent or same frequency interference, signal strength, SSID (fuzzy or regular expression), number of detected APs, and attack.
- Object Manager
Uniformly displays WLAN service data and performance data by AC, AP, radio, and terminal on the Object Manager.
Region Monitor
Region monitor is user-centric and integrates region-based user experience data. You can also define regions, add APs to the regions, and view AP performance in a specified region.
- Divides a region into multiple sub-regions and manage them by groups.
- Displays user experience information and key counters by region.
- Displays key counter Portal pages by region.
- Locates faults based on key counters in each region.
- For a non-bottom-layer region, users can set a GIS map as the subnet background. In addition, users can perform operations such as zooming in or out the map, moving the map, and setting locations on the map.
Fault Diagnosis
1. WLAN client fault diagnosis: Diagnoses network quality for online clients in terms of clients, SSIDs, APs, and ACs. If detecting any exception, the system displays potential problems and gives suggestions for you to rectify the exception. (Note: This function applies to WLAN V200R006 and earlier versions only.)
2. With the basic fault diagnosis function as well as Syslogs and performance data, the WLAN Manager provides diagnosis tools to help network administrators troubleshoot problems such as network access failures, frequent offline, and weak signal during WLAN O&M. (Note: This function applies to WLAN V2R6 and later versions only.)
- Viewing historical diagnosis information
eSight can store information about the diagnosis objects, time, operator, and result, allowing users to view historical diagnosis information.
- Viewing connection relationships
eSight allows users who initiate diagnosis to view the connections among diagnosis objects (including the connections between terminals and servers) as well as detailed object information.
- Viewing diagnosis result
eSight classifies diagnosis results into the following types: terminal check, air interface check, AP check, mesh check, AC check, and connectivity check. The AAA server checks eight types of information and provides fault causes and rectification suggestions. O&M personnel can rectify faults based on their own experience and the rectification suggestions.
- Viewing associated information
eSight allows users to view associated information about terminals, air interfaces, AP, ACs, DHCP, and AAA.
- AAA Test
To supplement fault diagnosis, AAA Test detects problems occurred during client authentication.
- AC Ping
To supplement fault diagnosis, AC Ping detects connectivity between an AC and a destination device (usually a server) by pinging the device from the AC.
- Trace
To supplement fault diagnosis, Trace collects and exports logs about APs and clients to help determine the fault causes.
- Log Viewer
To supplement fault diagnosis, Log Viewer collects log statistics on diagnosis objects to help analyze the stages during which faults are likely to occur and allows users to view and export log details.
3. Offers related fault alarms about communications, environments, unauthorized devices, and non-Wi-Fi interference sources to help users locate and rectify faults.
4. Monitors WLAN network devices and resources to help users better understand the running status of the network and devices.
Integrated Wired and Wireless Management
After LLDP link discovery is enabled, you can view the links between wired PoE switches and wireless APs in the Region Monitor topology, enabling integrated wired and wireless management.
Energy Saving Management
eSight allows you to customize energy saving policies in terms of the AP, radio, and SSID. You can immediately or periodically start energy saving tasks, or disable wireless signal transmission. (Note: This function applies to WLAN devices of V200R006 and earlier versions only. For versions later than V2R6, users can enable energy saving in the VAP profile and configure energy saving on APs or AP group.)
Service Report
The system provides predefined reports including AC Join Statistics Report, AC Traffic Statistics Report, AC User Trend Report, Rogue AP Statistics Report, AP Interface Detail Report, AP Join Detail Report, AP Load Detail Report, AP Status Statistics Report, AP Traffic Detail Report, AP Uptime Report, and Radio Detail Report. If the predefined reports cannot meet the requirements, users can select data sources to customize reports.
Principles
- The AC + Fit AP networking mode is usually adopted by WLANs. The AC is used for service control and unified management of Fit APs.
- eSight uses SNMP, SFTP, Trap, Syslog, and other methods to obtain data from the AC and deliver the configuration to the AC.
- Region Monitor visualizes user experience, supports cleaning of raw performance data by region, and dynamically cleans data based on the levels of monitored counters to generate proportion tables. Users can create a region and add a key AP to the user-defined region to monitor its performance data based on their requirements.
- eSight can diagnose faults based on device capabilities from the perspectives of terminal, air interface, AP, AC, connectivity, AAA, and DHCP and provide troubleshooting suggestions. It also displays the connection relationships and information about key performance indicators (KPIs). In addition, eSight provides diagnosis tools, including Trace, AAA Test, Ping, and log query tools.