Why I choose Ruckus networks
Ruckus
After 11 years at Denver Airport, seven of which were solely focused on the Wi-Fi network, I realised it was time to take a new step in my career. I needed a new challenge and started looking for something I could sink my teeth into, something that would excite me! I had several opportunities, but the one that piqued my interest was a conversation I had with Heather "Mo" Williams.Mo leads the Solutions Engineering group at Ruckus Networks, and I've known her for a few years through the Wi-Fi community. She's someone I really respect for her no-nonsense approach and dry sense of humour - two things I really appreciate! As the saying goes, "Chance favours the prepared mind". Mo brought up the subject of what my next big adventure might be, but I might not have thought any further about it except for an experience I had in February 2019 that I would like to share. Ruckus Networks
I had recently taken the Ekahau Certified Survey Engineer course (now known as ECSE Design) at the Wireless LAN Professionals Conference (WLPC), which was just a formality as I had already completed the Certified Wireless Design Professional (CWDP) course, am already a Certified Wireless Network Expert (CWNE #304) and an Ekahau Master (#31).I know I did all that before I took the entry-level Ekahau course, so if you're on your way to becoming a Wi-Fi expert, do as I say, not as I do.
Well, the ECSE instructors are some of the best people in the Wi-Fi industry, and even with my expertise and experience, it was still a great course. Until we got to the final "exam". I was always up for a challenge and felt the need to prove that I wasn't just the riffraff sitting in the front row. I readily admit that the exam kept my ego in check, but it wasn't the exam that did it. My original goal was to prove that I was not only good enough to pass the exam by meeting the basic requirements of the exam; I decided to complete a design for the entire assigned building. This defeated me and I was unsettled, me! An Ekahau master and CWNE, and I could not meet the set network requirements for the entire building. In defeat, I deleted the extra floors, completed the design for the assigned floors, and submitted my 'minimum requirements' exam just as time ran out.
Far from being proud of having passed the exam, I resolutely crept back to my hotel room to find out what I had done wrong. For hours I struggled with the design, trying every trick I knew to complete the task I had set myself, but I always came up short.The problem I was facing is known as Co-Channel Interference or CCI, for the non-Wi-Fi folks CCI is what happens when 2 or more APs share a channel above a certain signal level. The CCI level had been defined in the exam requirements and for the life of me I couldn't do it.
In desperation, I selected all the APs for the entire building and hit the delete key, wiping away hours upon hours of frustration and staring at the blank floor plan. Part of the requirement of what had become my personal project was that I could use any AP I wanted for my design.I used the AP I knew best (not a Ruckus AP), and for an office building I used the internal antenna model version. To be fair, I had also tried to use external antennas (antennas are my thing) and still came up short on the CCI requirement.
Remembering the two different design classes I had taken, both instructors had used Ruckus Networks R710 AP in each demonstration, and in my desperation at the time, I decided to use that model of AP to try and finish the building. I wish I could say I had next level knowledge that prompted me to do this; I did not. I guessed. I selected the Ruckus Networks R710 AP and placed my first AP on the map.
45 minutes after that first R710 on the map, ALL floors of the building were completed, and to the strict specifications of the exam! Remember when I said it wasn't the exam that kept my ego in check? I knew the subject.I knew the software. My problem was that I had chosen the wrong AP. Had I chosen the R710 at the beginning, I could have completed the entire building faster than anyone else in the class could meet the minimum requirements.My attempt to be awesome had been thwarted by the hardware I had chosen. Looking back at what had happened and doing some research, I now know why the R710 worked where the AP I had tried to use before had failed. I will let you in on my discovery - it is called BeamFlex®.
I know I'm not always the brightest bulb in the room, but I learn from my mistakes. The next time I had the opportunity to choose the hardware I wanted to work with, I chose Ruckus Networks. Some of the lessons I learned from that experience:
Hope is not a strategy , guessing is not a science.
Marcel Zimmer is the Technical Managing Director of EnBITCon. During his time in the German Armed Forces, the trained IT developer was able to gain numerous project experiences. His interest in IT security was significantly awakened by his service in command support. Even after his service, he is an active reservist in the Bundeswehr.
His first firewall was a Sophos UTM 120, which he had to set up for a customer project. Since then, his interest in IT security has grown steadily. In the course of time, various security and infrastructure topics have come into his focus. His most interesting projects included, for example, WLAN coverage in an explosion-proof area, as well as a multi-site WLAN solution for a large