Embracing Wireless Wonders: Cisco Live EMEA Updates With Meraki-Catalyst Unity and the Quest for Secure Networks .. Also, WLPC is Next Week!

There's a lot going on , so I wanted to jump into a couple of topics about what's going on now , what's new and what's next in the wireless industry . My name is Drew Lentz . I am your wireless nerd and I have been perusing the news over the last couple of weeks just to see what's happening . I missed last week .

It's a very busy week , tons of stuff going on , so I apologize for . Any of my loyal listeners . Love the fan base and love people asking , hey , what happened ? So always a good sign when people wonder where you are . So again , apologize for missing last week , but this week I wanted to cover a couple of different things .

There was a lot going on last week with Cisco Live in Mia , so Cisco Live pretty much dominated everything on my LinkedIn and everything on my Twitter feed for the last week . Whether it was Tech Field Day X or it was the events that were happening at Cisco Live , there was a lot to talk about .

Lots of movement happening from Cisco , a lot of it to me revolving around Meraki and Calis Wireless coming together . So great announcements going about how we are now able to monitor Calis devices in the Meraki Cloud , and there were some great onboarding tutorials that were put out there . Tech Field Day did an incredible job of doing the coverage .

The analysts and the people that were the delegates there this year , dan and everyone that was out there thanks for all the hard work that you did keeping the questions flowing and keeping everything updated . So if you have questions about what that looks like , please don't listen to me . Jump on over to Twitter or X , whatever you want to call it these days .

Look for TFDX from Cisco Live in Mia and you can see the walkthroughs , the screenshots , and then pretty soon you'll be able to go back and watch the replays from Tech Field Day at Cisco Live to see exactly what it looks like to have Meraki , malibu , calis Wireless monitoring of Calis devices , the controllers , which is all the good stuff that they made available

out there . So go take a look . Again , don't listen to me . Go right over and go take a look at what's happening there , but it really dominated a lot of the conversation showing how easy it was to move Calis devices into Meraki and the whole cloudification of it . So there's been a lot of talk about that .

There's been a lot of rumors going back and forth about what that's going to look like and I think showing off the simplicity of it was really cool to see , it was really great and again , tons of great announcements coming out of Cisco Live in Mia . That's always a great time of year . It leads into the rest of trade show season , if you will .

So now that that's behind us , a couple things coming up on the trade show front . You know I'm going to mention it . The Wireless LAN Professional Conference , wlpc , is happening next week . Actually people are already starting to fly out right now . People are going to be going out Saturday and Sunday .

They're going to be cruising out to go to see what's happening at WLPC in Phoenix . This year it's one week after the waste management opened , so maybe there'll be some hotel rooms .

You know what last year was kind of crazy because Super Bowl was happening at the same time there and so there was like Super Bowl happening and waste management opening happening and then all the WLPC nerds . So this year I think it's going to be a little bit more subdued , but that's good for us .

It's going to be just a hootin' hollerin' good old time at WLPC . So if you can make it , please make sure to make every effort to get out there . It is going to be fantastic . Some great events happening in and around that , some great dinners I've been invited to .

So looking forward to catching up with everyone in the industry , looking forward to seeing everybody and then , coming right after that's going to be Mobile World Congress . So for the Wifi nerds , wlpc is going to be kicking it strong . I don't know what we're going to see . Lots of speculation there's , you know .

There've been some mergers , there's been some acquisitions , there's been some stuff happening , you know , in the space .

So I'm anxious to see who's actually going to show up at WLPC , specifically because I know there's , you know , the Cytos project , the guys from Enoz , the new tools that are coming out , new capabilities that are coming out , new uses of artificial intelligence when it comes to wireless network planning and Wifi network planning , and all of that's going to just

culminate right . So interested to see some of the tools and some of the things that are going to be available , the people that are going to be behind a lot of these stories . Can't wait to see you all you know hashtag WLPC on all of the social media stuff . So pay attention .

I won't be out there broadcasting this one Tuesday of next week or , you know , monday or Tuesday of next week , but I am planning on doing something like we did in Prague . I'm just going to set up shop man at a bar or something and just invite people to come over .

So if you're interested in jumping on the waves podcast next week , we're going to have some fun . We're going to do like a live format like I did in Prague . We'll see what happens this year . I'm going to make the microphones a little bit better , though , and I hear the guys from unplugged connectivity . The podcast are going to be out there also .

So if Ian's around , that's going to be dope , because that dude is so good at all things TXRX , as it says on his LinkedIn profile . So WLPC is coming up . Mobile World Congress right after that in Barthelona is going to be very interesting this year . Don't know what the big , big ticket items are yet . Definitely lots of 5G stuff .

Definitely lots of indoor stuff . Great announcements from Cox coming out supporting Infinegy , joel and the work that he did at Metta to do carrier neutral and neutral , hosted 5G indoor applications using CBRS and LTE Band 48 . Those have already started to make waves .

So , moving into Mobile World Congress , I think we're going to see more announcements of privatized LTE when it comes to 5G and mid band CBRS services . Speaking of got random comments of the day , talking apart though who you know a long time ago , there's a product called Rasa went to Aruba and then went over to HPE . His product , ramen .

Speaking of the CBRS band stuff , go take a look at ramen . Great product that's there . So we have all these network as a service components coming together Some for indoor , some for carpeted spaces , some for enterprise spaces , some for industrial spaces and IOT .

And if you combine that with some of the buzz that's talking I even saw someone talk about Wi-Fi Halo , how they're going to do some packet captures and maybe make those available at WLPC as well Lots of really cool stuff happening right now in wireless , not just the 5G stuff , not just the Wi-Fi stuff , but other things .

And that brings me to the first topic that I wanted to talk about , this interesting article by Microsoft . Of all people , subterrahertz frequencies are generally considered between 19 and 300 gigahertz . These are candidate bands for 6G , so after 5G then we roll into 6G , 90 to 300 gigahertz .

Microsoft is testing these for data center communications inside some of their data centers . Keysight technologies , for example , last year supported subterrahertz tests with UK's National Physical Laboratory , the NPL and the University of Surrey . They established a data link with speeds greater than 100 gigabit per second using the 300

gig spectrum Dude . 300 gig I mean I can't believe the words are coming out of my mouth . That is so far up there . I don't even know what the wavelength of that is . You know , one of the things I always found fascinating with Wi-Fi is the inverse numbers there .

So if you have a 2.4 gigahertz frequency , that wavelength is approximately five inches long , and if you have a five gigahertz frequency , that wavelength is approximately two and a half inches long .

So I just thought that was kind of cool when you think about that , if you go from five inches at two , four to two inches at five gig , oh man , 300 , like I don't even know what that looks like .

Laser beams right Highly directional beams , which is the key to this thing are achieved by large element antenna arrays , so arrays with multiple elements pointed at each other , which allow quote coexistence of multiple communication links through spatial multiplexing and quote unquote setting up and tearing down of RF links on demand Pretty cool .

So in a data center application , device to device , server to server , I don't even know it should be interesting . Very short range , good spatial reuse of spectrum . Microsoft said it would be testing high frequency spectra bands between 246 to 249.5 gig and 252 to 257 gig , and then 275.4 to 275.5 gig , don't forget 258.5 to 260.5 .

So in Redmond , washington , they're leveraging the equipment from Keysight technology . That's going to be pretty cool . Don't know where that's going to go , but ultra , ultra , ultra high frequency , sub terahertz , lots of throughput . This is that's interesting . Don't expect that in your home anytime soon , I guess .

But if it is a candidate band for six gig , then who knows ? Okay , real quick , I'm going to jump on and I'm going to see if anyone's saying anything , because usually what I've found is that a couple of , two , three people like to chime in and let me know what they're thinking about , but no comments yet . That's cool . Everybody's still working .

I'm cool with that . So I'm going to jump right into the next thing . This is interesting . I talked a little bit about AI a couple of weeks ago and the little sensors I have sitting in this box I still have yet to install . Guys , I totally apologize , I still haven't done it yet . You know what ?

I'm gonna take these to WLPC and we'll set them up there and see what happens . That could be really fun . I can't promise it , but you know what , if I can squeeze these in my bag , we're gonna . We're gonna show air I off over there , just just for funsies .

So I talked about air I and the concept here is I explained it to a friend of mine , non-techie friend of mine is Down the street from my house , you have a bank and and to the north of that bank you have a Walgreens and then to the west of the bank you have an old convenience store and that old convenience store has been out of business for a while .

But if you get online and you go to show Dan , you can see that there's actually devices that are still chirping out about tank levels and all this other stuff coming from that convenience store and the concept is that if you want to , to attack wireless or to attack a specific target , instead of going in across the network or trying to figure out how to get

physical access to it or having to be on-prem In order to make that happen . The concept is , if you can get to a device that's within earshot of that facility that you're trying to attack and you can take advantage of Whatever devices there and break into it , then you can launch an over-the-air attack from across the street .

So , for example , the tank level indicator thing that's across the street from the bank could very easily be compromised and used to launch an Over-the-air attack to the , to the financial facility , from anywhere in the world , because it's chirping out to the internet and show Dan and blah , blah , blah .

So the concept is that we now aren't just looking at attacks that are happening to wireless networks from Local people that are trying to hack those networks using hack RF or whatever it is , or pineapples or whatnot .

Now it's expanded globally because they realize that they can take advantage of something over the air , and that's what things like air I protect against right . And so I thought that this was interesting along these same lines , because Idina police and I believe it was Idina Minnesota police believe a string of nine robberies in the last six months are related .

Residents say they were told that the burglars are possibly using tools to disable security systems . So I was like , oh interesting , because it talked about wireless . So I clicked through to see what that was specifically talking about and it said , quote unquote Wi-Fi jammers , surveillance cameras and Devices there that people are using Wi-Fi jammers to get into .

And so now you're starting to see this . You know , obviously not the first time this is gonna happen , it definitely not the last . But now People were saying , okay , well , how are what are people doing to wireless networks to attack them in order to compromise a larger , you know situation , to open doors to get in there ?

On that note , there is a great lesson about this at WLPC , where there's a flipper class . So if you're going to WLPC and you're not signed up for the flipper class , check that out . We're gonna explore a lot of these things that are out there . That's the one that I'm signed up for , totally stoked .

But things like flipper , now Advertising all over Instagram and all over Facebook and everywhere else , now it's taking these tools and it's putting them in people's hands .

So never has there been a time more important to start looking up at the airwaves and understanding what's happening in some of these locations and definitely would love to see how air is going to handle that . So I thought that that was timely and important to talk about .

You know , when you get a small town , you know Minnesota police department talking about using jammers , it's definitely if it's happening there , it's happening in a lot more locations . So thought that that was interesting to bring up , you know . That being said , I think that there's a lot happening in the security space . I'm stoked about WLPC .

There's going to be a lot of information coming out of there . Those are the things that you know . I wanted to try and make this short and sweet and fun . Those are the things that are top of mind for me . Some new Wi-Fi 7 access points have hit the marketplace .

Some features that are out there , I know you know shout outs to Dave and the team over Xtreme . They just launched their Wi-Fi 7 AP as well . So lots of stuff happening , new equipment that's coming out . Wi-fi 8 right around the corner , bro .

I don't know if we're going to be talking about that at the conference next week , but I am definitely interested to see what's happening . It's been a phenomenal week listening to everyone . Lots of chit chat , lots of chatter going on , like I said , from Cisco Live , but next week we should have a lot more fun to talk about .

So for this week , again , in the spirit of keeping it short and sweet , I try and keep these to 15 minutes or less . I think this is where I'm going to cut it . I hope you have a wonderful week . Happy Valentine's Day . Next week we'll be coming at you from WLPC .

Don't know what day of the week we're going to broadcast , but you know we'll pop up live , so make sure that you pay attention to the LinkedIn jump on X and everything else . Jamie oh , I love that little icon . Can't wait to see you guys out there . Such a good group of people , so many fascinating people , are going to be there .

It is the 10-year anniversary of WLPC , so we're going to be stoked to be there , and I'm sure we're going to have a lot more to talk about . So I even have some things that I'm going to be talking about myself , some new products that we're going to be looking at . So a little teaser there . Let's see what happens . Next week's going to be fun this week .

I hope you enjoy it . I hope it's fantastic . Eat lots of chocolate , if that's something that you're not allergic to , and if you are allergic to . Then don't eat the chocolate . Go find some hard candy . Have a good time . Anyway , have a wonderful week .

Please make sure you go like subscribe and YouTube and all that other good stuff and smash this and tap in and whatever . Also kind of bummed , the 49ers didn't win , but that's what happens when you work for Bay Area companies almost your whole life . Anyway , I hope you all have a wonderful week . This is Drew . I'm out . See you later . Bye .