The Thing About Ventev

Having just participated in Mobility Field Day 8, I got to spend some quality time with Ventev– during which I had an epiphany of sorts. We’ll get to that in a moment.

I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in many of the Field Day events through the years. They know me out there in Silly Valley where vendors and Field Day delegates come together and discuss industry trends, new products, what works and what sucks, and so on.

Being a veteran Field Day-er, I understand the routine. Vendors present what they want the world to know, delegates ask questions and make comments to dig deeper or provide criticism (some constructive, some because often the vendors can be decoupled from the reality of what end users actually need). How effective a Field Day is depends on (in my opinion) how effective the vendors are at following the guidance given to them for their presentations by Field Day management, and the quality of the delegate’s questions and comments. There are human beings involved on both sides of the table, and sometimes one side or the other just makes a given presentation laborious. Maybe boring content is offered a mile wide and an inch deep, or perhaps a given delegate just cannot shut up as they enjoy the sound of their own voice as they redesign the vendor’s product for them in real time. Again, the human factor.

One prevailing theme from the vendor side is this: WE THINK THIS FEATURE OR THINGY IS TRULY INNOVATIVE AND SO WE WILL NOW TRY TO CONVINCE YOU DELEGATES AND THE FOLKS AT HOME SO YOU WILL PAY US LOTS OF MONEY FOR THE HARDWARE AND A SHITLOAD OF LICENSES BUT YOU MAY NOT IMMEDIATELY SEE THE VALUE SO WE GOTTA WALK YOU THROUGH IT WHILE WE HOPE YOU DON’T ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS THAT COULD CUT INTO OUR STORY AND HENCE OUR BOTTOM LINE.

Nothing new here.

Let’s get back to Ventev, shall we? I promised you an epiphany.

So I’m listening to their Mobility Field Day 8 presentations about specialty enclosures, solar powered network “stations” (my word, not theirs) and antennas when a tidal wave of realization came over me. While network equipment vendors work hard to convince you that their often murky magic is worth the constantly elevating costs for what I often feel ought to be largely commoditized by now, Ventev sells fact. Ventev sells tangible reality. Ventev sells physics.

Whether it’s their Venvolt battery packs for survey work and temporary power needs or providing solutions for wireless access points to function out in the middle of Frozen Friggin Nowhere, Ventev doesn’t need to convince anyone of anything. When they talk about specialty antennas, their situational benefits are obvious and the physics of it all is instantaneously provable.

The Ventev narrative isn’t one of trying to out-AI or out-dashboard the other guy. They just make wireless environments better (or in some cases, even POSSIBLE). The Ventev story is end-to-end real, with no hype to sort through. No hyper-granular, squeeze-you-until-it-hurts-then-do-it-again-in-three-years-because-we-got-your-wallet–by-the-nuts-now licensing bullshit to hold your nose and pay for.

That is pretty sweet. And all too rare these days.

I suggest you get to know Ventev. Their presentations from Mobility Field Day 8 and earlier events are all found here.

Ventev Products Make the WLAN Better

As I watched the Ventev presentations being delivered as a delegate at Mobility Field Day 5, I couldn’t help but think of my own positive experiences with the company’s antennas, enclosures, and site survey power supply products.

A quick aside- if you didn’t realize: Ventev=Terrawave=Tessco. All same-same. It is what it is.

Problems Solved.

To me, Ventev has frequently been the answer to “We got a unique wireless network situation, we need a unique solution” scenarios. Sometimes i’s a mounting issue, other times its a question of pushing signal in a specific direction. One thing I LOVE about Ventev in this era of hyper-complicated WLAN systems, licensing, and code bugs is that their products play in the “No BS zone” of wireless networking. You need a thing, you need that thing to work right and for a very long time, you pay for it once, and you enjoy the fruits of making a good choice. 

That zone is getting smaller when it comes to enterprise WLAN, sadly… as the space ventures deeper into Marketing And Gratuitous Complexity That We Can License The Hell Out Of Above All for certain vendors. Thankfully Ventev  is outside of those games, and will be an important player in reliably putting the icing on any vendor’s wireless cake.

A Look Behind the Technical Curtain

I have made my share of antennas. Some have worked fantastically, and some were complete duds. I’ve been doing Wi-Fi since the early days, when making your own Pringles Can antenna for 2.4 GHz was a thing, and have been a licensed amateur radio operator (KI2K, Extra Class) for longer. Pieces of wire, coaxial cable, copper pipes,  threaded rods, and all sorts of bits and pieces have been fashioned into antennas by my my hands. When you make your own then test for performance, you get a different appreciation for antennas that do what you want and need them to.

During the Mobility Field Day 5 presentations, Ventev gave us feel for how they approach antenna design, then iterate that design for whatever important criteria is in play. For example, sometimes an antenna is big, sometimes it is small with the same general coverage- this comes about by manipulating wavelength fractions and other parameters to end up with similar electrical characteristics despite antennas having different dimensions and shapes. Modeling the designs is imperative, and Ventev uses the very cool CST suite for that.

There is a lot more to Ventev’s presentation at Mobility Field Day 5, and I don’t want to give it all away. Suffice it to say that they are an important player with a lot to offer to any WLAN environment, and to be familiar with their offerings is to be equipped with what you need to make your wireless projects more successful.

Here are the links to Ventev’s sessions at MFD5:
– Not All Antennas are Created Equal
– Antenna Innovation With Dennis Burrell
– Taking the Telecom Closet Outdoors

 

 

Ventev Knows- What a Difference That Antenna Makes

Have you ever designed a WLAN for a stadium? Ever taken a tour a of a top-tier professional stadium that has just had a a new wireless network installed throughout? I’ve done both, and the challenges of stadium WLAN have to be experienced before you can fully appreciate them. Regardless of what WLAN vendor you use on the radio side, you have to get the signals to where they need to be and to manage their fidelity in an environment that has great potential to devolve into an RF cesspool during events. Antennas- and their placement- are the keys to success, Daddy-o.

There are only so many places you can stick access points and antennas in a stadium environment’s fan seating areas. Depending on the venue, you might get great bleed-out/in between the bowl area and the concourses and office areas where different WLANs are likely to be found. Then there is the sheer volume of client devices, the other RF systems on and around the field, and whatever hotspot noisemakers fans and media show up with. Precision placement, alignment, and antenna patterns are the stuff of stadium wireless networks, and it’s all gotta be done in a way that protects the WLAN gear and rowdy fans from each other.

Lately, I’ve been fortunate to spend a little time on multiple occasions with Dennis Burrell of Ventev talking about antennas and his work designing them for challenging environments. Let’s have a look at one of Ventev’s specialty solutions, straight from Soldier Field (home of the NFL’s Chicago Bears):

And now a cutaway of that “handrail enclosure”:

If it’s not obvious, the advantage here is that the antennas are not below the seats or at some far-away overhead mounting location, but rather at waist-height with more clear lines of sight into the adjacent seating rows, shooting in two directions out of one enclosure. You can read more about the 275 of these units at Soldier Field here.

It’s fascinating to see the stadium challenges get answered by people like Burrell who have the talent, know-how, and empowerment to do what needs to be done. I also wrote this recently, which will lead you to many more of Ventev’s stadium projects.

Finally- let’s see what you might now about the stadium Wi-Fi market. Any idea how many large venues are “out there”? My past blog “What’s the Big Deal With Stadium Wi-Fi?” will help you to appreciate this fascinating space. And in this space, you can bet that the WLAN designers and owners appreciate Ventev’s contributions.

 

How Does Ekahau ESS Stay Current For APs and Antennas?

So I’m sitting on a bench at the mall, and this guy plops down on the other end. I can hear him sobbing a little. I’m thinking “poor bastard, must be a death in the family, or his wife split…” But then I hear his kid about 10 feet away say to a pal “my dad is a complete loser- he doesn’t even know how the world’s best Wi-Fi survey and planning tool gets updated for new APs and antennas!”

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I really don’t know how it happens, either. I’m a loser too!

But there’s a big difference between me and Sobby Bench Guy. He’s not a gonzo bloggist with a license to ask the tough questions. That’s my turf, and that’s just what I did to get my mind right on the topic. I put on my Interrogator Fez and went gunning for everyone’s favorite European guy, Jussi Kiviniemi. Sure, he’s Ekahau’s VP of Wi-Fi Tools, but I don’t mind running in those circles now and then. I grilled Dr. J pretty good, and he gave me what I was looking for. Read on.

Q. How long does it take to get a new WLAN AP or antenna added to ESS, once Ekahau
has the technical information?
Jussi: Depending on load & urgency, it takes 1 day to 3 weeks to get it done. It’ll be published in next sw release (sw updates about every 2 months).

Q. Does Ekahau have a strategy for retiring old APs or antennas from the software
Jussi: Good question. Not really. Happens organically through Wi-Fi vendor acquisitions. We actually should probably take out the 802.11b stuff if we haven’t already 😉

Q.  How does Ekahau find out about new APs/antennas from the major vendors?
Jussi: It varies. Today, they often send the new or upcoming stuff proactively. That’s good for their business too. If not, we ask. Often customers ask us, then we ask the vendor. 

Q.  Why is it advantageous for vendors to get their stuff into ESS?
Jussi: A lot of their partners use our tool (we are tool of choice for Cisco, Aruba, Aerohive,…). And they often want to design using the actual stuff as it is more accurate. 

Q.  What’s the oddest antenna you’ve seen in ESS?
Jussi: At first, the Xirrus arrays were different. I wish we had the planner already back in the Vivato days, that would have been interesting. Also, the Ventev floor mount stuff is refreshing. 

Q.  Any other thoughts on the topic of adding products to ESS?
Jussi: I highly encourage the public and vendors to contact us to tell us which APs or antennas they are missing. It’s a free service to add them. Twitter, web site form or wifidesign@ekahau.com all work. 

We also add things like multi-SSID MAC combining as one radio, and multiple radios into one physical AP.  This requires specs from vendors too. 

And there you have it. Just a little behind-the-scenes information on how a great tool stays fresh. I’ll echo Jussi’s last point: if you see something missing, give Ekahau a shout to get the program updated. ESS is huge tool in the WLAN industry’s toolbox, so keeping it current is a win for everyone.

Additional Resources:

• Jussi’s presentations
• About Ekahau’s Wi-Fi Tools

 

Look Beyond Your WLAN Vendor for Antenna Options

Look, Sport- you might get Wi-Fi… But do you really get ANTENNAS? (Maybe you frau-frau types call them aerials… whatever- go drink your Earl Grey and chill out.) If talk of wavelengths, gain, polarity, and the science of turning electrical signals into RF waves bores you, then move along. Stick with your cute little dipoles and be on your way. But if antennas jazz you, and you understand that this important tip of the communications spear can mold and shape your output and reception in the most incredible ways, well then I have some names to drop in your general direction.

Antennas have played a prominent role throughout my adult life. From my decade stint working and teaching Electronic Warfare to the years of subjecting my wife and kids to my latest homebrew ham radio antenna, I’ve learned much about the power of this component. That power is often overlooked in Wi-Fi, where many of my fellow WLAN professionals deal exclusively in captive antennas (the ones that you can’t see because they’re built in to the access point). But when it’s time to venture into the realm of external antennas, you have real choices. And those choices extend beyond the antenna options provided by your Wi-Fi vendor. Let’s talk about that bigger range of choices.

Get More Possibilities, And Maybe Save Some Money

External antennas add to the cost of any Wi-Fi installation. That’s just a fact of life. But the antenna vendors I’m about to mention just might save you a good buck over your incumbent Wi-Fi vendor, while providing interesting alternatives for a range of deployment scenarios. It’s what they do.

• Ventev  all kinds of cool stuff going on. After all, these are the Terrawave folks that long-time WLANers are likely familiar with. From comprehensive site-survey kits to antennas for any “normal” situations to funky-cool offerings like their raised floor antennas, Ventev is worth being familiar with when you need a creative antenna solution.
• AccelTex also makes a slew of Wi-Fi accessories and antennas for many industries and pretty much any application. Here’s an excellent video done at the 2016 Wireless LAN Professionals Conference, by Brian Smith of AccelTex on the topic of Dual Polarity Antennas in High Density Wireless Environments. As with Ventev, AccelTex offers many, many options and keeps current with leading WLAN vendors hardware.
• Then there’s PCTel. Just another interesting antenna vendor with a lot to offer.

Typically, when you shop for antennas you can usually find the exact (or pretty darn close) antenna that your WLAN vendor sells for a given application at a decent price from either Ventev, AccelTex or PCTel. If you buy a lot of antennas, the savings can add up. But you also get more than you pay for in that each of these antenna makers puts out top-quality gear.

Maybe antennas aren’t the most exciting things out there, but they are critical in Wi-Fi. If you’re out looking for antennas beyond the standard omni, it usually means that the success of your scenario will depend on the antenna choice and placement you decide on. Placement is up to you, and even the best antennas are at the mercy of the designer/installer for performance. But antenna choices? You have more than you may have realized. Check these companies out.