August 27, 2003 Evaluation of WiNc Manager A Wireless Network Management Software from Cirond Technologies Inc. by Kassim Olawale Radio Science Laboratory Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The University of British Columbia

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Outline  WiNc Manager Testing  Features  Further testing of features  Recommendations

Evaluation of WiNc Manager WiNc Manager Testing  Beta testing started in June  Software downloaded and installed  APs were set up and connected to a wired network for testing  Assessments based on the software documentation and tests

Evaluation of WiNc Manager WiNc Manager Features  Summary of Important features Basic AP configurations Network load balancing Channel Assignment Security Mapview  Advantages and disadvantages relative to campus network

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Basic Access Point Configurations  read, set or change most variables that configure an Access Point  Communicates with APs using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)  If the AP does not support SNMP, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is used

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Basic Access Point Configurations  Access Point Name  Manufacturer  Firmware Version  Regulatory Domain  SSID  Description of AP  Channel number to use  MAC Address  IP Address  Subnet Mask  Gateway  Wireless Transmit Rate  Wireless Transmit Power  MAC Address Filter Lists  MAC Address Access Control Lists (ACLs)  Packet Fragmentation Threshold  RTS Threshold  Statistics

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Basic Access Point Configurations

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Basic Access Point Configurations

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Basic Access Point Configurations

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Basic Access Point Configurations  Advantages Enables a single location for changing AP configurations for entire network. Changes can be applied to any number of APs at once (depending on variable being changed).  Disadvantages Not all variables are available for editing. WiNc Manager currently does not support Cisco Aironet AP1200 running IOS. It supports VxWorks on AP1200 and IOS on AP1100

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Network Load Balancing  Load balancing using number of clients in network  Threshold number of clients beyond which redistribution is triggered can be manually set  If no threshold specified, the software attempts to keep number of clients on all APs equal

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Network Load Balancing

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Network Load Balancing

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Network Load Balancing  Advantages Constantly overloaded APs could be easily relieved requires that such APs’ coverage areas overlap those of other AP(s) with smaller number of clients  Disadvantages Aggregate throughput on an AP could reach a maximum even with low number of users

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Channel Assignment Can assign channels to APs automatically using four of the eleven channels in the IEEE b standard

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Channel Assignment  Advantages Manual management of channel allocations to APs, while still possible, is not necessary Capacity is increased by one-third over the traditional three-channel network deployments  Disadvantages Research suggests that it should be possible to use more than four of the eleven channels provided in the IEEE b standard. This depends on the physical distance between the APs with overlapping coverage area and their transmit power.

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Security  Use of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) with automatically rotated keys  MAC Address filter list  Provisioning of network access for clients

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Use of Wired Equivalent Privacy  Four keys can be provided at a time  Supports keys of length 64, 128 and 256 bits  Same WEP keys can be provided to multiple APs at the same time by selecting the APs before making key changes  WEP will be used for data transmission, but may also be used for authentication  AutoKey (optional) Automatic distribution of WEP keys to clients using Cirond Technologies WiNc or pocketWiNc software Automatic key rotations (following a specified schedule)

Evaluation of WiNc Manager WEP : AutoKey

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Use of Wired Equivalent Privacy  Advantages Data is protected when transmitted with WEP encryption AutoKey eliminates the need for network users to manually enter unfamiliar WEP keys on their user equipment AutoKey also allows rotation of keys on schedule  Disadvantages AutoKey requires that users install Cirond Technologies software on their user equipment Without AutoKey, users have to manually enter WEP keys in their equipment WEP keys cannot be changed regularly enough to defeat an intruder’s effort to learn the keys from transmitted packets.

Evaluation of WiNc Manager MAC Address filter list  Clients may be allowed or disallowed access to wireless network based on their MAC addresses  Different MAC Address Access Control Lists (ACL) for different APs on the network is possible Access control lists programmed onto the APs New lists (external to the APs)

Evaluation of WiNc Manager MAC Address filter list  Advantages This may serve as an additional security feature in the network  Disadvantages It will be difficult to manage MAC Address lists for a large network such as that in UBC MAC addresses can also be copied by potential intruders

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Provisioning of Network Access  WiNc Manager creates an encrypted provisioning data file  The file is used once by the client to connect to the network and register access requires that the client be running Cirond Technologies software  WiNc Manager maintains automatic key distribution to the client (if WEP keys are set and AutoKey enabled)

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Provisioning of Network Access

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Provisioning of Network Access  Advantages If provisioning is enabled, only clients that have been provisioned can access the network Access to the network can be denied to specific clients by disabling their access provisioning  Disadvantages Provisioning of network access requires that clients run Cirond Technologies software

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Mapview  Real-time graphical presentation of the wireless network Shows APs and clients in the network  Background will represent plan of the physical location of the APs (optional)  APs not configured will be shown as rogue APs  Physical location of APs require an initial setup in WiNc Manager This is easy to achieve using the various setup and calibration tools provided  Links are drawn between each client shown and all the APs it is associated with  Location of clients are estimated using the location of the APs they are associated with

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Mapview

Mapview  Advantages Useful in assessment of network performance and load (in terms of number of clients) Easier to explain why some APs are overloaded compared with others in the same building or environment APs that are offline and rogue APs are easy to spot  Disadvantages Relies on clients running Cirond Technologies software to report rogue APs Location of clients may not be very reliable, unless they run Cirond Technologies software

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Further Testing  Set up clients to APs use Orinoco RG1000 as clients  Test network load balancing

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Conclusions  Some features in WiNc Manager are only available or practical when clients run Cirond Technologies software (WiNc for clients or pocketWiNc).  Examples of these features include the use of WEP with AutoKey reporting rogue APs on Mapview positioning of clients on Mapview provisioning of network access to clients  In a network that uses WiNc Manager, use of Cirond Technologies software in clients is recommended

Evaluation of WiNc Manager Conclusions  Software was assessed for use in UBC wireless network  The advantages and disadvantages listed will help in deciding suitability of the software  Additional considerations on WiNc Manager include Cirond Technologies should enable support for Cisco Aironet AP1200 running IOS No other software is available to provide throughput load balancing Research on use of channel assignment algorithms better than a four-point autochannel is still ongoing Mapview, included in the software, is valuable for real-time visual evaluation of the performance of the network