This year, Rowell wasn't able to attend WLPC. But François made it to Phoenix and presented too!
Why You Shoulnd't Skip WLPC
WLPC 2018 was packed with a lot of great presentations by different people in the Wi-Fi industry. The format of this years' conference was a little different:
- 3 Main sessions of 55 mins
- 13 Short sessions of 30 mins
- 29 TEN talks of 10mins
- Deep Dive sessions (2x 2.5h) on different topics (Every attendee had to choose one when registering)
The trends for WLPC 2018
- 802.11ax
- AI
- Dual 5GHz APs (A little less than last year)
- Programming (deep dive on Python + template report)
- IoT ready APs
What to look for in the Future
- Talk on 5G with Peter Thornycroft from Aruba
- 5G is not well defined yet but might change a lot of things in our industry
- Talked about all the different technology involved (LAA, LWA, Multifire, Wi-Fi)
- WPA3. We got a little more details on what it will be from Heather Williams
- Enhancement of WPA2 (802.11w mandatory, KRACK mitigation,
- What’s coming with WPA3
- Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (protect against stupid passwords)
- Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) (Some protection for open SSID)
- Device Provisioning Protocol (DPP) (IoT device protection)
The Community
- Talk on blogging by Lee Badman
- Talk on the Wi-Fi Pro slack group from Manon Lessard and Samuel Clements
- Update from the WLA from Peter MacKenzie and Mark Raats
- Harnessing the Power of community from Tom Hollingsworth
- Explained what a community is
- Explain how to engage with a community (Wi-Fi community)
- How to handle divergent viewpoints: stay civil and respect each other
- Presentation of the conference from Keith Parsons
- Apart from the presentations, other event got organized
- Morning runs
- Morning Yoga
- Morning prayers
- Retro video game night
- Whiskey and Wireless podcast recording
Interesting Sessions
- Impact of LTE-U on Wi-Fi in 5GHz by VEli-Pekka Ketonen
- Polarizing Figures by Scott Lester – Talk on external antennas
- Interesting stats: 90% to 98% of AP sold with internal integrated antennas
- Deep dive into PoE by Jonathan Smith
- Does it matter what AP you buy from Wes Purvis
- Data comparing different types of APs (2×2:2 vs 3×3:3 vs 4×4:4, 11n vs 11ac w1, 11ac w2)
- Get up to 28% performance with higher end APs
- Low-end AP can reach hardware limitation
- 3×3 offers up to 10% less throughput improvement vs 4×4 (lower retry rate + maintaining 3SS easier)
- Challenges in Modeling Campus by Vladan Jevremovic
- Showed us how to model a outdoor park
- Airport Utility – Monitor iOS devices + Python scripting by Eric Garnel
- RRM by Blake Krone
- Talked about how different vendors do it (Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus)
- Talked about what to do when you enable it (configuration)
- Talked about what you do once it’s on (monitoring)
- When a WLAN Pro starts a WISP by Steve McKim
- RSSI Revealed by GRegor Vucajnk
Useful Sessions
- Do you have a Mac from Adrian Granados
- A lot of good information for Wi-Fi Explorer users
- Filtering and coloring Frames with wireshark from Joel Crane
Announcements
- Wi-Fi Alliance announced the launch of their Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Optimized Connectivity. Talk from Ortiz Consuelo
- WLA released their transparent book
- Ekahau announced the support for BLE design in ESS in the near future
Controversial Topic
- Ghost frames (Ben Miller vs. Devin Akin)
Lee Badman was named Person of the Year for his huge contribution to the Wi-Fi community in general.