Our Expectations for Mobility Field Day 4

Mobility Field Day offers the opportunity for vendors to present what they have been working on in front of a group of talented delegates. It usually generates really good conversations and interactions.

This year, Mobility Field Day will be taking place in Silicon Valley from August 14th to August 16th . The event is organized by a company called Gestalt IT.

Event website: https://techfieldday.com/event/mfd4/

List of Delegates

• Dave Benham – @BaldWiFiGuy
• Haydn Andrews – @TheWLAN
• Jake Snyder – @JSnyder81
• Jennifer Minella – @jjx
• Jonathan Davis – @SubNetwork
• Keith Parsons – @KeithParsons
• Lee Badman – @WiredNot
• Manon Lessard – @Mae149
• Sam Clements – @Samuel_Clements
• Scott Lester – @theITrebel
• Tim Dennehy – @JustDoWiFi
• François Vergès – @VergesFrancois

List of Companies Presenting

• Aruba HPE
• Cisco Systems
• Metageek
• Mist Systems (Juniper)
• Secret Company

Note: we didn’t talk about Cisco on the show since we recorded this episode before we knew that they were going to be presenting.

Our Overall Expectations

• Talks around Wi-Fi 6 and its implementation
• Talks around AI
• Talks around ways to ease the monitoring and configuration of Wi-Fi networks
• Hear about new products and solutions

Expectations from Aruba (HPE)

• Presentation of their Wi-Fi 6 APs
  • Hope to see some demos and see OFDMA in action (we have seen in on twitter) https://twitter.com/OguzhanEren802/status/1149378074309472256
  • Would love to hear about real-world deployments
• Talks around the cloud-based solution
  • They released a new version of Aruba Central recently
  • It would be nice to hear more about it
• Maybe talks around security
  • Clearpass to secure IOT
  • Clearpass to provide more visibility

Expectations from Cisco

• Presentation of their new Catalyst Wireless controller: C9800-L
  • Here is a video from wise TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=7nzBFhNZ1WE
• Presentation of a new Wi-Fi 6? We know that they are working on the Aironet 3800 series equivalent. They might be ready to announce them
• Talk around Wi-Fi 6
  • They just release their new controller code supporting OFDMA: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/16-12/release-notes/rn-16-121-9800.html#id_102180
• Talk around WPA3

Expectations from Fortinet

• Don’t really know what to expect from Fortinet.
• Maybe they will come with something new?
• Will we be talking about Single Channel Architecture? Is it the end of it?
• Will they be announcing new Wi-Fi 6 FortiAPs?

Expectations from Metageek

• Very exciting to have them on this year!
• I would expect them to talk about their Wi-Spy Air solution
  • https://www.metageek.com/products/wi-spy-air/
• We have heard about potential improvement to the popular Eye P.A. application
  • Ryan Woodings from Metageek sent out a tweet. We can see him working on the application: https://twitter.com/ryanwoodings/status/1151139407354662914
• I would love to see Eye P.A. available on macOS as well as being able to do live packet capture analysis on macOS as well.

Expectations from Mist

• We are pretty much sure they will be presenting their new Wi-Fi 6 APs
  • Here again, hope to see some demos and see OFDMA in action (we have seen it on Twitter too) https://twitter.com/Robb_404/status/1153810151196876800
  • Maybe a demos of other 11ax features implemented
• Curious to know about where they AI stand today (going to Bob’s interview on the show)
• Would like to learn more about their growth (outside of the US)
• Would like to see how the merge can empower them

Secret Company?

• Seriously no idea who that can be…
• Ideas
  • Other vendor: Ubiquiti? Everest Networks? 
  • Software company?

Let us know what are your expectations for the event in the comments.

Don’t forget to tune in and watch the event live at https://techfieldday.com/event/mfd4/.