There’s been a lot of buzz around our recent Cisco Unified Access Solution announcement. We understand there is also some confusion around what’s what, what’s required for Unified Access, and what the impact will be on IT.

In true Mythbuster fashion, let’s all discover why no myth is safe – through a 5-part series of posts. In this series, we’ll look at some of the most common myths that have been floating around and unveil the truth.

Myth 1: Moving to the Cisco Unified Access solution requires the complete replacement of the existing access switch infrastructure.

This is pure fiction. Cisco has always promoted that the network infrastructure should evolve and we understand that different organizations will feel the impact of the Internet of Things, mobility and BYOD at different times and will address them differently. The new Cisco Unified Access solution provides you flexible deployment options, including separate wired and wireless, converged access, cloud-managed, and more. The deployment model chosen will depend upon the lifecycle of the existing infrastructure.

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Tags: Cisco, controller, LAN, network, networking, solution, switch, technology, unified access, WAN, wi-fi, wifi, wireless, wlan

At one time, a knock on the door was from a friend or neighbor looking to borrow some sugar or the hedge trimmer. Today, more often than not, that knock represents someone stopping by for a visit and asking to “borrow” your home network to connect to the Internet.

U.S. consumers carry an average of 2.6 mobile devices, according to recent research by the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG).  Not only do they expect their devices to connect to the Internet—they also expect friends and neighbors to have home Wi-Fi, just as they have electricity and running water. 

Many service providers are now trying to understand how they can create community Wi-Fi networks among their broadband customers and reap new business benefits.  However, they have very little research on customer behaviors that will enable them to design a winning program and build the business case for further investment.  To learn more, Cisco IBSG conducted a survey of 1,060 Canadian mobile users to understand their needs and behaviors, their current and future mobile usage, and the average profile of community Wi-Fi users. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, IBSG, Mobile_Internet, service_provider, wifi

Takeaway: The Cisco Enterprise Wireless group helps networking and IT professionals stay informed and get the most out of Cisco’s products and solutions, while displaying thought leadership on major technological trends. For 2012, there were 10 posts that stood out from the rest.

Cisco Enterprise Wireless products and solutions continue to grow in the enterprise space, providing best-in-class wireless infrastructure for many businesses and organizations. Out of our blogs this year, including detailed case studies of how enterprises utilize Cisco products and solutions, best practices from successful deployments, overviews of thought leadership webinars, and more, ten posts stood out from the rest.

Ten Most Popular

1. Get your Wi-Fi Network Ready for Windows 8

Jeevan Patil discusses 802.11w and Windows 8 compatibility, workarounds, why you should care and how to ensure that your network is ready.

2. 802.11ac: The Fifth Generation of Wi-Fi Technology

802.11ac is coming. Let Bill Rubino walk you through the in’s and out’s of IEEE’s latest standard, aided by trusty Techwise TV Fundamentals.

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Tags: .11, 802., 802.11ac, byod, Enterprise, iphone5, LAN, mobility, network, wi-fi, wifi, Windows 8, wireless, wlan

Last week, a friend of mine jokingly asked me, “So, what is Santa bringing to Cisco’s wireless customers this holiday season?”

I couldn’t help but grin because I already knew what many of you are now aware of: Santa’s wireless holiday delivery came early this year, with Release 7.4 now posted on Cisco.com.

We at Cisco’s Wireless Networking Group are really excited to show off this shiny new release. 7.4 is jam-packed with 40+ features to improve the everyday lives of Cisco wireless customers.

You must be thinking: But you just released feature-heavy 7.3 in October AND new products, such as Virtual Wireless Controller and the highly scalable Wireless Controller 8510!

So what makes 7.4 so special? We specifically chose each feature with the goal of creating an uncompromised user-experience while keeping wireless network administrators happy by making it easy manage their WLAN more efficiently. The 7.4 release specifically focuses on four main pillars:

• Quality of Experience for Wireless Users
• Improved Security & Spectrum intelligence
• Improved performance for small deployments
• Ability to deploy innovative IT services using mobile apps

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Tags: access point, Aironet, application, AVC, Bonjour, controller, holiday, LAN, mobility, mobility services engine, network, networking, release 7.3, release 7.4, wi-fi, wifi, wireless, wlan

As the saying goes, “every stick has two ends”. While laptops, smartphones and tablets have enabled us to be more mobile without compromising on being “connected,” with it comes challenges such as WIFI accessibility, power consumption and your ability to find network based services, like a printer wherever you happen to be.

To facilitate the ability for an end user to discover Services on a network, various Service Discovery protocols have been introduced. One of the most popular is DNS-SD (DNS-Service Discovery), which in conjunction with mDNS (multicast DNS) make up Apple’s offering called Bonjour. Bonjour enables end users to discover Services on their local network. While Bonjour is focused on smaller networks (e.g. Home Networks) with the advent of mobile customers wanting to discover services in close proximity, Bonjour becomes an ideal option to facilitate that. However, as Bonjour utilizes mDNS which is constrained to a single VLAN, customers are not able to discover services across multiple VLANs.

There are a few approaches being proposed to support Bonjour across multiple VLANs:

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Tags: Bonjour, dns, multicast DNS, VLAN, wifi, wireless network