Distributed Network Monitoring of

Wireless Metropolitan Networks

Stefano Gridelli Cofounder/CEO

NetBeez

Agenda• Centralized vs. Distributed Monitoring

• Wireless Metropolitan Networks

• Distributed Network Monitoring of wireless metropolitan networks

Centralized Network Monitoring• SNMP based

• Centralized SNMP poller

• MIB information

SNMP poller

Hub Site(Data Center)

Spoke Site(Branch Office)

Internet Service Provider

Spoke Site(Branch Office)

Spoke Site(Branch Office)

Hub-and-Spoke

Split Tunnel

Hub Site(Data Center)

Internet Service Provider

Spoke Site(Branch Office)

Spoke Site(Branch Office)

Spoke Site(Branch Office)

Limits of Centralized Monitoring

Remote Office NYC

?

?

?Remote Office

LAX

Remote Office ATL

✓ Network Operation Center

(IT headquarters)

Distributed Network Monitoring

Remote Office NYC

Network Operation Center (IT headquarters)

✓

Remote Office LAX

Remote Office ATL

✓

✓

✓

Wireless Metropolitan Networks• WiFi hot spots

• Mesh networks

• MANET (Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks)

Past and Present Experiments• Meraki wireless in San Francisco

• Burning Man (NANOG 62 - M. Peterson)

• Wireless Community Networks

• Oakland Mesh Network

• NYC Mesh

• Pittsburgh Meta Mesh

Challenges of Wireless Mesh Networks

• Connectivity and reachability

• Performance

• Service continuity

Distributed Network Monitoring of Wireless Metropolitan Networks• Verify connectivity and reachability

• Track end-to-end latency and packet loss

• Do periodic site surveys

• Identify dark spots

Distributed Wireless Monitoring• Ping and Traceroute

• Mesh nodes

• Internet gateways

• Internet targets

• DNS queries

• HTTP GET

• Bandwidth and Jitter tests

Benefits• Quick detection

• Reachability and latency information

• Full coverage

(n * (n - 1)) / 2

Open Discussion Session• Mesh network deployments

• MANET

• Distributed network monitoring first, network automation next?