Technically Sound

CEDIA leads the way in residential networking guidelines

Hagai Feiner — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:00:04 +0000

Today CEDIA has released “The Business Case: Why Your Business Needs an Enterprise-Grade Wireless Infrastructure Strategy,” the first in a series of whitepapers aimed at educating ESC’s in the importance of creating a home network strategy for their business. The Access Networks team has been involved in the creation of this first part in the series and we believe this is an important step–a milestone, even–for our industry.

It was only at CEDIA Expo 2011 that networking became an actual category mentioned in literature and advertising banners. And now CEDIA is moving beyond recognizing this important category into developing a sustainable business model for its membership. ESC’s can rely on this important whitepaper as a guide in their business roadmap.

To download the white paper (free for CEDIA members) visit the CEDIA Marketplace, and click on CEDIA Publications.

We’ve Joined ihiji’s Partner Program

Sarah Fleishman — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 01:10:51 +0000

We are proud to announce that we have joined ihiji’s manufacture partner program. In case you missed the official press release, here it is:

ihiji, creator of the award winning could-based remote monitoring system invision, is proud to welcome Access Networks into its partner program.

Access Networks is the leading provider of enterprise-grade plug-and-play networking solutions for the automated residence. Together, the two companies deliver a highly visible solution by integrating ihiji’s Invision system into Access Networks’ preconfigured network solutions. This allows the integrator to more easily visualize vital data stored in network devices without needing to log into each device separately. In addition, AV and automation system event logging can now be correlated with network event logging.

“What we are working on with ihiji is truly exciting and a major step forward in the system monitoring space” said Hagai Feiner, CEO of Access Networks. “The ihiji invision systems allow for the capture of valuable data from our solution and present it to the integrator via the iInvision web interface. The result is that the integrator has all the information they need at their fingertips.”

As a result of this partnership, all Access Networks systems installed on projects using ihiji invision will arrive pre-configured to work with ihiji’s monitoring service. Integrators should can expect reduced installation time and increased efficiency in project management.

“ihiji invision exists to provide integrators a proactive service solution that increases revenues, decreases product failure rates and results in highly satisfied clients,” said Mike Maniscalco, Vice President of Technical Operations at ihiji. “It serves as the eyes and ears of the integrated system, providing real-time status of each connected device and enabling prompt and efficient resolution.”

This partnership will continue the integration of ihiji’s invision into Access Network’s pre-configured networking solutions. New monitoring features will include in-depth monitoring of all switches and routers, the ability to turn PoE ports on and off, continuous network health monitoring, fan status, device uptime graphs and bandwidth usage.

“In a rapidly evolving industry such as ours, it is imperative that we align ourselves closely with manufacturers who will both ensure optimal product integration and also provide support for both current and future products,” said Maniscalco. “We have worked closely with Access Networks for the past year with great success, and have already collaborated to produce webinars and associated educational outreach. Hagai Feiner (of Access Networks) has established a highly-skilled and technically adept team who support our collective initiatives very well. We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, and feel honored to add Access Networks to the ever-growing list of ihiji invision partners.”

ROE vs. ROI: The Case For Socializing Your Business

Sarah Fleishman — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:12:33 +0000

This is the first part of a two part article I wrote for Custom Retailer this month. In case you missed it, I am also honored to announce that I was featured alongside the industry’s best and brightest as one of Custom Retailer’s Young Turks of CE in the January issue. Thank you to everyone for the support.

Questions or comments on ROE vs. ROI? Post a comment below, or tweet me: @accessnetworks or @sarahfle.

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During the last few years social networking has quickly transformed from niche to mainstream. It is clear that social media is here to stay and stands to impact our marketing strategies forever. If you have embraced social marketing in your business you might have hired a consultant, read a few social-marketing books, or talked to your 15-year-old niece about proper online lingo. Now what?

If you have yet to take the plunge, you are certainly asking yourself ‘Why do I need a social media strategy?’ One of the biggest challenges to getting your business started with social media is figuring out what to do first. With numerous websites dedicated to content-sharing, it is often difficult to not only know where to start, but where and when to stop. Facebook? Twitter? Google+? Do I hire a full time social media manager? Should I allocate social media duties to my existing marketing department? Do I take on the challenge myself?

Whatever your approach, it is important to remember that social media is only one part of your overall marketing strategy. While simply having a presence is important, it is even more important to take the right steps to ensure that your business benefits from all the resources that social networking has to offer.

Educate your Social Media Strategist

Unlike traditional marketing, social media is not only about self-promotion. It is equally about answering questions, having conversations, and facilitating authentic interactions. It is nearly impossible to do this without a social media strategy that is managed by someone who can truly represent your brand. Therefore, if you do hire a dedicated social media manager it is, first and foremost, imperative to educate them about all aspects of your company. What is your overall marketing strategy? What is your company’s brand all about? Who are your clients? How do they find you?

As a social media strategist at Access Networks, I have found that one of the most important tools for effective online communication is truly knowing our company from the inside out. This means not only understanding our brand, our overall marketing strategy, our clientele and our solution, but also knowing what we do in the field and how our solution complements, impacts and enriches others in the industry. What this means for me is a continuing education about all things Access Networks, including project walks, product demos, attending industry events and a commitment to discuss, shift and adjust our strategy as the industry evolves.

Remember that the person in charge of your social media strategy has direct, communication with the outside world and will help to shape the public image of your brand. The more knowledge you entrust to that person, the more successful your campaign will be.

Like your sales staff, social media marketers publicly represent your brand, which means they must always respond to questions quickly and accurately, and be able to engage with industry peers and followers on an authentic and personal level. When you provide your social media strategist with this high level of education and understanding, your business will shift from merely having a social media presence to becoming a social force in the industry.

ROE then ROI

One popular argument against social media is that there exists no concrete way to determine its direct return on investment (ROI). While ROI is absolutely the driving force of any business’ marketing activities, I would argue that social networking efforts should focus on gaining ROI by strengthening return on engagement (ROE). The beauty of social media is that it gives users a place to listen and be heard, to converse and to share ideas. A digital town hall, if you will. It also uniquely presents a marketing landscape where positive ROE often leads to ROI, but rarely the other way around.

While it is true that your tweets, blog posts, YouTube videos and Facebook messages have the ability to reach thousands of potential leads each day, it is simply unrealistic to expect each person you reach to become that day’s new sale. Therefore, a successful social media campaign focuses not on generating sales per se, but instead on spreading goodwill, providing valuable information to other users, and making friends. Unlike traditional marketing mediums, the immediacy of social networking platforms offer your company a chance to show people who you are and what makes your business unique, aside from the products you sell or the services you offer. The goal of a properly executed strategy is that when a follower does need the product or service you provide, they will think of you first.

This begs the question, ‘How does one measure ROE?’ Today, there are a growing number of ways to measure ROE. Google Analytics, Facebook brand pages and third-party social media clients such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are some examples. Each of these have features that allow you to see how many people have viewed your content, where they are located, and how long they stayed on your site. You can also measure ROE by noting how many users reply or comment on your posts or if new clients mention your recent tweet. We will discuss this more fully in the February issue of CustomRetailer.

Access Networks at CES 2012

Sarah Fleishman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:52:48 +0000

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with Aaron and Hagai. In case you weren’t following our live tweets from the event, here are some of the highlights. Did you attend the show? What were your favorite gadgets?

Happy New Year: Looking Ahead to 2012

Aaron Gutin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:50:14 +0000

Several years ago when Hagai and I began to transform an already successful local company into the company you know today, we sat down and spoke often of the network as a new frontier. A digital landscape that had just begun to take shape in the residential space and one that would grow to transform not only the industry, but all of our businesses and lives. Today, the constant excitement in our offices for what we do and where the industry is headed is not only palpable, but contagious. We all should be very excited about the future of our industry. While some categories have fallen to the way side, a broad array of new opportunities lay just on the horizon.

Among all of them (and short of the network itself) there is one core part of our industry that sits closest to my heart: Stereo. And I mean good-old two channel stereo systems. I have simply never gotten over the excitement that two speakers and a great set of gear can create in a room and in my heart. The past three years I have been part of a growing community of music lovers who have ditched their CD players in favor of a music streaming scenario. Digitally stored, lossless music files streaming across a local area network (LAN) to a properly designed, well voiced DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) is by far the most radical development in music playback since the advent of the vinyl recording. I am not alone in this feeling. No longer are we caught in the trappings of a compromised delivery system. Warped cassette tapes (where’s your pencil?); warped records, scratched vinyl, scratched CD’s – all a thing of the past.

For me, our mission at Access Networks, the network itself and the growing interdependency of our stereo systems on the network are directly tied to the overall excitement I feel for the future of our industry: Starting right now with 2012. This year we will buy less CD’s, in favor of digitally delivered music. We will stream more movies from the cloud than we purchase a hard copy of. And, if we’re lucky, the music industry will wake up and start making hi-resolution files (88Khz/24bit, 96Khz/24bit, 192Khz/24bit) a standard offering, rather than the 1981 standard of 44Khz/16bit, which lacks detail and the dynamics our stereo systems are now capable of resolving.

What’s key to this radical and exciting shift in the playback medium for music (and movies) is a robust, powerful network. Clearly, this infrastructure is now the digital foundation of our homes, our lives and our industry’s core offerings. Our personal communications and the communication between various devices in our homes and offices all rely on this critical infrastructure to deliver their given feature sets. Now more than ever, your company must have a comprehensive strategy to address this category. Without it, it won’t matter how much music you have stored on your NAS drive or Sooloos system, it just isn’t going to work properly.

As for our industry at large, I cannot remember a time in my career when more change was afoot. There are more choices for automation systems than ever – some moderately priced, some not. There have been radical developments in the design and manufacturing of loudspeakers. There are more powerful subwoofers with smaller footprints. Today, more than any other time in our industry’s history, we can offer a broader feature set in a smaller package – and that means more opportunities for all of us.

With an election cycle just ramping up our country is about to take a hard look at where we’ve been and where we would like to go. Let us not get caught up in the negative banter about our struggling economy and the big choices we face as a nation and a people. I believe that there is a clear and present silver lining surrounding us and the dark period we have all survived is near an end. As you may have read, sales across the industry in 2011 are up from 2010 and should continue to track upwards in 2012. This year offers all of us a huge opportunity to grow our businesses, hire new employees, increase revenues and add new clients to our rosters. We should all stay focused on our core values, our brands, our clients’ needs and our individual goals for this year. A friend and mentor of mine taught me very early on in my career to never lose sight of the fact that what we sell to our clients is a want and not a need. “At the end of the day, we sell stereo systems, not defibrillators,” he told me. This is not meant to discount the serious nature of running an integration company or to make light of our industry, but instead meant to point out that we should not lose sight of the fun that we are trying to deliver to our clients. Music, film, and the arts in general are an essential aspect of our creative lives. Whether we work to create art or enjoy its consumption, art in its purist sense is an expression of our human experience – life, love, happiness, sadness, among others. When executed properly, it moves the soul and enlightens the heart.

The sound systems we sell and the home theaters we design and build are all meant to be portals into an experience that is bigger than our daily life. Our industry is an extension of Hollywood, a compliment to the broader consumer electronics market and a conduit for the celebration of life. Whatever your personal preference, our industry should strive to deliver an exceptional experience to our clients and their families. If we keep this in mind in 2012, as I know we will, we’re all going to have a great year.

Wherever I May Roam

Sarah Fleishman — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:07:13 +0000

The secret about wireless networking is that it’s not as easy as we let on to our clients. The larger the environment gets, the harder it becomes to deploy a reliable wireless network.
Written by Aaron Gutin, Vice President of Sales for Custom Retailer in 2010.

Sure, if the client’s home is 2,000 square feet, there are many access points (AP’s) available that perform adequately, at best. These devices will cover the home, are marginally profitable, and the client will enjoy readily available Wi-Fi. Even the Wi-Fi enabled remote control you’ve deployed will stay connected. But what if you have a 12,000 square foot home to work with? Or 25,000? If you are like most integrators I know, those deployments have become an ongoing service nightmare.

For a moment, imagine the touch screen remote control you’ve sold your client is like a hitchhiker. As your remote reaches the end of one AP’s service area, it must ‘hitch’ a ride on another AP. In order for this to happen, the remote must stick out its proverbial thumb, wait for one of the other APs to stop, complete another process of authentication, and, assuming this all goes smoothly, continue on its original path. The problem with this scenario is that it lacks consistency. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and that’s no recipe for profitability.

It turns out that the solution to this issue has been available for several years. Before this issue came creeping into your projects, it was bothering manufacturers of enterprise grade networking equipment and their corporate clients. What they realized is that there are too many constantly shifting variables to manage in a wireless network with multiple APs. No single network engineer, nor a team of skilled network engineers, could keep up with all the changes needed to provide a perfectly balanced wireless network.

How did they solve this issue? They built a computer to do it for them. This device is called the wireless LAN controller, or WLAN controller, and the proper use of this device will make your wireless offering an engine for profit.

Think of the controller as a world class Wi-Fi engineering genius who doesn’t eat or sleep and lives only to manage wireless networks. When properly programmed, this device unifies any number of APs – 6, 12, 25 or more – into a cohesive unit. The controller unifies indoor APs with outdoor APs, and even allows you to broadcast multiple SSIDs (i.e. network names), including an isolated guest network for internet access only.

The advantage of the controller is that it centrally manages all of the APs. Using all of the attached APs as its eyes and ears, the controller continuously analyzes current environmental conditions and executes channel and radio strength adjustments in real time. This ensures that the wireless network is continuously optimized regardless of the number of devices attached to the network. Most importantly, for your touch screen remote controls, the controller tracks where network clients are moving, then hands them off from AP to AP wherever they may roam throughout the network.

Let’s face it, the networks you deploy in your clients’ homes aren’t getting any less complicated. In fact, a recent study by ABI research estimates that network-dependent CE devices will grow from a $100 billion business worldwide in 2009 to $243 billion in 2012. Most of these devices will be Wi-Fi enabled and rely on the network to deliver the promise of their individual feature sets. How many of those devices will deliver content to the home via your automation system? How much of that market will be yours?

For your service techs and the sanity of your entire staff, the wireless controller will provide your team with one vital feature that standard multi-AP deployments do not: a comprehensive log of wireless network activities. You would therefore be able to review the actions executed by the controller over the past several days immediately after a client reports an issue. Instead of the status quo you may have begrudgingly accepted – reboot or replace – you would now be able to effectively troubleshoot an issue on the wireless network.

Forget signal boosters, wireless bridges and power-over-electricity. The wireless controller is the solution the CE community has been looking for. None of those other options offer the intelligence, stability and reliability a controller-based wireless network offers your client and your bottom line.

So, what do you need to know to get started?

1. Manufacturers such as Cisco, 3COM and, my personal favorite, Ruckus Wireless, offer wireless controllers.
2. Like other products there will be differences between brands. Therefore, some research and testing is needed before committing to one particular brand.
3. Most controllers must be mated with access points from the same manufacturer.
4. There will be skills to acquire before actively deploying these systems. In fact, you may need to become certified by the manufacturer in order to purchase and deploy these products.
5. These systems might not fit the budget for every client, but for those environments larger than 2,000 square feet, there’s no better solution.

In the end, the controller will bring order to your wireless deployments, allow you to attach individual SSID’s to individual VLANs and, most importantly, provide your client with a seamless wireless network that performs exactly the way you intend it to.

Your clients already look to you for the solutions to many of their technological needs, now and for the future. Why not leverage your position as a technology expert and capture that business? If you can become a premiere supplier of robust wireless networking solutions, you will unleash an entirely new revenue stream on your business and find yourself positioned to profit from the proliferation of network dependant devices for years to come.

Visibility: What Your Network Would Tell You If It Could

Hagai Feiner — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:36:38 +0000

An advanced network solution with built-in monitoring and troubleshooting tools can help resolve issues quickly and drive profits. In honor of our upcoming webinar, I thought I would share an article that I wrote for CE Pro not too long ago.

In the Enterprise world, businesses translate network downtime into lost profits and the same is true for custom integrators. Regardless of home size, building materials, or the automation system manufacturer, every integrator has to live up to the exact same expectations: it needs to work. And if (or more likely, when) it breaks, we need to know how to fix it in the fastest way possible and on the first attempt. It is no longer sufficient to troubleshoot issues by process of elimination or employing the “reboot or replace” method. Instead, as your automation systems have increasingly become network dependant, the ability to resolve issues has become a scientific process, rather than a simple process of elimination. However, in order to apply a scientific process, we first need some real data to understand what’s wrong with a system.. Without real data, we’re left to continue guessing in the dark.

Unlike previous periods in our industry, today’s automation systems are directly reliant on the network to function properly. The necessary toolset required to monitor systems and effectively solve problems is broadly defined as visibility, but for the purposes of this discussion I will focus on network visibility. Like many other technologies offered by custom integrators, the concept of visibility comes from the enterprise world and applies to networking as well as other systems including automation, lighting control, and security.

Visibility into hidden issues exists in our everyday lives, from the check engine light that tells you it’s time to get an oil change to the battery level indicators on your cell phone. Network visibility depends on two key factors: the logging capabilities of your network equipment (if any) and the ability of your network engineer to analyze and troubleshoot the data captured by the device logs. Unfortunately, over-the-counter networking equipment most integrators are deploying do not possess any logging capabilities and therefore, no visibility. This lack of visibility effectively renders potential networking issues invisible, leaving the integrator to guesswork and multiple reboots throughout the troubleshooting process. As a result, integrators typically find themselves with recurring issues, frustrated clients, and ultimately, financial losses.

That is why enterprise networking technologies have been developed and implemented to be highly visible. Implementing a true enterprise grade networking solution can provide you with visibility to identify and resolve many wired and wireless networking challenges, saving you money and headaches with every issue that arises.

The Enterprise Approach
Enterprise networking equipment manufacturers such as HP/3Com, Juniper and Cisco Systems offer networking appliances that provide the critical visibility tools that are much needed in the Custom Integration world. At Access Networks, we deploy Cisco products featuring the Internetwork Operating System (IOS) software. Cisco IOS contains a vast feature set that I won’t detail here, but what’s important for integrators to know about are the visibility and troubleshooting tools it offers.

The proper design, programming and implementation of a Unified Network allows a trained and certified network engineer to remotely identify potential issues on the network. With careful review of the logs the engineer can turn raw data into valuable information. At every point in the network, individual appliances (firewalls, switches, etc.) keep a detailed log of information related to the operation of the network. For example, double checking an equipment connection list can lead to the discovery of improper wiring, just as an error on a port can lead to the discovery of a device issue. Simply put, the ability of the network to capture data and the engineer’s ability to access, understand and translate that data into an actionable process, can mean the difference between a profitable project and a disaster.

The wireless spectrum is even more complex as any wireless environment is open to interference created by other radios, building materials and even appliances like microwave ovens. Moreover, the wireless spectrum, unlike the wired portion of your network, is invisible to the human eye, which makes visibility into the Wireless Network (WLAN) a crucial feature for a successful deployment. Therefore, it is critical to include a wireless controller or WLAN controller in your network offering.

The advantage of the controller is that it centrally manages all of the wireless access points on the network. Using all of the attached APs as its eyes and ears, the controller continuously analyzes current environmental conditions and executes channel and radio strength adjustments in real time. This ensures that the wireless network is always optimized regardless of the number of devices attached to the network. On top of its other duties, the controller keeps a comprehensive log of wireless network activities and provides visibility where there once was none. You would therefore be able to review the actions executed by the controller over the past several days immediately after a client reports an issue. Instead of the status quo you may have begrudgingly accepted – reboot or replace – you would now be able to effectively troubleshoot an issue on the wireless network.

Examples from the Field
In order to understand how visibility into your networking deployments can help you, let’s look at a popular product with which many integrators have experience: Kaleidescape. This popular movie/music distribution system was certainly the first of its kind and represented a huge leap into the future when it was first released. Since its release, our clients have become familiar with instantaneous content delivery of all kinds. Their expectation is that content will be available at anytime with the click of a button, whether it be from an ‘On Demand’ cable TV service, Hulu streaming to their laptop or their Kaleidescape system. However, if there is any latency in the network, the delivery of that content will be fraught with interruptions and the viewing experience will be poor.

The Kaleidescape system is made up of one or many servers and players. For our discussion, let’s concentrate on the server since it is the focal point of bandwidth consumption. A network with built-in visibility tells us that a Kaleidescape 1080i stream consumes 36 mbps of bandwidth while moving 3500 packets per second across the network on average. Add two 1080i streams to this equation and you have a server that consumes 108 mbps of bandwidth while moving an average of 10,500 packets per second across the network. These are astoundingly large numbers even in enterprise networking environments.

So what happens when a client complains that with three Kaleidescape players active the system begins to skip? With visibility, a networking engineer would be able to review the logs in real time, which might show that the 10/100 port you have your Kaleidescape server currently plugged into has reached capacity. Moving the server to a gigabit port would quickly resolve the issue for your client and everyone can continue to go about their day. Without visibility, it would prove difficult to pinpoint the problem and resolve the issue in a timely manner, causing several man hours to be spent just trying to figure out what’s wrong.

Wireless network visibility is just as important. The most crucial aspect of the wireless network in a CE integration environment is the ability to support wireless touch panels in charge of controlling the home. Wireless spectrum usage, the quantity of access points and the proper placement of access points are all things that affect the performance, reliability and even the battery life of a wireless touch panel. WLAN visibility can solve a wide range of issues, from finding which wireless devices use a certain wireless spectrum to encryption errors generated due to some devices not being WPA/WPA2 encryption compatible.
When we combine the visibility offered on the wired and wireless sides of the network, the end result is a powerful solution that is both useful and profitable.

Next Steps for Integrators
The challenge of creating a seamlessly integrated custom home is greater than ever. From pre-wire to trim, installation and programming every step is crucial for the ultimate success of a project. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity as today’s custom integrators become the digital centerpiece of the construction project. As more devices become automated and sub-contractors become integrated, this will only continue to grow.
Implementing networking technology to gain visibility into your systems and understanding how to use that visibility to your advantage will reveal cost savings, hidden profits and create new opportunities. As the CE community embraces the convergence of the CE and IT worlds, integrators committed to staying ahead will focus on IT education for their sales and technical teams and the adoption of true enterprise-grade networking technologies for their projects. The next chapter in the progression of Custom Integration is network intensive and those integrators who amass the newly required IT and networking skills will be best positioned for success.

Like what you read? Want to learn more? Join us tomorrow, November 15, 2011 at 1pm EST/10am PST for our webinar: Creating Robust and Reliable Networks with Access Networks and Ihiji.

The Power of Technology: Brought to You By ihiji & Access Networks

Sarah Fleishman — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:11:07 +0000

Many of you know who we are and what we do. What we do is powerful; Technically Sound.

Our network solutions provide a reliable, repeatable experience that allows the automated residence to function at the highest level. Yet by partnering with best of breed manufacturers our offering evolves into a new class of networks–a truly integrated solution in every way. This allows us to cut down on what you (the integrator) needs to do in order to get your work done quickly and efficiently.

Combining Access Networks award winning Access Unity Network with ihiji’s remote monitoring and support tool provides you with visibility into your clients’ systems that you only dreamed could exist! What’s more, this combination creates a network that your company will be proud to stand behind. Ready to learn more?

ihiji and Access Networks are hosting a joint webinar where you will learn the benefits of enterprise-grade networks, proper design and configuration, remote monitoring and support. The experience will make you feel like you did when you went from dial-up to broadband. You’ll never want to go back!

Tuesday, November 15th at 10:00AM PST (1:00PM EST)

Space is limited, so register today!

Thinking Outside the Box

Hagai Feiner — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:56:07 +0000

Last week I visited four new local projects, each impressive in their own right. The common denominator was that all projects require property-wide Wi-Fi coverage.

“We want it everywhere, inside and out,” says the owner’s representative; “Full bars” adds the integrator.

So how does one extend this type of networking experience all the way out to the far edges of these estates, supporting all devices including low-powered ones such as iPhones? Read on…

We are often required to think outside of our box, but rarely do I find such a great fit to what we do that it makes me want to write a blog post about it. In a world where we at Access Networks could have used any product we desire to accomplish our mission and get the job done, we decided to use a few best-of-breed vendors. When challenged with covering a 5-acre outdoor environment we began considering the options of outdoor access points coupled with fiber optic cables for the long cable runs.

But one key ingredient was missing: If we have fiber going to the camera poles (where our access points will be mounted) how do we convert the fiber optic cable to Gigabit Ethernet, and how do we power the access point? Of course, my first thought was a small PoE switch with a fiber module. But that is not a practical application as the switches we use are for indoor applications and even when mounted in a NEMA-rated box may not last as long as we want them to.

Seeking a more practical application, I remembered a Black Box media converter we used six years ago. There has not been a single issue with that project in the years it has been deployed, so I defaulted to Black Box for a solution. And then… Boom! Black Box makes little media converters taking inputs of fiber and local power and spitting out a single gigabit PoE link! What a great feeling finding the right part for a project. Needless to say, the integrator is happy and there is nothing quite as fulfilling going back to the client with the phrase: “Yes, we can!”

You Can Bet Your Business On IT.

Evolving Our Network Design

Hagai Feiner — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:11:02 +0000

In recent months we have witnessed an incredible growth in the quantity of networked devices in the home. After several requests for network subnets larger than the traditional 254 host limit we decided to embrace the classless /23 (CIDR Notation) subnets in our residential network design. This is yet another first in many innovations that Access Networks has introduced into the residential space (apologies for the shameless plug – I just had to…).

So what changed? With a /23 subnet your subnet mask is 255.255.254.0 which means that you now have the ability to have more hosts (clients) on one subnet. How many clients? 510.

So how does this work? Your subnet mask controls the size of your network. Changing our subnet mask from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.254.0 essentially doubles the capacity of your network. Now: If our old network was 192.168.18.xxx and we changed our subnet mask from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.254.0 we now added the 192.168.19.xxx into our IP range:

The above snapshot was taken from subnetcalculator.com – a useful tool in today’s complex world. The beauty of this not only that we now have more hosts, but also that they auto discover each other. This is very useful for applications using Bonjour or mDNS.

My personal network design philosophy is based on balance. As integrators, we must balance the tool set we have in order to create a seamless environment for our client, the end-user. This new subnet design accomplishes just that. Only one question remains: Will your network hardware have the processing power to support this larger network? We know ours will.