5G and the subsequent generations of Wi-Fi come as great news for users but they throw some curveballs at network administrators. With complications piling higher and higher, automation is in the offing. At the recent Tech Field Day Exclusive with Cisco 2022, Cisco presented its AI enhanced RRM which counters these pain points with AI and automation.
The Changing Landscapes of Wi-Fi and Evolution of RRM
The evolution of Wi-Fi has escalated not only the complexity but also the demands of RF environments. The amount of knowledge required for configuration today is way more than what was required by the three channel situation of yesterday. To match the mounting demands, companies have modernized their legacy RRM technologies making them more and more adaptive to the newer technologies. Over time, this has led to too many knobs and switches and the controller has wound up being overcrowded.
With Wi-Fi 6E now being ubiquitous, the high-density situation has become a standard in RF environments. With businesses having to service more clients in smaller areas, companies require more capable APs to amp up the throughput to meet the expectations of the users. Today, its still mostly manual where tuning and troubleshooting are concerned. Although technologies have stacked up on top of one another, the processes are still far from simple, let alone automated.
Cisco’s Radio Resource Management Technology for Real-Time Radio Frequency Management of Wireless Networks
Originally a Cisco innovation, RRM as a technology has existed for many years evolving at an even speed with Wi-Fi, keeping up with the changing requirements of flexibility and features in RF management. Used for monitoring noise, interference, traffic load, coverage and such elements, it helps keep the network in perfect shape.
More recently, Cisco has incorporated AI into the RRM technology with the mission to make it more insightful than before. Cisco targeted to improve the visibility element of RRM with AI so that administrators working with heterogenous technologies are better able to understand their systems and have their hands less full with routine jobs. This will likely lead to accelerate responses which is becoming increasingly more critical for access layers.
What’s New in the Cisco AI Enhanced RRM
Jim Florwick, Technical Leader, Secure Access TME at Cisco presented Cisco’s AI Enhanced RRM at the recent Tech Field Day Exclusive with Cisco 2022. During the presentation, he talked about the journey of the technology since it’s early days and walked us through its new and improved AI enhanced features.
Built around Cisco DNA Center, the RRM enables provisioning controllers for telemetry flow. With adaptive parameter optimization, Cisco’s AI-enhanced RRM enables enterprises to deliver the highest level of Wi-Fi experience in workplaces. Fully optimized parameters based on usage, trends, historical data, AP density and so on allows administrators to tune the network as required.
With regards to greater visibility, Cisco’s RRM one-ups legacy controlled based RRM by a long shot. Amping up RF insights with actionable intelligence for every site, it unlocks full visibility and close monitoring. Analyzing the usage per site, it comes up with recommendations to utilize unused network capacity for better utilization. Making deployment possible in minutes, it swaps what was formerly manual with AI based automation, thus minimizing work and maximizing network value.
With RF telemetry inputs coming in constantly and manual config works automated through AI, admins can stay on top of operations and decisions through real-time evaluation of RRM performance. As part of automation, Cisco’s AI enhanced RRM can emulate possible scenarios that administrators can troubleshoot with instant one-click service bundles.
Final Words
Cisco’s AI Enhanced RRM is substantially more flexible than it was before AI. Fully configurable, it provides improved visibility of the RF environment through more context-based data collection. The combination of intelligent AI learning algorithms and automation maximizes insights, reduces grunt work, and overall improves operational efficiency. It’s everything enterprises need in their tool box to achieve the highest standard of user experience.
Be sure to check out Cisco’s other presentations from the recent Tech Field Day Exclusive with Cisco 2022 to learn more about this.
