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the technical guide about MDU Wi-Fi.

The demand for managed MDUs Wi-Fi is on the rise across the world. In 2023, a study by Parks Associates (well-known market research and consulting firm) showed that 31% of the US population lives in MDUs (Multiple Dwelling Unit Wi-Fi), and 50% report Wi-Fi issues. Multiple Dwelling Unit Wi-Fi represents a sizable business opportunity for MSPs that offer managed WLAN connectivity services for apartments, condos, multi-family homes, townhomes, and other high-density living spaces. Continue to read why and how Tanaza can help network administrators to troubleshoot common network coverage and speed issues.

What is a MDU Wi-Fi (Multiple Dwelling Unit Wi-Fi)?

MDU Wi-Fi refers to WLAN wireless networks that serve multiple residential units within buildings or complexes. MDU Wi-Fi networks are designed to provide secure and ubiquitous internet connectivity and managed services to tenants living in apartment buildings, condominiums, student housing, assisted living facilities, and other types of multi-unit dwellings.

In some cases, MDU Wi-Fi networks are managed by a single MSP or SP, who manages the deployment and operation of comprehensive Wi-Fi services for the properties.

MDU Wi-Fi market provides significant opportunities for MSPs and SPs that serve building owners and property managers. Benefits can include:

– Revenue Generation: Building owners or property managers can generate additional revenue streams by offering Wi-Fi services to tenants as value-added facilities for residentials. They can charge a monthly fee for the service or include it in the rent.

According to a report by Grand View Research, the global MDU market size was valued at USD 158.5 billion in 2020 and may grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% from 2021 to 2028.

– Competitive Advantage: Offering high-quality Wi-Fi service can be a competitive advantage for property owners or managers in attracting and retaining tenants. Thanks to Wi-Fi analytics integrations such as My Wi-Fi Networks and Social Wi-Fi, network administrators can analyze the residents’ preferences and offer tailored guest Wi-Fi experiences.

– Improved Resident Satisfaction: Providing reliable and fast Wi-Fi service can improve resident satisfaction and reduce complaints about connectivity issues. Wi-Fi troubleshooting tools can help network administrators to fix the most common connectivity problems related to the speed of connection and coverage. 

– Enhanced Security and Privacy: A shared Wi-Fi network can be designed with advanced security features to protect users’ privacy and prevent unauthorized access. 

– Remote Monitoring and Maintenance: MDU Wi-Fi networks can be remotely monitored and maintained by service providers, reducing the need for on-site visits and minimizing downtime.

– Marketing and Analytics: Wi-Fi networks can be used to gather data on users’ preferences and behavior, which can be used for targeted marketing or to improve operational efficiency. ADS4Wi-Fi is a Tanaza integration to monetize MDU networks, through targeted ADS managed by an easy-to-use advertising management and campaign delivery platform.

– Smart Building Integration: MDU Wi-Fi networks can be integrated with smart building systems to enable automated control of building functions and services, such as lighting, heating, and security. Visit the Tanaza Marketplace to stay tuned for the latest IoT integrations.

Park Associates listed the common MDU network technical problems by residence type.

As shown from the precedent graphic, the main issues are related to two main topics: speed connection and coverage.

Excluding the use of outdated access points (IEEE 802.11g and previous standard – discover here the most advanced compatible and Tanaza Powered Devices), congestion, interference, or bandwidth limits can represent one of the most common causes for low levels of speed connection.

• Congestion
• Interference
• Bandwidth Limits

Excluding structural interference caused by incorrect network design, network overload, wrong roaming setup, multipath fading, congestion, and interference can represent some of the most common causes of coverage issues.

Network overload
Wrong roaming setup
Multipath fading
Congestion
Interference

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about how network downtime impacts
on MSPs, ISPs and SPs budget.

Network downtime is one of the most expensive issues for MSPs, ISPs and SPs network architectures. It’s unavoidable, systematic and often unpredictable.
The most relevant study conducted by Gartner has demonstrated that network downtime can cost on average up to $9,000 per minute.
Organization size is also a key factor. For Fortune 1,000 companies, network downtime could cost as much as $1 million per hour, according to an IDC survey. And while the typical mid-sized company spends $1 million per year on incidents, large enterprises can spend up to $60 million or more, according to a research report from IHS.

Considering the pure math without taking in consideration generic case studies, also Cloudscale has mathematically demonstrated through a computational algorithm the relationship “network downtime = money loss”.

where

LR is the Lost Revenue
GR is the Gross yearly Revenue
BT is the total Business Time (in minutes)
I is the percentage of revenue impacted by the down time (an online retail business could see 100% impact whereas a sole proprietor insurance company could be 60%)
T is the downtime

Today the effects of a downtime have direct consequences on loss of company revenue.
Wherever is the cause of a network downtime, MSPs, ISPs and SPs have to consider implementing solutions to mitigate or prevent network downtime.

What are the causes of network downtime?

The IS-IS protocol (ISO/IEC 10589:2002 – included in the OSI model) classifies network downtime in six classes:

Level 0 – Network is down
Level 1 – Part of the network is down
Level 2 – Most of the network is down
Level 3 – All of the network is down except for a few isolated systems
Level 4 – Most of the network is down, but some systems are still functioning
Level 5 – All systems are functioning, but there are performance issues

These categories are used to help network administrators understand the extent of the network downtime and to identify the root cause of the problem. By understanding the level of downtime, administrators can prioritize their efforts to restore the network and minimize the impact on users.

What are the most common causes for network downtime at OSI Layers?

1) Faults, errors or discards in network devices (Layer 2)
2) Wrong device configuration changes (Layer 2)
3) Operational human errors and mismanagement of devices (Multiple Layers)
4) Link failure caused due to fiber cable cuts or network congestion (Layer 1-2)
5) Power outages (Layer 1)
6) Server hardware failure (Layer 4)
7) Denial of service (DoS) (Multiple Layers)
8) Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) (Multiple Layers)
8) Failed software and firmware upgrade or patches (Layer 7)
9) Incompatibility between firmware and hardware device (Layer 7)
10) Other external causes (Multiple Layers)

Fing App (now a Tanaza add-on) has precise and updated real-time and historical lists of network downtime, divided by countries, duration, recurrence, severity, impact. Network administrators can read details about each single network downtime or visualize them in bulk thanks to real-time interactive maps:

Click here to watch the global network outage scenario in real-time

Click here to watch the top outages of past 30 days

The importance of an outage detector system integrated in Tanaza WiFi cloud management

An outage detector system is a network management application that allows the monitoring of network infrastructure’s faults and errors, proposing solutions and tips to fix them and checking the ISP status.

Outage detector systems are fundamental for MSPs, ISPs, and SPs that want to reduce and prevent network issues and avoid the aforementioned costs caused by outages.

The activation of the Fing App in the Tanaza cloud platform allows to identify what network endpoint is hurt by the outage.

Network administrators can visually and fastly identify what types of clients (smartphone, laptop, printer, etc) are connected to the networks thanks to an intuitive list of minimal icons.
Depending on the chosen plan for the add-on, each client will show relevant network information including the status and the classification of connection, type and brand of WiFi client, bandwidth values (download and upload mbps) and OS information (name, version, build).

Fing and Tanaza have combined their core technologies to create the advanced outage WiFi notification system. Thanks to Tanaza + Fing add-on, network administrators can understand if the APs are offline for internet outages around the world, improving their efficiency to inform their customers about recovery times and responsibilities. The add-on is compatible with the main ISPs of each country and allows network managers to compare them by rating and reviews in order to identify in real-time the best solution for internet connection.

Fing App is able to register real-time ISP connection status data, including information about the severity of outage (on a scale of 5 values: minor, moderate, considerable, major, critical), outage duration and recurrence, and geographical impacted areas.

For this reason, Tanaza and Fing add-on is based on an AI-algorithm that operates in a fully automatic way, with no need for manual reporting.

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the technical guide to 6GHz
for MSPs, ISPs and SPs.

After only two years after the approval by the FCC regulations and Wi-Fi Alliance (and the progressive approval by the national regulatory authorities in Japan, UE, Latin America) to open up the 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi broadcasting, the main networking OEMs have already launched the first WiFi6E access points.

This technical guide is quite long, but its length is fundamental to explain all the facets of the revolutionary 6Ghz.

Readers can click on the following links to jump to the interested section.

– The 6GHz band frequency
– What are the benefits of the 6GHz band?
– Features introduced by the 6GHz band
– Airtime efficiency
– Faster passive/active AP discovery
– What is the difference between 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz?
– List of Tanaza Powered Devices and Tanaza Compatible Devices that supports 6GHz

Following the same distribution model of the other bands, each country has enabled the spectrum in different sub-bands.

The FCC has designated four sub-bands for the US territory: U-NII-5, 6, 7, and 8.
The EU Commission, instead, allows network operators to exploit the “U-NII-5 equivalent” part of the band, the lower one: 480 MHz after the 20 MHz guard band.

These data are updated at 04/19/2023

This band frequency includes the orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) feature from cellular technologies, which takes advantage of servicing multiple users on sub-channels transmitted simultaneously. 6GHz supports the native orthogonal frequency division.
OFDMA allows the transmission of significant quantities of data over a single noisy channel. This technique works by splitting a single signal into multiple smaller transmitted signals. OFDMA is perfect for medium-far transmissions, while MU MIMO is more indicated for short-range.

6 GHz spectrum access approaches

Dynamic random spectrum access and contentionbased protocols require access to multiple channels to maintain acceptable performance.

6 GHz spectrum access approaches for Europe

6 GHz spectrum access approaches for worldwide countires (except Europe)

Beacon Changes

Multi-BSSID Beacon

New Rules for Probing

6GHz Passive AP discovery

Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) AP discovery

Unsolicited probe response frames AP discovery

6GHz Active AP discovery

Preferred Scanning Channels (PSC)

Theoretical number of available channels on each band

Valid channels number and PSC Channels in 6GHz radio

The best frequency among these depends on inherent hardware features and the real-time radio-frequency environment.

Tanaza cloud management dashboard has specific features with which network engineers can easily manage hundreds or thousands of AP frequencies. They can switch from 2.4GHz to 5 GHz (and soon also to 6GHz thanks to the release of new Tanaza Powered Devices and Tanaza Compatible Devices)

For each AP, MSPs, ISPs, and SPs can select the radio mode, the channel and channel width, and the TX power.

To obtain the maximum signal spread and reduce the propagation loss, the technical conformation of each frequency suggests using the 2.4GHz band for 2.4 GHz radio-supported devices and IoT devices. Older 5Ghz may fall into a ‘legacy’ category and be moved to this band to avoid dragging down the performance of preferred clients in the 5 GHz band.

5 GHz becomes the band for mainstream high-performance devices that are not 6 GHz capable, allowing non-preferred devices to be relegated to 2.4 GHz as above.

The 6 GHz band can be used for the latest, highest-performance devices, almost by definition in the first few years of rollout. It benefits not only from the highest rates available but also from the lack of legacy equipment and lower noise levels in the band.

Read more tips to execute an accurate WiFi channel selection