2022 Content Contribution of the Year Finalists
Amy Arnold
Amy Arnold is a veteran in the industry providing outstanding content for many years. Her experience makes her perspective very educational and tells the story in a way that makes you want to learn. In addition, her writing is insightful, and topical. She is witty and a very entertaining writer. No matter what her role, Amy has made significant contribution to the wireless industry through the content she produces.
Twitter: @amyengineer
Web: www.amyengineer.com
Lee Badman
Lee Badman is one of the community's favorite content contributors. His passion is evident by a long career followed by passion coming through in everything he does. He is always on top of industry trends, news, events, and covers things in an easy to digest format. His conversational style keeps topics technically accurate while making them easy to understand. In addition, he interjects humor through all his writing that grabs your attention and draws you in. From blogging to his other contributions Lee has been an integral part of the wireless community.
Twitter: @wirednot
Joel Crane
Joel Crane is an extremely knowledgeable and talented individual. He is very engaged in what is happening, so he is always up to date on the latest technology and products. He continually challenges people to look at things from a different perspective and think outside the box and find new ways to accomplish things. From 3rd printing to all his other projects, Joel seeks to elevate and educate everyone in the community.
Twitter: @Potato_Fi
Web: www.potatofi.com
John Kilpatrick
John Kilpatrick regularly contributes by blogging, engaging on twitter, and in the Wi-Fi Pros slack group. Working for a large tech company, John is exposed to many situations in which he freely shares with others. His perspective is always interesting which always makes you think about things in a different way. Every time John speaks he tells it like it is which is refreshing.
Twitter: @HypergeekWiFi
Tom Hollingsworth
Tom Hollingsworth has more insight and knowledge than most folks in the industry. He talks to more companies and industry professionals so he is very aware of what is relevant and going on in the community. That insight gives Tom a unique perspective and allows him to cover relevant topics to networking and bring topics that are timely. He is so willing share his wisdom and what he knows to help educate the community.
Twitter: @NetworkingNerd
2022 Rookie of the Year Finalists
Dan Jones
Dan Jones is the epitome of coming into the industry on fire! He tries to engage as many people as possible on social media and offer assistance or a voice. He actively participates in conversations on various platforms and isn’t scared to ask the tough questions. He may not seem like a rookie, but as fairly new to the industry, he seeks to help in any way he can on the things he has learned and gained first hand experience with.
Twitter: @UKDanJones
Jordan Goodson
Jordan always is looking for new projects and how he can use his wireless skills. He seeks out veterans in the industry to learn and engage as mentors to further his skills and experience. Jordan is like a sponge constantly gaining more knowledge and asking questions. He is working towards industry certifications and has earned his ECSE-Design certification.
Twitter: @Gadabouted
Keith Miller
Keith is one of the rising talents in our community. He continues to grow and contribute to the world of Wi-Fi and is always seeking to help others. He is as active as can be on social media and blogging, and well spoken and humble. He shows no hesitation to dive into anything related to Wi-Fi and associated technology, regardless of how well he knows it. He is an eager study. He always gets involved, lends a hand or expresses interest in things. If there's something he does not know but wants to learn and just makes everyone better.
Twitter: @packetologist
Michael Hilton
At a young age, Michael Hilton has not only received his CCNP & CCNA Routing & Switching, CCNP Enterprise (among many others), but currently is working on achieving his CCIE as well. He has worked on network infrastructure including Cisco, Juniper, Extreme Networks and others. He actively participates in conversations and seeks to learn all he can as an aspiring Network Architect.
Twitter: @vMikeNetworking
Mohammad Razavi
Mohammad Razavi is passionate about all things wireless. In less than 6 months he has received 4 Professional certifications. He is still trying to learn as much as he can engaging on social platforms like Twitter. In addition, he is willing to share and help anyone with his knowledge and experience. He is always investing in himself to further his career.
Twitter: @yficts
2022 Innovation of the Year Finalists
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company: 630 Series Wi-Fi 6E APs
The industry’s first enterprise-grade Wi-Fi 6E solution. The 630 Series APs are designed to take advantage of the 6 GHz band, which translates into far greater speeds, wider channels for multi-gigabit traffic, and less interference. It delivers 3.9 Gbps maximum aggregate data rates Tri-radio, 2x2:2 MIMO in all three bands (3.9Gbps aggregate peak). This product will integrate into any network infrastructure.
For enterprises who will need more wireless capacity and wider channels to grow, Aruba 630 Series APs take advantage of the 6 GHz band via three dedicated radios.
For more information visit https://www.arubanetworks.com/products/wireless/access-points/indoor-access-points/630-series/
Cisco: Catalyst 9104 Stadium Antenna
Cisco Catalyst 9104 Stadium Antenna is an all-in-one access point that you don’t have to run ridiculous amounts of LMR cable. Although the footprint is large but it’s actually smaller when compared to deploying an AP and External attached antenna. Also ascetically pleasing. It’ss a single solution that reduces time to deployment as well as addresses safety concerns when reducing the amount of overhead components. All of these enhancements creates a better experience in super high density and focused deployments.
For more information visit https://blogs.cisco.com/networking/deploying-the-cisco-catalyst-9104-stadium-antenna-aka-the-catalyst-9130-ap-on-steroids
Ekahau: Insights
Ensure Wi-Fi performance is always meeting or exceeding business requirements. Ekahau Insights gives you instant visibility into your global network performance health by combining survey data from multiple users at multiple sites and automatically computing and displaying easy-to-understand Wi-Fi performance analytics.
While network hardware manufacturer management systems provide an inside-out view of the accessibility of switches and Access Points, Ekahau Insights gives you a real-world view of Wi-Fi quality and performance at the client level. The combined view gives you a clear picture of your network health and makes it easy to troubleshoot and diagnose issues fast.
For more information visit https://www.ekahau.com/products/ekahau-connect/insights/
netAlly: LANBERT Media Qualification App
NetAlly's LANBERT 'Media Qualification App' generates and measures the transmission of line rate Ethernet frames over your network cabling infrastructure, qualifying its ability to support 1G/10G on fiber and 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10G on copper links.
LANBERT allows network owners to validate that their existing cables are capable of much more capacity than current cable certification methods indicate. While certification is still recommended for all ETH cable installations, certification indicates what the cable is guaranteed to do, LANBERT will physically test the cable to find the upper limits of what it is able to do.
For more information visit https://www.netally.com/lanbert-test-app/
Numerous Networks: nOversight
nOversight is the first product of its kind to extract Wi-Fi performance details from iPhone and iPad devices. These devices have been very difficult to understand in terms of their connectivity and now it is as easy as downloading nOversight to a Mac and instantly seeing the connectivity and performance of a trusted Apple device. It shows Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity information in real time. It captures connectivity sessions and within that, exposes the connection and roaming logic internal to the device.
The challenge in understanding iPhone and iPad device connectivity has been notoriously difficult. Even those skilled in reading logs would spend a huge amount of time to examine them and still could not be entirely sure of the device performance as the logs are not orderly and easy to understand. Now, the Wi-Fi community can examine iPhone or iPad performance in a Wi-Fi network within a few minutes and instantly determine if the device will provide a good experience, especially in the case of roaming.
For more information visit https://www.numerousnetworks.co.uk/noversight/
2022 Product of the Year Finalists
Ekahau Survey 2.0
Ekahau Survey 2.0 makes conducting a Wi-Fi site survey faster and easier than ever before. Survey 2.0 also makes it easier for businesses to validate their network -- avoiding costly mistakes -- and survey more frequently to ensure their networks operate at top performance.
1) New look and feel -- Say hello to the completely renewed look and feel of the Survey app. More than just a pretty face, it also contains significant usability, workflow and content improvements.
2) In-depth survey information at your fingertips -- Introducing a new Inspect view, where you can see and analyze each and every scan point as a playback on your survey path. This allows you to better understand how your Wi-Fi is performing in different locations.
3) Customize the way you survey and view results -- Now you can increase the efficiency of your surveying process by telling Sidekick which channels you want to scan. And that's not all, after the survey, you can also define how the data is presented by controlling various visualization options.
For more information visit https://www.ekahau.com/products/ekahau-connect/survey/
Extreme Networks AP 4000
The Extreme Networks AP4000 APs is one of the first shipping enterprise-grade Wi-Fi 6E access points. It can access over three times the spectrum of existing access points and is built on Broadcom chipsets. It features all the same functionality as the existing Extreme lineup from a software support perspective and is built for enterprises to deploy to users.
The major challenge addressed is accessing the new 6 GHz spectrum allocated by the FCC for use in the US. This frequency band has the potential to relieve congestion and ensure that modern client devices have access to the largest amount of bandwidth possible.
For more information visit https://www.extremenetworks.com/product/ap4000/
Juniper Mist Marvis Conversational Interface
The Marvis Conversational Interface uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) to understand user intent and goals. It contextualizes the inquiry to return specific results and can even take actions based on user feedback. Describe your intent to Marvis, and it will take an action without requiring you to remember specific dashboards or CLI commands to implement the change. The challenge it primarily solves is making it simpler, faster and more accurate for IT and helpdesk teams to identify and resolve issues with the Wi-Fi (and wired and WAN) network. Customers have seen a significant reduction in time spent troubleshooting with examples such as: Dartmouth College that reduced the number of tickets escalated to IT from first level support due to Marvis by a factor of 90% reduction, and The Gap that saw a reduction in the need to send IT staff onsite to remote store locations by 85%.
For more information visit https://www.juniper.net/us/en/products/cloud-services/virtual-network-assistant.html
CommScope RUCKUS Cloudpath Tenant Portal
The Cloudpath Tenant Portal provides a flexible solution for any organization that wants
to offer Wi-Fi as a Service but wants to allow end users (tenants) more control and autonomy
over their individual Wi-Fi service.
With Cloudpath Tenant Portal, Wi-Fi as a Service can now be offered by an organization without needing to increase their IT staff to support onboarding challenges that come with consumer-based devices to an Enterprise grade WLAN. This innovation allows for a reduction in calls from the end user when challenges are faced by allowing the end user to self- service their account by access a customized portal that allows them to change their passphrase and manage the devices that are allowed to associate to their network. The end users get more control in an easier fashion without the need to increase help desk staff to field an increase in calls from the end user.
For more information visit https://www.commscope.com/product-type/enterprise-networking/
Ventev Venvolt V2
VenVolt 2 - Site Survey Battery Pack is one of only a few battery packs designed to do site surveys, and the only one that provides a 802.3bt (Type 4) power option. Works with most access points, including Cisco, Aruba, and Mist. It is the must have tool for Wi-Fi professionals to power APs for all day site surveys allowing you to reduce time onsite, saving you money and allowing you all the time in the world to troubleshoot if necessary.
For more information visit https://ventevinfra.com/product/venvolt-2-site-survey-battery-pack/
2022 Company Leadership of the Year Finalists
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is recognized as a global leader in the networking industry‚ and lead the charge for unlicensed device operation in 6 GHz. Furthermore, Aruba is a leading voice in the industry, currently serving as a leader on numerous technology standards bodies including Chair positions on the IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, IETF 802/IESG Coordination, TCG Networking Sub-Group, WBA Captive Network Standards and the Ethernet Alliance PoE Subcommittee to name a few. Aruba is also driving standards decisions on key wireless such as Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, WPA3, Enhanced Open (OWE) and Wi-Fi Easy Connect (DPP).
For more information visit www.arubanetworks.com.
Cisco
Cisco provides thought leadership through their continued outreach to a broad number of communities, from standards working groups such as IEEE and the Wi-Fi Alliance to engagement with a broad number of companies for Wi-Fi networks ecosystem.
One specific example of leadership is the Open Roaming initiative. Open Roaming enables mobile users to automatically and seamlessly roam across Wi-Fi and cellular networks, including Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and 5G. This is achieved through a collective of industry partners and collaborators, whose goal is to provide a better bridge between mobile and Wi-Fi networks. They have created this federation around enabling Open Roaming and believe this will create a better experience for the general public.
For more information visit www.cisco.com
Extreme Networks
Extreme is a resource for the Wi-Fi industry community, and shares their ideas as widely as possible, welcoming further discussion. They consistently participate in speaking roles at conferences across industries, including HIMSS, ConnectX, and MWC, and has championed topics including why 5G will never replace Wi-Fi and why Wi-Fi 6E is transformative for the industry. They are also passionate about discussing visionary topics in the wireless industry including launching their own podcast‚ Inflection Points‚ to discuss the future of technologies in and outside of the networking industry. Extreme is also the source of the concept of the Infinite Enterprise. The enterprise no longer just resides in a building; instead, the enterprise must go wherever employees choose to work. Extreme has shared their thoughts on this concept and how enterprises can manage new expectations successfully throughout the wireless networking industry.
For more information visit www.extremenetworks.com
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks continues to provide leadership in the wireless community by innovating around software and hardware and introducing a truly unified approach to management. They also provide great resources for the community and encourage wireless professionals to continue to improve their skills
In addition, Juniper provides thought leadership by showcasing the importance of software development and increasing skills in the areas of deploying and managing wireless networks. Their positions on how new technologies should be deployed and whether something is ready for public consumption tend to lead the way for other vendors. Juniper's clear vision and leadership stands out above all other companies because there is no question about where they are headed and what they want for the customers and their partners.
For more information visit www.juniper.net
Wifitraining.com
Training is critical to professionals in the wireless community. The team is constantly churning out new products-workbooks, video courses, practice exams and more, making them one of the true leaders in the industry. They provide great resources for the community and is always engaged and always giving back. They set a great example. They do incredible work mentoring and teaching, coming out with new courses to meet needs, and offering giveaways to keep things accessible for all. Driven to help others succeed, Wi-Fi Training continues to deliver top notch care to customers and invest in their success.
For more information visit www.wifitraining.com