WiNOC Introduction

Thanks to the continuous decrease of cost and the general acceptance of Wi-Fi, the scales of deployed Wi-Fi-based networks grow up rapidly. However, because Wi-Fi is still an evolving technology, it is inevitable that the firmware of deployed devices need to be upgraded to support new features. In addition, identification of wireless users and network access must be controlled and monitored for security and management reasons. All of these requirements are challenging tasks for administrators of large-scale wireless networks.

YesTurnkey WiNOC (Wired/Wireless Network Operations Center) server software platform is aimed at satisfying the needs of large-scale wireless user and device management. Based on HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) technologies, WiNOC enables effortless management of large-scale wireless networks. After properly configuring WiNOC to recognize the devices by IP address or domain, the administrator can perform various batch management commands to simultaneously alter the settings of several devices. In addition, WiNOC can continuously monitor the status and performance statistics of devices, and alert the administrator when any anomaly occurs. Furthermore, WiNOC supports RADIUS (Remote Access Dial-In User Service)-based AAA, so that wireless users must be authenticated before network access permissions are granted. This AAA capability also enables the administrator to analyze user access time and the amount of user traffic.

The versatility and flexible for-fee and free hotspot business models support of WiNOC make it suitable for large-scale Wi-Fi management in schools, enterprises, governmental institutions, and WISPs. Not only can WiNOC be useful in tracking the progress of Wi-Fi deployment at construction phase, but it can help administrators effortlessly manage wireless users and devices at maintenance phase. Therefore, WiNOC significantly relieves the burden of system integrators and reduces the conflicts between system integrators and Wi-Fi proprietor.