Software Defined Networking:

Enabling The Mobile Workplace

3+ mobile devices per user: strains network capacity

Sticky clients don’t roam well: bit rate and app performance degrade

Unpredictable client density: network must adapt to spontaneous collaboration

Wi-Fi Challenges In The Mobile Workplace

Common UC Over Wi-Fi Challenges

•Wired network may lose traffic

priority indicators

• Legacy wired network may

incorrectly tag traffic

•UC Servers are often not

configured to tag

Client Side Limitations Wi-Fi Limitations Wired LAN Limitations

• RF is a limited bandwidth

resource

• WMM traffic prioritization

depends on wired network

prioritization.

• No troubleshooting capabilities

for Lync

•High Client Diversity

•BYOD Security and on-boarding

•Client Roaming not optimized

•Client do not support upstream

tagging

SDN Architecture Overview

SDN

Controller

Southbound APIs

(OpenFlow, etc.)

Northbound APIs

(RESTful; undefined)

• QoS for voice, video, and desktop sharing Lync flows

• Real-time monitoring for voice and video call quality

• App RF technology enables Lync aware RF Management

• Remarks wired and wireless traffic with the right QoS levels

Application

Layer

Controller

Layer

Infrastructure

Layer

Application Fingerprinting and App RF for Lync

Automated Wi-Fi Traffic Engineering

Post Call Statistics

DiagnosticsAru

ba M

OV

E

Arc

hitect

ure

Aruba SDN Architecture

Lync Aware Wi-Fi In Action

Traffic streams as Lync voice,

video and desktop sharing

and tagged appropriately

Traffic Re-tagging

Load balancing and Client

Match ensure reliable voice

and video communications

Traffic Re-tagging

Voice, Video and

Desktop sharing

streams are

appropriately tagged

over LAN, WAN and

Wi-Fi

Traffic Prioritization

Lync aware adaptive

Radio Management,

Airtime Fairness ensure

optimal RF

performance

RF Optimization

The SDN Manager

sends in-call and post-

call statistics to the

controller

UC SDN API Information

Better Visibility, Faster Root Cause Analysis

Managing Lync over Aruba Wi-Fi

• System and access point Lync

utilization

• Centralized view of real-time call data:

caller, callee, R-value, packet loss, jitter

• Correlates call quality with Wi-Fi client

health

• Historical call quality information for

users and access points

• Real-time per-device, per-user active

sessions data

• Identifies call roaming events, tagging

errors, device population

Detailed diagnostics and monitoring

data helps the IT team to manage,

monitor and troubleshoot Lync over the

Aruba Wi-Fi

Aruba Lync Dashboard Overview

Usage Trends Troubleshooting

Is the Problem Wi-Fi, or Something Else?

Wi-Fi Problem Something Else

All Good!

Identify Client Configuration Errors

User – “Jenny” – Calls Help Desk

User-Specific Trends

Individual Call Records

User – “Jenny” – Calls Help Desk – Troubleshoot Specific Call

QoS Modifications and Quality Scores

User – “Jenny” – Calls Help Desk – Troubleshoot Specific Call

Individual Call Details

Identifying Trouble Areas – Call Quality on a Floorplan

• Fosters mobility and collaboration by leveraging the Lync SDN API to provide contextual awareness and auto-adaptation to users, devices, applications, and locations

• Delivers fine grained visibility into client, device, and network operation to expedite root cause analysis and problem remediation

• Delivers a better user experience wherever you work or roam

+ =

Lync SDN API Information

• www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39714

• blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2013/12/17/lync-and-software-defined-networking.aspx

Aruba Wi-Fi For Lync Information

• www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/lync/

• E-mail: lyncready@arubanetworks.com