Zebra Wi-NG 5.8

In August 2015 Zebra released the next version of their Wi-NG 5 wireless platform - labeled 5.8. Let's introduce the news associated with it.

• Zebra NSight - Network Visualization, Monitoring, Reporting and Troubleshooting
  • Visualizing network statistics and events - Simplified and unified network views based on user’s role. 20+ configurable widgets to view various trend charts and graphs on the network and user stats : utilization, bandwidth, client count and client mix, RF health/utilization, application visibility/usage by client/WLAN/AP/summary, etc.
  • Custom live updating dashboards for every role
  • Live troubleshooting tools — packet capture, wireless debug logs, TCP/IP ping and traceroute
  • Interactive floor maps with support for heat maps and the ability to visualize the RF attributes and identify issues / problems areas
  • Real-time and historic trend analysis to simplify network growth planning
• Guest Access / Captive Portal Enhancements
  • Guest Self Registration
    • Device registration with (optional) one-time-password
    • User registration with email/mobile number as user identity
    • Passcode notification over Email and/or SMS
    • Customizable registration forms (name, email, mobile, member, location, age, custom, and more)
    • Opt-out option for guests
  • Social Authentication – Facebook and Google
  • Mobile friendly web portal with template customization (color, banner, preview)
  • External success URL
  • Analytics and capacity up to 2M user identity (storage/analytics supported on the platforms: NX-95XX, NX-96XX, VX-9000 and NX-75XX)
• Application Visibility and Control
  • The Deep-Packet-Inspection engine on the Access Point such as 802.11ac AP (AP-7532, AP-7522, AP-7562) and on the Controllers (NX-5500, NX-7500, NX-9500, NX-9600), provides visibility and control over layer-7 applications right at the edge.
  • Facilitates detecting and classifying applications with support for dynamic signatures and the IT admins can leverage the application context to create effective rules to fine-tune access to the wireless network, providing service differentiation and network capacity planning.
• Mobile Extension Enhancements
  • Coverage Hole Detection - Client Assisted Diagnostics enhancement that uses 802.11k standards and adds Zebra specific Wi-NG Extensions to provide report on potential wireless infrastructure issues. Works with Zebra Android devices MC18, MC40 and MC92N0
  • Roaming Optimizations
    • Assisted Roaming - Enhanced roaming for sticky clients with 802.11v standards support. Works with any client device that supports 802.11v.
    • Scan Assist and Fast BSS transition - Wi-NG Extensions to 802.11k and 802.11r standards to support faster scanning over DFS channels and fast roaming. Works only with Zebra Android devices MC18, MC40 and MC92N0.
• Centralized EX3500 Management
  • Centralized EX-3500 Ethernet switch management from the NX and VX platforms
  • Adoption, provisioning and monitoring of EX-3500 switches along side WiNG APs for unified view of the network
• Network feature enhancements
  • EAP Termination - Adds support to terminate EAP session on a Proxy RADIUS server and allow authentication on the external RADIUS for flexible deployment.
  • Increase max VLANs per WLAN - Increases the number of VLANs in a pool from 16 to 32 to support high density deployments
  • Traffic Shaping - Adds support for traffic shaping that can be applied to any locally bridged or tunneled traffic (both wired and wireless) through the device.
• Client Bridge
  • Provides secure wireless connectivity to multiple devices without wireless interface.
  • Supported on the AP-6522 and AP-6562 platforms
• Centralized T5 Management Enhancements
  • Additional monitoring and provisioning from the central NX/VX platforms including range command for the DSL ports, scheduled reload, VLAN override by RF domain, and show commands – show wireless clients, show MAC table