Conference Tool User Guide

Conference Tool Advanced

A conference organizer will often request that a conference network is provided with its own personalized or branded SSID, rather than using an existing generic, venue-side conference SSID. This helps to differentiate the network for attendees. When an attendee looks at the list of Wi-Fi networks available on their smartphone, they will see one that is branded for their conference. As an example, the screen-shot below shows a conference network that is being created with the network name (SSID) of “Potted_Plants”. Anyone attending the conference will be instructed by the organizer to join this network. The credentials that they are provided with will also only work on their customized conference SSID.

The creation of the customized (or “vanity”) SSID requires a number of automated configuration steps to be performed on the venue’s wireless and wired networks to stand-up the required conference network. The automated process and configuration options available required are far more sophisticated than those required for the “Lite” conference setup. Therefore, this operating mode will be referred to as the “Conference Tool Advanced” mode within this documentation. Both modes use the same Captivnet UI for setup,  but the configuration steps required are slightly different between modes.

Feature Summary

Here is a summary of the features supported by Conference Tool (features available vary between the “Lite” and “Advanced” modes. Features available in “Advanced” mode only are marked with “*”):

• Per-conference wireless network*

• Per-conference wired network ports

• Conference scheduling:

  • Immediate

  • Scheduled time/date

  • Repeating, scheduled events

• Network location provisioning options:

  • Venue-wide

  • One or more chosen zones (each zone is typically a conference suite type area)* 

  • One or more chosen locations within a zone (each location is typically a room within a zone)*

• Conference bandwidth provisioning:

  • Per conference

  • Per group of users

  • Per user

• Designation of an event as a priority event, providing  enhanced access to bandwidth in scenarios when the venue-wide area network is under significant load 

• Conference device limits

• Network security options:

  • Login portal*

    • Customised conference portal available as an option for personalised branding etc.*

  • Open network*

  • Secured with shared key*

• Priority access codes for enhanced bandwidth

• Optional peer-to-peer blocking of network devices on conference network*

• Alerting on bandwidth threshold breaches

Deployment Overview

There are several hardware and service components that need to be deployed to use the Conference Tool service. In most instances, much of this infrastructure is already deployed at each venue as part of the guest service provided for general guest access via Airangel Captivnet.  In summary, the following components are needed to use the Conference Tool service:

• Wireless access points deployed around the venue to make conference wireless networks available over Wi-Fi

• Wired network data outlets (wall sockets) for conferences that need one or more wired connections. These are provided via network switches deployed around the venue.

• A wireless controller to manage the configuration of the wireless access points (some wireless solutions may provide this feature in the cloud rather than on-site hardware)

• A Mikrotik gateway device which is responsible for functions such as bandwidth provisioning, network segmentation, NAT, hotspot and Quality of Service (QoS) functions.

• The venue WAN router and/or Firewall that provides Internet access to the site. There will often be more than one WAN connection. WAN connections may also be connected direct to the Mikrtotk gateway if no venue firewall is provided.

• The Airangel Captivnet cloud service that orchestrates the required services at the times that have been scheduled using the Conference Tool web interface.

The diagram below provides a simplified view of the components and services required to support Conference Tool. Note that there will often be redundant instances of many components to ensure continuity of service. There will also be many instances of the network switches and wireless access points shown in the diagram to ensure network connectivity around the whole venue.

Deployment Process

There are four high-levels steps to be completed to make the Conference Tool service available on Captivnet so that conferences may be created on a venue network infrastructure. An overview of each step is provided in this section. Detailed technical information for each step will be provided in later documentation.

Network Component Deployment & Configuration

Wireless access points and wired ports must be deployed in all areas where conference networks may be required. In many instances, these are already in place as part of ubiquitous coverage that is provided for guest access throughout a venue. The rest of this guide assumes that the required wireless coverage and provision of wired data ports are already in place.

It is also assumed that in most instances, network switches to connect all components will already be deployed, together with a gateway to manage access to the existing venue guest service. 

The venue network infrastructure must meet a number of configuration prerequisites to enable Conference Tool to be used to its full potential. Although Conference Tool will configure the required network components to activate a conference network at conference start-time, there is the base level of pre-requisite component configuration that must have been previously applied to support the service.

Here is a high-level view of the configurations that should be applied to network components (more detailed information will be provided in later documents). These steps assume an existing venue wireless guest service and focus on the additions required for Conference Tool:

• Wireless Controller:

  • These steps are performed directly on the wireless controller web GUI

    • Create access point groups to allow different locations to be selected for the deployment of conference networks. This will vary slightly between wireless vendors, but the principle of grouping APs to provide identifiable locations is similar across all solutions. Note that grouping the APs into locations is a one-time, static operation that is not changed by the Conference Tool. Depending on the granularity required in different parts of the venue, groups may contain a single AP that covers one meeting room/partitioned area, or perhaps may contain all APs in a large conference hall. Conference Tool will provision the required conference network (SSID) in the locations identified by the AP groups created.
      (Note: Conference Tool also uses the concept of “Zones” to group locations together. These are a grouping mechanism used by Conference Tool and do not exist within the configuration of the wireless controller. We will look at these later)

• Network Switches:

  • These steps are performed at the time of installation of the network switch:

    • For each switch port that will be used for conference access, it is recommended that each port must be assigned to its own unique VLAN that is not used elsewhere on the venue network

    • The VLAN used for the conference switch port must be trunked back to the network core so that it is accessible on the Mikrotik gateway for later assignment to a conference bridge  

• Gateway: 

  • These steps are performed from the Captivnet GUI and assume the Gateway is already managed by Captivnet

    • Create bridge interfaces to support layer 3 services (e.g. DHCP) for each conference network created

    • Create VLAN interfaces to tie bridges to a physical interface on the gateway

    • Update firewall to allow Connector connectivity if required (see below)

• Connector (not shown on diagram):

  • In some instances, a proxy device is required to send commands to the wireless controller as it may not have a suitable API for remote configuration. In these instances, an on-site “Connector” device must be provided to send the required configuration commands to the controller. This may be a dedicated on-site hardware device or a VM which is running an Airangel-supplied Linux image (CentOS 7) that performs the Connector function. 

  • Network access to the Connector needs to be provided to Captivnet. Ideally, this will be provided via modification of Mikrotik gateway firewall/NAT rules, but may also require modification on any site firewalls deployed by the customer. 

  • Once built, the Connector instance is managed from Captivnet

Captivnet Configuration

The following high-level steps must be performed within Captivnet to make Conference Tool available and to ensure it can be used to create conferences:

• Enable the Conference Tool license within the customer namespace. This enables conference tool across all customer venues and will ensure that it appears in the Captivnet GUI  (configured within Domain Manager by Airangel: “[domain] > View License”) 

• Configure the administrative users at each venue to provide access to those who need to use Conference Tool to administer conference networks (via the “Settings > Access Control” area of Captivnet at site level)

• Update the configuration of the Mikrotik gateway to create the required bridges, VLANs and firewall rules (If required)  (via the “Assets” area of Captivnet at site level)

• Add the Connector device to Captivnet if using a Ruckus ZoneDirector wireless controller or Aruba Instant solution (via  the “Settings > Plugins” area of Captivnet at site level)

• Configure the Conference Tool settings within Captivnet (via the “Settings > Conference settings” area of Captivnet at site level), including:

  • Creation of locations

  • Creation of zones

  • Assignment of gateways & bridges

  • Configuration of general settings (e.g. Vanity SSID, Portal page required…etc.)

• Create a portal template (type = Conference) to be used for Conference Tool Advanced instances (via the “Settings > Portal Template” area of Captivnet at site level)

Conference Creation

Once all of the pre-requisite settings have been applied to the network components and the Captivnet portal, a conference may be created in preparation for a conference event at the venue.

The conference builder tool is accessed from the Captivnet navigation menu  item: “Conference Tool” (shown below):

A conference is created by using the conference addition widget highlighted in the diagram above. This triggers the conference builder which provides a series of forms to enable the conference to defined, ready for deployment.

The builder wizard moves through a series of four forms and the final summary page during the configuration process. The initial page of the builder is shown in the screenshot below this section. The steps are:

•  Details: this form allows the selection of:

  • start and end dates and times for the conference

  • conference contacts

• Location: this form allows the selection of the areas within the venue where the conference network will be available

• Network: this form collects details such as:

  • the network name

  • network security required

  • bandwidth limits required

  • peer to peer blocking on the conference network

• Portal: if a login portal is required, portal details may be configured on this form

• Review: this is a final review page that is provided to summarise the selections made on previous pages of the conference builder, including any voucher codes created 

Conference Deployment

Once a conference has been created using the conference builder, a job will be created on Captivnet to schedule the deployment of the conference network. The network may be created immediately if the conference is scheduled to start immediately, or maybe queued for creation at a future date.

Once the time for the conference to commence arrives, the conference network is deployed by Captivnet. This involves automated activities on two network components to deploy the required configuration for the conference network:

• Mikrotik Gateway:

  • An available bridge that has been marked for conference use is selected on the gateway.  

  • If any wired ports are required for a conference, the VLANs associated with switch port(s) in the chosen location(s) are assigned to the bridge used for the conference.

  • Rate limiting and traffic prioritization as defined in the conference configuration is applied to the conference bridge.

  • Device isolation (peer to peer blocking) of devices on the conference network is enabled or disabled as configured.

• Wireless Controller:

  • The conference wireless network configuration is pushed to the wireless controller to make the wireless network available in the selected locations.

  • Configuration is pushed via one of several access methods. Depending on the vendor and model deployed, this may be achieved using SSH/CLI or a REST API. Note that solutions that require configuration via SSH require a site Connector installed to proxy the required commands to the wireless controller via API calls to the Connector from Captivnet.

  • The wireless network definition is pushed to the wireless AP groups that were pre-configured on the controller when it was originally installed & configured. The AP groups map to known locations to within the venue to allow the selection of specific areas where the wireless network may be made available.