During class, you will develop skills and knowledge on the following objectives:

• 802.11 Physical (PHY) Layer Frame Formats and Technologies
• 802.11 MAC Layer Frame Formats and Technologies
• 802.11 Operation and Frame Exchanges
• Spectrum Analysis and Troubleshooting
• Protocol Analysis and Troubleshooting
• CWAP-402 Exam Objectives (Exam available until November 30, 2018)
• CWAP-403 Exam Objectives (Exam available October 1, 2018)

Principles of WLAN Communication

• 802.11 Working Group
• OSI reference model and the 802.11 PHY and MAC
• Communication sublayers and data units
• WLAN architecture components
• Organization of station forwarding
• Addressing and internetworking operation
• Modern WLAN product architectures

Physical (PHY) and MAC Layer Formats and Technologies

• Physical layer functions
• Preamble function and format
• Header purpose and structure
• Analysis of PHY problems
• Physical PPDU formats
• 802.11b
• 802.11a
• 802.11g
• 802.11n
• MAC frame components
• MAC encapsulation
• Fields and subfields of the MAC header
• Frame Control
• Frame types and subtypes and their uses
• Addressing
• Frame body
• Data frame format
• Control frame format
• Management frame format
• Information elements and fields

Protocol Operation

• Beaconing and synchronization
• Scanning
• Client state machine
• 802.11 contention
• QoS
• Admission control
• Band steering and airtime fairness mechanisms
• Fragmentation
• Acknowledgments and Block acknowledgments
• Protection mechanisms and backward compatibility
• Power management
• Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) and Transmit Power Control (TPC)
• Security components, methods, and exchanges
• Roaming procedures exchanges
• Future protocol enhancements

802.11n

• Transmit beamforming
• Spatial multiplexing
• Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC)
• Space-Time Block Coding
• 40 MHz channels
• Frame aggregation
• HT-OFDM format
• Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS)
• HT frame formatting
• And More

Protocol Analysis Tools and Methodology

• Troubleshooting methodology
• Protocol analyzer types
• Analysis NIC/adapter selection and constraints
• Interpreting results based on location
• Analyzer settings and features
• Filtering and channel scanning
• Interpreting decodes
• Using advanced analysis features
• Assessing WLAN health and behavior factors
• Evaluating network statistics
• Troubleshooting common problems
• Wired analysis to support wireless network issues

Spectrum Analysis Tools and Methodology

• Radio frequency behavior review
• Visualizing RF domains using spectrum measurement tools
• Spectrum analyzer types and operation
• Analyzer specifications and characteristics
• Understanding spectrum data presentation
• Interpreting plots and charts
• Common WLAN spectrum analyzer features
• Identifying transmit patterns
• Device classification and network impact
• Recognizing transmit signatures

Hands-on Lab Exercises

Protocol Analyzer Setup, Use, and In-Depth Analysis

• Basic installation and familiarity with capabilities, configuration, and data display
• Opening, collecting, saving, and modifying capture files
• Exploring common features like device naming and prioritization, filtering traffic, and using coloring rules as analysis aides
• Configuration of the tool to perform live captures based on a set of desired collection criteria
• Identifying significant network behaviors, metrics, and statistics used to identify and isolate network problems
• Using expert features of the analyzer, such as conversation analysis
• Remote packet capture with an AP

Understanding Frame Components

• Understanding the MAC header
• Comparing the three major frame types and their subtypes
• Analyzing frame formats of individual frame types
• Analyzing 802.11n frame components
• Identifying what additional information is reported by protocol analyzers
• Understanding what information is not visible in protocol analyzers

Frame Exchanges

• Connectivity exchanges and sequences
• Legacy and modern security exchanges
• ERP and HT protection mechanisms
• Power save behavior
• Acknowledgments, block acknowledgments, and supporting action frames
• Dynamic rate switching
• Band steering
• And more

Troubleshooting Common Problems

• Troubleshooting connectivity exchanges
• Troubleshooting 802.1X and EAP exchanges
• Troubleshooting roaming

Spectrum Analyzer Setup, Use, and In-Depth Analysis

• Installing the analyzer and becoming familiar with display and navigation
• Understanding the “RF perspective” provided by each plot and chart
• Using built-in features like markers and traces as well as automated device identification
• Characterizing the behaviors of an interference source
• Assessing the impact of an interference source
• Determining the impact of transmitter proximity on interference and spectrum displays
• Identifying signatures of common transmitters
• Remote spectrum analysis with an AP

This intensive, 4 day course is intended for network and system administrators, consultants and engineers that need to support Wireless LAN deployments. It also is a great course for network analysts and architects.

You will need to have your CWNA (or the equivalent in experience and knowledge) before attending the Enterprise Wi-Fi Analysis & Troubleshooting - CWAP Certification Course.

Note that CWAP Certification does require that the candidate pass the CWNA certification exam (PW0-104) as well as the CWAP certification exam (CWAP-402 Exam available until November 30, 2018) or (CWAP-403 Exam available October 1, 2018) in order to achieve certified status.