Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/58400
Building an Invisible Network matter where the lawyer is located. The time lawyers spend entering SSID information takes time away from their daily tasks. Roaming is a must for any wireless network. Lawyers should never get disconnected by moving into a conference room. Have a common SSID throughout the organization. A computer or PDA configured in one office should work in all offices. Have laptops and company-provided PDAs pre-staged with the necessary wireless information to avoid the lawyer having to enter any information. The wireless guest network should also have a very consistent behavior throughout the organization. Since wireless guest networks by definition cannot be pre- staged, make the process as easy as possible. Since most people are familiar with Internet access in hotels, make the process of wireless connectivity similar for guest networks. Prompt the user for a common user name and password on a splash page, and use a process for gaining access to the login credentials that is easy inside the organization but tough outside the organization. One idea is to use an internal-only five-digit dial recording that provides the login credentials. MAC-layer preauthentication could be a possibility for frequent wireless guest network users so they don't always have to enter credentials on the splash page. Wireless guest networks will never be completely invisible, but they can get close. Power Power and backup power are obvious ways to continue to keep the network operational even when the lights are out. An uninterruptible power system (UPS) should be added everywhere practical. It is important to be able to manage these devices and ensure battery life has not been depleted. Also watch to ensure that the UPS does not become a single point of failure. Systems should, at a minimum, have dual power cords with the second cord connected to either another UPS or house power (if house power is relatively clean). Management Network management is another important element in keeping the network invisible. If the network is truly resilient, users will not call if a network element has failed. For this, you must rely on tools to tell you of the outage. There are potentially thousands of network statistics and parameters that are monitored. Narrowing these down to those that are really important can be challenging. Focusing on keeping the network invisible can help eliminate all but the most important. Element outage, packet loss/interface errors, bandwidth usage, latency changes and jitter (for IP voice) are arguably the most important parameters to keep monitored. Proactive alerts should be sent to network administrators when these statistics go above predefined thresholds. Process The last piece to keeping the network hidden is following best practices for process and maintenance. The network does have to be taken down from time to time for maintenance, so a solid change control process is important. Change control should consist of a good description of what is being done and when, an approval process, and notification for any outages that the change might cause. Maintenance windows for change should be scheduled and predictable, such as 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays. This will let the lawyers know in advance when to expect that the network could be down. Invisible Network, Visible Benefits Building and maintaining an invisible network takes a bit of effort, budget, operational discipline and business buy-in; however, lawyers will be more satisfied and productive with an invisible network in place. The invisible network also requires fewer man-hours to maintain, which allows information services staff to focus on more important things than responding to reports that the network is down. ILTA White Paper 9