Performance Analysis of ArubaTM Wireless Local

Area Network Lampung University

Gigih Forda Nama Muhamad Komarudin Hery Dian Septama
Department of Electrical Department of Electrical Department of Electrical
Engineering Lampung University Engineering Lampung University Engineering Lampung University
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Information Technology has become the catalyst services. Very important to understanding how and where
for growth at Lampung University, there were over 25000 clients use the network, type of applications used by users,
students, 1300 lecturer, and 645 academic staff should be which AP with highly utilized, which operating system on
provided with adequate network capacity in order for enhancing user device, to make better network provisioning.
learning, research activity, and other academic use. IT units
This paper presents a performance analysis of wireless
already developed wireless infrastructure using Aruba
Technology since March 2014 to served them. 100 units Aruba local area network Unila. Analysis is based on Airwave
series AP-135 and 30 AP-175 already installed on 95 buildings. reporting system, several report consist of average clients, top
Wireless Network Controller, Airwave, and ClearPass as a part applications and destinations, device type/operating system,
of Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks Architecture technology top AP activity, RF performance, bandwidth and data usage.
also developed. This paper introduce a wireless performance We collect the wireless activity data since March 2014 until
analysis based on airwave reporting application, with 1 year of March 2015 for all 130 APs that spread out on all
data report we investigated network activity on each Aruba AP administrative buildings, laboratory, library, convention hall,
such; usage average, clients average, top applications and students dormitory, swimming pool, canteens, etc.
destinations, client device inventory. The result of this study
shown 3 busiest and high load AP; 1) FT Kimia Lt1 with 55 II. RELATED WORKS
average clients and 6.694 Mbps average usage, 2) FKIP G
Outdoor with 41 average clients and 4.4 Mbps average usage, 3) Aaron et al on works [1], analyzed packet traces from two
GSG A 969 with 37 average clients and 2.439 Mbps average separate campus wireless networks, with 3 days of traffic for
usage. Maximum concurrent client connected to Aruba AP was 32,278 unique devices. Trends for handhelds include low UDP
2647 was held on November 2014. Top application and its data usage, high volumes of HTTP traffic, and video traffic. Yan-
consumed during 2 weeks investigation was; 1) sys-svc-http with Qun Xiao on works [2] described design plan of campus
2.31 TB, 2) svc-smb-udp with 1,59 TB, 3) svc-https with 390 GB, wireless network, and studies the learning mode, system
4) facebook with: 172 GB. Top 5 Operating System used by users
structure and platform building of m-learning system based
device was; Android, Win 7, Iphone, Blackberry, Win 8.
on WLAN.
Keywords— Wireless LAN Performance Analysis, Aruba Some papers presented investigation of wireless networks
Mobility-Defined Networks Architecture, Wireless monitoring, performance published on works [3][4][5][6][7][9][11][20]
Aruba Wireless [21]. Especially on works [11] Sahin Albayrak et al,
formulated and compared the network-centric resource
I. INTRODUCTION allocation and user-centric network selection problems in a
Nowadays, internet become basic needs for human being. multi-operator scenario using two different flavors of game
A lot of services are available to fulfill the users need. Internet theory, namely bargaining games (for network-centric
availability is increasingly recognized as a serious, worldwide resource sharing) and multi-attribute auctions (for user-centric
public concern. Unila as an academic institution should interface selection), they compared the contributed solutions
provide the internet service for thousands of users. Unila has to one another to investigate their performance in terms of
25000 students, 1300 lecturer and 645 academic staff that efficient resource allocation, call blocking probability, and
used the internet daily [18]. Since March 2014 Unila already user satisfaction.
developed a comprehensive deployment for wireless Security Performance in Wireless LANs already shown on
infrastructure using Aruba Technology. Total 130 units AP works [8][10][19][22][23][24][25], Poonam Jindal et al on
spread for over 95 buildings to support academic activity, works [8] presented the comprehensive experimental results
installed with 3 type of SSID;1) Wifi@Unila, 2) Wifi@Unila- on the security performance of 802.11 standards of WLAN.
guest, 3) UNILA-FREE. An in-depth analysis has been performed to study the impact
Wireless performance and usage data studies are valuable of various security layers on the network performance in terms
for Unila’s management to improve WLAN infrastructure of throughput, response time, encryption overheads, packet
loss, frame loss and jitter in different network scenarios. planning for teams to managing the networks, can automate
Quantitative measurements are provided to demonstrate the tasks, delegate troubleshooting responsibilities, detect rogue
effect of loaded and unloaded network. Ye Wen on works [17] APs, and deliver historical data for operational planning or
describe that monitoring wireless channel utilization is an compliance purposes [16]. There were total 100 indoor AP-
important indicator for network capacity and wireless resource 135 access points, and 30 outdoor AP-175 access points
usage, they evaluate the wireless channel utilization of the spread over 95 buildings, both indoor and outdoor operate on
GSM networks of Guangdong Mobile in Guangdong 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. Each AP connected to distribution switch
Province. Cisco WS-C2960S that support PoE+.
Related publication on Aruba technology implementation
was white paper case study at Henkel [15], it has large IV. ARUBA WIRELESS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
network with 1000 access points and 100 controllers located
around the world, their inventory management has proven
AirWave to be a very useful tool. It allows new devices such
as access points, controllers and other wireless can be monitor
[16]. Paper on work [12] shown that California State
University IT Units determined Aruba Networks provided the
best value for fulfilling the needs of the CSU wireless
technology infrastructure. The engineers determined that
Aruba provided simplicity operational, easy to manage, future-
Proofing, and easy for scale-up. Paper on [13] describe that
Southampton University already used 2 Aruba MMC-6000
Multi-service Mobility Controllers, Approximately 500 Aruba
AP-61 Access Points, ArubaOS Policy Enforcement Firewall
and Wireless Intrusion Protection to serve all students and
faculty member.
III. UNILA’S ARUBA WIRELESS LAN NETWORK TOPOLOGY

Fig 2. Clients and usage on AP FT Kimia Lt1 925.

Fig. 2 shown Clients and Usage report on AP FT-Kimia-

Lt1-929 for 1 year, from this report shown average Client for
SSID Wifi@Unila was 55 and maximum client connected 64
on June 2014, bandwidth usage for this AP shown average In:
1.183 Mbps and average Out: 6.22 Mbps , max In: 9.771
Mbps and max Out: 36.35 Mbps.

Fig 1. Unila’s WLAN topology.

Fig. 1 shown Unila’s WLAN topology, on data centre

(DC) already installed 2 Aruba Controller 7210 series act as
master active-active. ClearPass installed on dedicated server
also placed at DC. The Aruba ClearPass Policy Manage
platform provides role and device-based network access
control for wireless users and VPN infrastructure, with built-in
RADIUS, TACACS+, device profiling and posture
assessment, on boarding, guest access, and a comprehensive
context-based policy engine [14] . ClearPass use database user
from existing radius server on Unila Private Cloud, radius act
as SSO user database backend for many academic application.
Beside ClearPass, AirWave Wireless Management Suit
from Aruba Networks also installed on DC, Airwave Fig. 3. Clients and usage on AP FKIP G outdoor.
developed under Virtualization Technology and run on Unila’s
Private Cloud. It drives operational efficiency and intelligent
 Fig. 3 shown Clients and Usage report on AP FKIP
G_Outdoor for 1 year, from this report shown average Client
for SSID Wifi@Unila 41 and maximum client connected 64
on May 2014, bandwidth usage for this AP shown average In:
1.715 Mbps and average Out: 4.114 Mbps , max In: 28.89
Mbps and max Out: 18.25 Mbps.

Fig. 6. Top 10 AP by bandwidth average usage for 1 year.

Fig. 6 shown Top 10 AP’s sort by bandwidth average

usage, most utilize usage was AP FKIP-Paska-Outdoor-941
recorded average 9.26 Mbps, number 10 was AP UPTP-
Outdoor-B-971 with 1.45 Mbps.

Fig. 4. Clients and usage on AP GSG A 969.

Fig. 4 shown clients and usage report on AP GSG-A-969

for 1 year, from this report shown average client for all SSID
37 maximum client connected 128 on September 2014,
bandwidth usage for this AP shown average 20.79 Mbps and Fig. 7. Top 3 destinations (2 weeks investigation).
Max 21.57 Mbps. GSG is multipurpose building which is
often used for graduation ceremony, especially on graduation Fig. 7. shown Top 3 Destination for 2 weeks (19 Feb-5
day there were so many students with their parent attending March 2015) there was; r2---sn-2uuxa3vhug5, r3---sn-
the event. Fig. 4 shown only on June, September, November, 2uuxa3vhug5onpu, r1---sn-googlevideo.com.
December the Access Point load with high traffic (graduation
period).

Fig. 8. Top 10 destinations (2 weeks report).

Fig 5. Top 10 AP by average user for 1 Year.
Fig. 8 shown top 10 destination during 2 weeks monitoring
Fig. 5 shown top 10 AP’s sort by average user, most (19 Feb - 5 March 2015). The Top destination was r2---sn-
utilized user was AP FT-Kimia-Lt1-925 recorded 55 average 2uuxa3vhug5onpu-cuie.googlevideo.com with IP address
user, number 10 was AP Fkip Pasca Sarjana with 16 average record is 118.98.26.13, This IP were belong to Google Global
user on 1 year.
Cache (GGC) server owned by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia
(Unila’s internet service provider).

Fig. 12. Client device manufacturer report.

Fig. 12 shown client device manufacturer report of all

Fig. 9. Trend for top 3 application (2 weeks monitored). users for 1 year data, there were total 34636 connected
devices, 18.43 % of was Samsung, and 5.84 % Apple, 4.51 %
Fig. 9. shown top 3 application for 2 weeks (19 Feb-5 RIM, 3.31 ASUS.
March 2015) there was; sys-svc-http, svc-smb-udp, svc-
https

Fig. 10. Top 10 applications (2 weeks). Fig. 13. Clients summary for 1 year.

Fig. 10 shown Top 10 Applications during 2 weeks Fig. 13 shown average client for 1 year was 1076 and max
monitoring (19 Feb-5 March 2015). The Top applications was Client 2647 (November 2015), the most utilize SSID was
sys-svc-http consume 2.31 TB data, number 10 was Port 6881 WIFI@Unila with average clients 1076 users.
consume around 19.2 GB data.

Fig. 11. Client inventory report. Fig. 14. Bandwidth usage report for 1 year.

Fig. 11 shown clients inventory report of all users for 1 Fig. 14 shown average bandwidth usage for SSID
year data, there were total 34636 connected devices, 51.74 % Wifi@Unila was 83.64 Mbps, and max Out was 167.3 Mbps
of those devices used Android Operating System, and 20.65 % held on October 2014.
Win 7, 4.66% IPhone, 4.51% Blackberry, 3.6 % Win 8.
 V. CONCLUSION
We Conducted an performance analysis of Unila’s
WLAN network for 1 year activity, in an effort to understand
patterns of users activity on WLAN network. Airwave
reporting system data was analyzed (March 2014-March
2015). The result of this study shown that there were 3 Top
AP with high utilized: 1). FT-Kimia Lt1: 55 average clients
and 6694 Mbps average usage. 2). FKIP G Outdoor: 41
average clients and 4.4 Mbps average usage. 3). GSG A: 37
average clients and 2.439 Mbps average usage. There were
total 1076 average clients for 1 year and max client 2647
Fig. 15. 2.4 GHz RF performance report. (November 2014). Top application and its data consumed was
1). sys-svc-http: 2.31 TB, svc-smb-udp: 1,59 TB, svc-https:
Fig. 15 shown 2.4 GHz RF Performance report, this report 390 GB, facebook: 172 GB (during 2 weeks data captured).
was generated on 4 March 2015 at 1:30 PM, the report shown Top 5 Operating System of users device was; Android, Win 7,
that AP FT-Kimia-Lt1-925 was connected with 64 users Iphone, Blackberry, Win 8. The result of this study was
(Channel Utilization: 84 %) , Mipa-GFB with 64 users and 75 already presented to Lampung University top level
% Channel Utilization, FT-Sipil-A-921 with 63 users and 69 management, we made a recommendation to extend Access
% Channel Utilization. Point devices at congested and high density area, especially
for 10 area near those several AP; FT Kimia Lt, FKIP G
Outdoor, GSG A, FK Gedung B, MIPA Terpadu Outdoor,
Elektro Mesin LT.2, FKIP Paska Outdoor FE Manajemen
Outdoor, UPTP Outdoor B, Fkip PascaSarjana , to provide
more reliable WLAN services.

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