Homeland security is releasing hundreds of millions of dollars to install the MMN infrastructure to help provide security for our cities. Major metropolitan areas like Manhattan, Chicago and Miami as well as cities like Everett, Washington have active projects. Take a look at what Todd is working on today and what engineers need to do to get ready for the unbounded, ubiquitous wireless world to come.

Daly. What is the most significant emerging technology that will directly change the way the world operates?

Lammle. Without a doubt, it’s the biggest thing I’ve been working on—the Metropolitan Mobile Network (MMN). It will allow governments, states, counties, and cities to connect through a wireless infrastructure without any back halls. Today, everything is connected to wired networks, few of which work together. The MMN answers the question: How do we connect huge cities in New York with small cities in Oklahoma and medium cities in Texas end-to-end without putting fiber or twisted pair on every street corner?

Daly. Help us understand the bits and bytes. In general, what is the MMN?

Lammle. The MMN will link all of the fire, police, medical, or other emergency public services, with interconnected voice, video, and data access in every area of the city at all times, in real-time. The infrastructure is built upon a new theory of connections that will repeat the wireless network to get to the back hall using satellite, 802.11, cellular, or any other type of wireless connections and combine them to create the MMN. It will also use the new FCC released frequency band 802.11J, formally a Japanese standard, which transmits at the 4.9-gigahertz range.

The high frequency band, not available to the general public, is designed primarily to meet the needs of public services—police, fire, ambulance, and, perhaps, government services like the utilities. The new band has many more overlapping channels than any other standard, including the 802.11A standard that preceded it. The new standard allows high speed communication at 50 - 100 megabits for short distances. It does require a repeater every couple of blocks.

Daly. What are the best technologies taking advantage of this new standard to connect the MMN?

Lammle. The first one is the Mobile Access Route (MAR), a hardware-based solution from Cisco Systems. It is both an indoor and an outdoor router that connects the MMN at high speeds, in a secure environment. All information processing and security systems are handled by the router, not by a computer’s CPU. In my opinion, this is the best way, but it is a more expensive option.

The second one is MESH networks. This infrastructure is a software-based solution that does roughly the same thing as the Cisco MMN, but way less efficiently. It is a very processor intensive solution requiring significant CPU power and memory with software running on everyone’s workstation. However, it costs less than Cisco’s hardware solution.

Daly. What are the implications of this emerging technology?

Lammle. Our cities are facing old analog services that do not allow them to provide the level of public and emergency services to their people that they should be and are capable of delivering in 2005. The inadequate services are costing people their lives, literally, because cities don’t have the technology out there to respond quickly with the proper emergency service.

The new network will facilitate swift responses, help deploy the proper service, deliver the information on the spot that officials need, and save more lives. And, not inconsequentially, once the MMN is installed there will be no monthly fees like the analog and digital circuit fees the cities pay today.

This technology is not implemented yet. But, it will be this year.

Daly. What is precipitating the movement this year?

Lammle. Homeland security is releasing hundreds of millions of dollars to install this infrastructure to help provide security for our cities. Major metropolitan areas like Manhattan and Miami as well as cities like Everett, Washington already have active projects. MMN needs to be implemented in 2005, because that’s when the money is being released.

The opportunity is ripe, and the technology is ready. Cities are forging ahead. Manhattan, which plans on shore-to-shore coverage, has already invested many millions of dollars on the MMN. Many other cities are scrambling to catch up, as they don’t want to be left behind technologically.

Daly. To what extent can the MMN be used for general business purposes.

Lammle. The commercial applications of today are built upon a lower frequency than the MMN. We will continue to have wired networks, but the unbounded, wireless network is the future. It will work totally differently from what we have now. With the new 802.11n, 802.16, among others, and with the new wireless specifications growing on what seems like a daily basis, wired networks will only be found in museums ten years from now.

The question, "How do I just connect to the Internet?" is now becoming, "How can we have wide, high-speed Internet access, shore-to-shore, with good security and fewer back halls?" MNN will find its way into the corporate world as the answer to that question emerges.

Daly. You are truly on the bleeding edge. Who are you working with to help cities roll out the MMN?

Lammle. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been released across the country, and there is virtually no one to troubleshoot and maintain these networks. Only a couple of engineers worldwide understand how to make this architecture work. We need trained personnel to fill this void—now.

Daly. This sounds like a new career opportunity for many engineers. How does one get up to speed with MMN?

Lammle. Fundamentally, it’s nothing more than understanding the mobile and wireless technologies that are out there today. You do need some basic network experience in a corporate environment or you need to take some basic wireless courses. I am working on network designs and training with the top engineers at Cisco to jump-start the process, and Global Net Training is now offering hands-on MMN training while other providers are getting up to speed.

Immerse yourself in the wireless world by building a high-end network at home with certificates and VPN and IPSec. Understand what the security capabilities are. It’s relatively inexpensive to do, and that will help you understand the basic technology.

Daly. On that note, what is the most difficult security challenge right now?

Lammle. Network forensics. Being able to tell if someone has broken into your network’s vulnerabilities. Since 9/11, the government has changed the laws. If your network is penetrated and used to attack or enter another network, you or your company is liable.

Understand what is happening in your network. Learn as much as you can about penetration testing and fingerprinting. Learn how to tell if you’ve been hacked or if someone has broken into your network. If your server has been attacked, the bad person would have created so many back doors that you would never be able to close them all. The only solution is fdisk—or even to buy a new server. This is a headache.

Daly. What is the best defense today?

Lammle. Get rid of all PCs and run MACs.

Daly. Sure!

Lammle. If you don’t like MACS, run LINUX instead.

If you have to be stuck with Windows, you’d better be running XP with all the latest service patches, and/or Server 2003 with all of its patches. Then, you’re better, not completely safe, but better. I’m grading on a curve, of course. If you’re running server 2000 or XP version 1, you are vulnerable. Consider yourself hacked. It’s easy; I mean within-a-matter-of-seconds easy.

Daly. How can IT professionals help get their company ready to support customers in the wireless world?

Lammle. If they have no wireless support now, the first thing to do is to write a wireless security policy before anything else is implemented. Then make sure that the policy is implemented campus wide.

The number one policy is to put in port security on all of your switches. What that means is that you set only one MAC address to one switch port. If anything else is plugged into that switch, it immediately shuts down. Why is this important? It helps stop rogue access points. This is something everyone should already be doing. But remember, this is only the beginning and just one small suggestion.

Daly. What else do we need to change to let this new environment thrive?

Lammle. You can’t just connect up wireless access points without an acceptable use policy and a system to monitor it. Acquire wireless management software. Various companies sell these systems. They help identify rogue access points and monitor what people are doing on the network. This is a very broad subject that could fill another interview, but it is very critical.

Daly. How does the support organization fit into the wireless security process?

Lammle. Support folks have to be aware of the corporate infrastructure and the security policies within it. We’ve had 20 years of routers and basic networks. Wireless technologies go on top of all of this. So all of the wired networks need to be secured first. That’s a given. If you haven’t done that already, shame on you.

Daly. As the industry has evolved during your career, have you ever been surprised by anything?

Lammle. I’m really surprised at how fast the wireless technology has come about. Just 10 years ago, hubs and routers were the prevailing architecture. Now considering the wireless world, we have witnessed 50 years worth of advances in just the past five years. Today, there is a huge amount of data available at our fingertips at all times. Information is power. When I listen to what the top engineers are working on now, I’m amazed and can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in the next five years.

Get ready for the wireless revolution. Todd Lammle, CEO of GlobalNet Training (www.globalnettraining.com), Sybex author, and Cisco Certification Expert, brings in-depth knowledge and know-how based upon 20 plus years of experience with wireless, LAN/WAN, advanced routing/switching technologies and security to HDI 2005. He is featured in a triple deck series of technical sessions, beginning with "Networking 101 for Non-Technical Professionals." That session sets the baseline for his sessions on "Technology Deployment in the Mobile and Wireless World” and "The Future of Mobility."

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The Daly Interview™ is a publication of Focus Events, Inc. This interview was written exclusively for ThinkService, Inc. by HDI 2005 Program Chair, Cinda Daly, CindaLDaly@alltel.net.