You will be tested against these topics:

• Radio Frequency Technologies

• Basic characteristics of RF and RF behavior

• Wavelength, frequency, amplitude, phase, sine waves

• RF propagation and coverage

• Reflection, refraction, diffraction and scattering

• Multipath and RF interference

• Gain and loss

• Amplification

• Attenuation

• Absorption

• Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR)

• Return Loss

• Free Space Path Loss (FSPL)

• Apply the basic concepts of RF mathematics and measurement

• Watt and milliwatt

• Decibel (dB)

• dBm and dBi

• Noise floor

• SNR

• RSSI

• dBm to mW conversion rules of 10 and 3

• Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP)

• Identify RF signal characteristics as they relate to antennas.

• RF and physical line of sight and Fresnel zone clearance

• Beamwidths

• Passive gain

• Polarization

• Antenna diversity types

• Radio chains

• Spatial multiplexing (SM)

• Transmit Beamforming (TxBF)

• Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC)

• MIMO

• Explain and apply the functionality of RF antennas, antenna systems, and accessories

• Omni-directional antennas

• Semi-directional antennas

• Highly directional antennas

• Reading Azimuth and Elevation charts for different antenna types

• Antenna orientation

• RF cables and connectors

• Lightning arrestors and grounding rods/wires

• WLAN Regulations and Standards – 20%

• Explain the roles of WLAN and networking industry organizations

• IEEE

• Wi-Fi Alliance

• IETF

• Regulatory domains and agencies

• DSSS – 802.11

• HR-DSSS – 802.11b

• OFDM – 802.11a

• ERP – 802.11g

• Wi-Fi 4 - HT – 802.11n

• Wi-Fi 5 - VHT – 802.11ac

• Wi-Fi 6 - HE - 802.11ax

• Understand spread spectrum technologies, Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS)

• DSSS

• OFDM

• OFDMA and Resource Units

• BPSK

• QPSK

• QAM (16, 64, 256,1024)

• Identify and apply 802.11 WLAN functional concepts

• Primary channels

• Adjacent overlapping and non-overlapping channels

• Throughput vs. data rate

• Bandwidth

• Guard Interval

• Describe the OSI model layers affected by the 802.11-2016 standard and amendments

• Identify and comply with regulatory domain requirements and constraints (specifically

• Frequency bands used by the 802.11 PHYs

• Available channels

• Regulatory power constraints

• Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)

• Transmit Power Control (TPC)

• Explain basic use case scenarios for 802.11 wireless networks

• Wireless LAN (WLAN) – BSS and ESS

• Wireless bridging

• Wireless Ad-Hoc (IBSS)

• Wireless Mesh

• WLAN Protocols and Devices – 20%

• describe the components and functions that make up an 802.11 wireless service set

• Stations (STAs)

• Basic Service Set (BSS) (Infrastructure mode)

• SSID

• BSSID

• Extended Service Set (ESS)

• IBSS (Ad-Hoc)

• Distribution System (DS)

• Distribution System Media (DSM)

• Define terminology related to the 802.11 MAC and PHY

• MSDU, MPDU, PSDU, and PPDU

• A-MSDU and A-MPDU

• PHY preamble and header

• Identify and explain the MAC frame format

• MAC frame format

• MAC addressing

• Identify and explain the purpose of the three main 802.11 frame types

• Management

• Control

• Data

• Explain the process used to locate and connect to a WLAN

• Scanning (active and passive)

• Authentication

• Association

• Open System Authentication and Shared Key authentication

• Connecting to 802.1X/EAP and Pre-Shared Key authentication networks

• BSS selection

• Connecting to hidden SSIDs

• Explain 802.11 channel access methods

• DCF

• EDCA

• RTS/CTS

• CTS-to-Self

• NAV

• Interframe spaces (SIFS, DIFS, EIFS, AIFS)

• Physical carrier sense and virtual carrier sense

• Hidden node

• Explain 802.11 MAC operations

• Roaming

• Power save modes and frame buffering

• Protection mechanisms

• Describe features of, select, and install WLAN devices, control, and management

• Access Points (APs)

• WLAN controllers

• Wireless network management systems

• Wireless bridge and mesh APs

• Client devices

• WLAN Network Architecture and Design Concepts– 15%

• Describe and implement Power over Ethernet (PoE) 802.3af, 802.3at, 802.3bt

• Power Source Equipment

• Powered Device

• Midspan and endpoint PSEs

• Power classes to include power differences between PSE and PD

• Power budgets and powered port density

• Define and describe differences, advantages and constraints of the different wirelesS

• Centralized data forwarding

• Distributed data forwarding

• Control, Management and Data planes

• Scalability and availability solutions

• Tunneling, QoS and VLANs

• Describe design considerations for common deployment scenarios in wireless such as

• coverage requirements, roaming considerations, throughput, capacity and security

• Design considerations for data

• Design considerations for voice

• Design considerations for video

• Design considerations for location services including Real-Time Location

• Design considerations for highly mobile devices (e.g. tablets and smartphones)

• Capacity planning for high and very high-density environments

• Design considerations for guest access/BYOD

• Design considerations for supporting legacy 802.11 devices

• Demonstrate awareness of common proprietary features in wireless networks.

• AirTime Fairness

• Band steering

• Dynamic power and channel management features

• Determine and configure required network services supporting the wireless network

• DHCP for client addressing, AP addressing and/or controller discovery

• DNS for address resolution for clients and APs

• Time synchronization protocols (e.g. NTP, SNTP)

• VLANs for segmentation

• Authentication services (e.g. RADIUS, LDAP)

• Access Control Lists for segmentation

• Wired network capacity requirements

• WLAN Network Security – 10%

• Identify weak security options that should not be used in enterprise WLANs

• WEP

• Shared Key authentication

• SSID hiding as a security mechanism

• MAC filtering

• Use of deprecated security methods (e.g. WPA and/or WPA2 with TKIP)

• Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)

• Identify and configure effective security mechanisms for enterprise WLANs

• Application of AES with CCMP for encryption and integrity

• WPA2-Personal including limitations and best practices for pre-shared (PSK) use

• WPA2-Enterprise -configuring wireless networks to use 802.1X

• Understand basic concepts of WPA3 and Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) and

• enhancements compared to WPA2

• Understand basic security enhancements in WPA3 vs. WPA2

• Understand basic security enhancements of encryption and integrity in WPA3

• (e.g. CCMP, GCMP, AES)

• Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) in WPA3 as an enhancement for

• legacy pre-shared key technology

• Understand the purpose of Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) for public

• and guest networks

• Describe common security options and tools used in wireless networks

• Access control solutions (e.g. captive portals, NAC, BYOD)

• Protected management frames

• Fast Secure Roaming methods

• Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS) and/or rogue AP detection

• Protocol and spectrum analyzers

• Best practices in secure management protocols (e.g. encrypted management

• HTTPS, SNMPv3, SSH2, VPN and password management)

• RF Validation – 10%

• Verify and document that design requirements are met including coverage, throughput,

• roaming, and connectivity with a post-implementation validation survey

• Locate and identify sources of RF interference

• Identify RF disruption from 802.11 wireless devices including contention vs.

• interference and causes/sources of both including co-channel contention (CCC),

• overlapping channels, and 802.11 wireless device proximity

• Identify sources of RF interference from non-802.11 wireless devices based on the

• investigation of airtime and frequency utilization

• Understand interference mitigation options including removal of interference

• source or change of wireless channel usage