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

Perform application testing to validate WLAN performance

Network and service availability

VoIP testing

Real-time application testing

Throughput testing

Understand and use the basic features of validation tools

Use of throughput testers for validation tasks

Use of wireless validation software (specifically survey software and wireless

scanners)

Use of protocol analyzers for validation tasks

Use of spectrum analyzers for validation tasks

WLAN Troubleshooting – 10%

Describe and apply common troubleshooting tools used in WLANs

Use of protocol analyzers for troubleshooting tasks

Use of spectrum analyzers for identifying sources of interference

Use of management, monitoring and logging systems for troubleshooting tasks

Use of wireless LAN scanners for troubleshooting tasks

Identify and troubleshoot common wireless issues

Identify causes of insufficient throughput in the wireless distribution systems

including LAN port speed/duplex misconfigurations, insufficient PoE budget,

and insufficient Internet or WAN bandwidth

Identify and solve RF interference using spectrum analyzers

Identify wireless performance issues using SNR, retransmissions, and airtime

utilization statistics

Identify causes of wireless issues related to network services including DHCP,

DNS, and time protocols including using native interface and IP configuration

tools (e.g. pings, DNS lookups, interface configuration)

Identify wireless issues related to security configuration mismatches