First Published: January 15, 2020

Introduction

This release notes document describes features, enhancements, and caveats for the Cisco Aironet 1800s Active Sensor using the Cisco Wireless Release 8.7.258.0 . These release notes are updated as needed to provide information about new features, caveats, potential software deferrals, and related documents.


Note

Explore the Content Hub, the all new portal that offers an enhanced product documentation experience.

  • Use faceted search to locate content that is most relevant to you.

  • Create customized PDFs for ready reference.

  • Benefit from context-based recommendations.

Get started with the Content Hub at content.cisco.com to craft a personalized documentation experience.

Do provide feedback about your experience with the Content Hub.

We recommend that you view the field notices for this release to check whether your software or hardware platforms are affected. If you have an account on Cisco.com, you can find the field notices at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/support/tsd_products_field_notice_summary.html.

However, if you do not have a Cisco.com account, you can find the field notices at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_products_field_notice_summary.html.

Overview of Cisco Aironet 1800S Active Sensor

The Cisco Aironet 1800S Active Sensor is a part of the Cisco DNA Center Assurance solution. The DNA Center Assurance platform has three components—Wireless Performance Analytics, Real-time Client Troubleshooting, and Proactive Health Assessment.

In this document, the term Network Sensor or sensor refers to the Cisco Aironet 1800S Active Sensor.

The Cisco Aironet 1800S Active Sensor is an 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (Wave 2) sensor with internal antennas and an Ethernet backhaul. The sensor can be mounted, in a vertical orientation, on a wall or a desk, and supports 2x2:2 SS MU-MIMO applications. The sensor is capable of joining an infrastructure access point as a client. The sensor can be used to monitor, measure, and troubleshoot a wireless network's overall performance.

For more information about the sensor, including mounting instructions and limited troubleshooting procedures, setup, and configuration, see the Cisco Aironet 1800S Active Sensor Getting Started Guide.

What's New in Cisco Wireless Release 1.3.3.0

The following section provides a brief introduction to the new features and enhancements that are introduced in this release:

Wireless Sensor Dashboard and Test Template

Beginning with Cisco Wireless Release 1.3.3.0, you can use templates to create and run sensor-driven tests. The test on the Cisco Aironet 1800s Active Sensor can be configured in a template format. This enables reuse of sensor-driven tests for quick and easy deployment to sites, buildings, floors or even to a specific sensor.

To access the test templates, go to Assurance > Manage > Sensors > Test Templates.

Similarly, the test results can also be viewed across multiple locations. These results are displayed in a dashboard format with heatmaps that can be adjusted for a site, building, floor, or specific sensor. To access the dashboard, go to Assurance > Dashboards > Wireless Sensors.


Note
You cannot run the sensor RADIUS Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) test with Cisco ISE, Release 2.6.

For more information, see the Cisco DNA Center release notes.

Sensor 360° View

Beginning with Cisco Wireless Release 1.3.3.0, a new 360° view is provided for the Cisco Aironet 1800s Active Sensor. With this window, you can view a sensor's test results, performance trends, and neighboring APs.

To collect any troubleshooting log or detailed log from the sensor, click Request support bundle on the 360° view page. The Cisco DNA Center communicates this to the sensor and retrieves the requested support bundle. Once the bundle is available, you can click Download support bundle to download the bundle to your local computer. As long as the sensor is reachable from the Cisco DNA Center, there is no need to SSH to the sensor to collect these detailed logs.

Dedicated Wireless backhaul to Cisco DNA Center

The sensor has a persistent, concurrent wireless backhaul connection. This means that the wireless connection is in an always-on state regardless of the wireless testing activities. This is also applicable in the following scenarios:

  • Backhaul connection interruptions occur during scanning and switching interfaces to test different bands.

  • The frequency of backhaul connection disruptions is dependent on the test configuration.

  • Backhaul connection is not persistent if both backhaul and test SSIDs are in one band.

External Web Authentication and Captive portal using Cisco ISE

Beginning with Cisco Wireless Release 1.3.3.0, the Cisco Aironet 1800s Active Sensor supports external web authentication using Cisco ISE.

To configure external web authentication, do the following:

  • Click ISE Guest Portal during SSID selection.

    A pop-up appears.

  • Enter the desired details such as Captive Portal Detection URL, Username and Password.

    Once web authentication is successful, the authenticated user is redirected to the captive portal.


    Note

    The credentials for web authentication should already be configured in the Cisco ISE portal.

Caveats

Caveats describe unexpected behavior in the Cisco Wireless Network Sensor software. The severity categories are: Severity 1 caveats are the most serious, Severity 2 caveats are less serious and Severity 3 caveats are moderately serious and only select severity 3 caveats are listed here.

The Open Caveats and Resolved Caveats sections in this release notes list the caveats for this release. The following information is provided for each caveat:

  • Identifier—Each caveat is assigned a unique identifier (ID) with a pattern of CSCxxNNNNN, where x is any letter (a-z) and N is any number (0-9). These IDs are frequently referenced in Cisco documentation, such as Security Advisories, Field Notices and other Cisco support documents. Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers or other Cisco staff can also provide you with the ID for a specific caveat.

  • Description—A description of what is observed when the caveat occurs.

Cisco Bug Search Tool

The Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST), which is the online successor to the Bug Toolkit, is designed to improve the effectiveness in network risk management and device troubleshooting. The BST allows partners and customers to search for software bugs based on product, release, and keyword, and aggregates key data, such as bug details, product, and version. The tool has a provision to filter bugs based on credentials to provide external and internal bug views for the search input.

For more information about how to use the Cisco Bug Search Tool effectively, including how to set email alerts for bugs, filter bugs, and save bugs and searches, see the Bug Search Tool Help & FAQ page.

You can access the listed bugs through the BST. This web-based tool provides you access to the Cisco bug tracking system, which maintains information about bugs and vulnerabilities in the Cisco Wireless Network Sensor software and other Cisco hardware and software products.

Click the Caveat Identifier number in the table. The corresponding BST page is displayed with details of the bug.


Note

If you are not logged in, you will be redirected to a Log In page where you need to enter your registered Cisco.com username and password to log In. If you do not have a Cisco.com account, you can register for one.

If the defect that you have selected cannot be displayed, this may be due to one or more of the following reasons:

  • The defect number does not exist

  • The defect does not have a customer-visible description yet

  • The defect has been marked Cisco Confidential

Open Caveats

This section lists the open caveats in Cisco Wireless Release 1.3.3.0.

Table 1. Cisco Aironet Network Sensor: Open Caveats in Cisco Wireless Release 1.3.3.0

Caveat Identifier

Caveat Description

CSCvs40912

Sensor's recovery process triggers fallback to PNP and can get into error state on PNP server

Resolved Caveats

There are no resolved caveats in this release.

Service and Support

For all support-related information, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/index.html.

Communications, Services, and Additional Information

  • To receive timely, relevant information from Cisco, sign up at Cisco Profile Manager.

  • To get the business impact you’re looking for with the technologies that matter, visit Cisco Services.

  • To submit a service request, visit Cisco Support.

  • To discover and browse secure, validated enterprise-class apps, products, solutions and services, visit Cisco Marketplace.

  • To obtain general networking, training, and certification titles, visit Cisco Press.

  • To find warranty information for a specific product or product family, access Cisco Warranty Finder.

Cisco Bug Search Tool

Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST) is a web-based tool that acts as a gateway to the Cisco bug tracking system that maintains a comprehensive list of defects and vulnerabilities in Cisco products and software. BST provides you with detailed defect information about your products and software.