FOSDEM 2020 – What did our Developers Learn?

FOSDEM 2020 – What did our Developers Learn?


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FOSDEM stands for Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting. It is one of the most significant events for Open Source communities in Europe.

Every year, thousands of software developers meet in Brussels to share ideas and collaborate at the event. The aim of it is to promote the public use of free and open-source software.

The European gathering of open source enthusiasts took place in Brussels two weekends ago. For the fourth time, our team had the chance to take part in the FOSDEM 2020 event, which featured 841 speakers, 873 events, and 71 tracks. From all lectures and conversations with fellow developers from around the world about freedom, sharing, and open collaboration. Here’s what they learned at the FOSDEM 2020 event.

The most exceptional talks at FOSDEM 2020

Talk: Pushing the limits of the web with WebAssembly

Jon Lopez Garcia delivered a brilliant talk about pushing the limits of the web with WebAssembly. He journeyed back in time to highlight how Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge have worked tirelessly to push the boundaries and performance of apps. Thanks to their hard work in implementing the new binary standard, WebAssembly came on the scene to allow the execution in the browser of software at almost native speed.

In his session, Jon explained how current browsers are striving to optimize the performance of JavaScript code. The leading browsers implemented a lot of smart tricks to avoid the recompilation of JavaScript pieces of code to increase overall performance. However, this is a limitation to current solutions because JavaScript is not strongly typed by design.

Among the benefits Jon highlighted, the most memorable one was about delivering a pre-compiled part of the code. For fellow developers, this helps to enhance their applications’ performances significantly, while providing an astonishing UX to their customers. We might be able to implement it and increase the performance of the CPU’s most intensive activities on the Tanaza’s platform.

Talk: IoT Updates with IPv6 Multicast

Brett Sheffield addressed IoT Updates with IPv6 Multicast in his presentation. He questioned the fact if we could update a billion IoT nodes from just one tiny virtual server. In reality, it is possible!

With IPv6 Multicast, we can send our updates to potentially billions of devices using just a single stream of information. It’s like yelling instead of knocking door by door if we compare it to the traditional approach of updating the nodes one by one. Resources can be considerably cut, that’s for sure.

However, there are some drawbacks. We cannot rely anymore on the inherent properties of traditional unicast approaches like transmission reliability, in-order delivery, and flow control. Nonetheless, Brett showed some tricks on how to achieve the same features also with the IPv6 multicast approach. He also demonstrated how efficient and handy multicast can be when updating IoT nodes, all packed in a (still experimental) open-source library.

Talk: Falco Internals 101: Syscalls processing for security analysis

Robin Marx discussed how browsers try to guess in which order the web page resources should be loaded, comparing the heuristics of the main current browsers. Also, how servers use that information to often (accidentally) make your website slower instead.

He showed how HTTP/2 stacks implement prioritization, comparing it to the new HTTP/3 and QUIC approach. He also emphasized on the remaining challenges, even with the new approach.

With QUIC, the main TCP layer problem “head of line blocking” is solved, as QUIC can identify different streams in the transport layer. So, in a round-robin approach to resource delivery, QUIC is much more efficient.

Still, it is also true that practical tests showed that sequential resource delivery usually performs much better. Hence, QUIC would behave as TCP and thus have the same performance.

Yet, some challenges remain, for instance, the separation of priority between browser, server, and transport layer. This causes difficulties for web developers to make a web-app load precisely as it would be expected on every browser. The fact that new protocols and approaches will have a way of specifying the priority, might allow them to deliver more performing web resources at the same time.

For web developers, it is a game-changer to understand how prioritization works. It helps them to leverage some existing options to impact the browser’s heuristics and server behavior. At the same time, it helps to empower the user experience.

Talk: How Yocto extra tools help industrial project

Pierre Ficheux delivered a talk about Yocto, the most famous building system for embedded Linux. Yocto is an open-source project to create custom Linux-based systems regardless of the hardware architecture. Currently, 22 organizations are collaborating with the Linux Foundation, including OpenEmbedded.

In the eyes of Pierre, Yocto, a system written in python (BitBake), is extremely powerful. However, it needs some training, mostly text mode, as it has poor GUI.

During his conference, Pierre explained how to use some Yocto features to help the development of a free industrial project. As simple as it sounds, Yocto works perfectly for creating a custom Linux distribution for embedded devices.

Pierre also discussed how valuable are the eSDK (extended cross-toolchain), Ptest, and Testimage (CI), Devtool, and Devshell (recipe modification) to speed up the development process. With these tools, programmers can quickly develop and test the distribution instead of doing it manually. In this way, it is also possible to automate CI workflows to increase product quality.

#Conclusion

Our developers say. On many aspects, FOSDEM is, above all, a social event. After attending FOSDEM for many years, we think the whole point of this event is for people to share their free, open-source projects with other like minded people.

Lots of communities take the opportunity to organize influential sessions and meetings to choose the right path for their next project. For our team, it was also the occasion to get acquainted with fellow developers, to explain our projects and initiatives to others, and get back home with a sack of new knowledge.

Tanaza is always keeping the R&D team up to date with the latest trends in technology to improve their day-to-day job. The R&D team keeps growing in number to develop the coolest features, test and debug our platform. All of these, to always offer a competitive product for our customers.

Now is the best time to join our company and be part of our project. If you would like to know more about opportunities to develop and grow in your career, see the job openings at Tanaza.

 

Upcoming features: Tanaza Roadmap

Upcoming features: Tanaza Roadmap


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The Tanaza platform is continually under development, and the upcoming features for Tanaza in 2020 look very promising. The R&D team is working on some exciting and brand-new features for the Tanaza platform that you will learn more about in the next few minutes. Cool stuff, right? So keep reading to see what’s coming next.

What are the upcoming features in Tanaza’s roadmap?

Feature # 1.
Click-through built-in splash page for users’ access control

We are implementing a network access control page within our SSID settings. Thanks to that, network administrators can set up a basic splash page for click-through login on their SSIDs. Above all, this page will be a “welcome” or a “terms and conditions” page. Also, users will be able to customize the page with their brand logos and colors.

Splash page university

Feature # 2.
Tools to help network’s troubleshooting and diagnosis

We are putting in place some tools that will fasten and ease the diagnosis of network’s issues and troubleshooting. The cloud will allow sending a command to the access points to blink, to identify them when they’re installed on ceilings. Also, the cloud platform will allow pinging IP addresses, domain names, localhost names and also other devices, executing multiple simultaneous pings and visualizing all the results in nice dynamic diagrams.

Ping Tool

Feature # 3.
Improvements of the TanazaOS Installer

The TanazaOS installer will over time expand its compatibility with all the compatible devices

Intro-installer

Feature # 4.
Management of sticky clients

Sticky clients are generally a bad thing in WiFi networks. In other words, sticky clients are client devices that stay connected to an access point for a longer time instead of roaming to a new AP with a stronger signal. As a consequence, sticky clients experience a significant degradation of their WiFi connection.

Tanaza allows disconnecting clients if the retransmission rate is high and the WiFi quality is being affected. As a result, network administrators can decide to enable or disable this feature, depending on their network requirements.

Feature # 5.
Remote firmware upgrade for all access points in a network

Currently, with Tanaza, users have the possibility of upgrading the firmware remotely for single access points. The new-enhanced feature will allow upgrading a selection or all the access points in a network at the same time. Likewise, the upgrade will be possible for offline devices. Once they are connected to the internet, they will receive the new firmware.

Firmware Upgrade

Feature # 6.
Tracking the devices’ connections through the remote Syslog

This feature responds to multiple requests from our resellers worldwide. At the moment, we are working on implementing a system to track device’ connections through the remote Syslog. Most noteworthy, this feature initially available for Tanaza Classic customers, will be possible in the new Tanaza cloud management platform.

Read the article about tracking the devices’ connections through the remote Syslog

Last December, we rolled out some exciting brand-new features in the Tanaza platform.

Read the article to learn more about What’s new at Tanaza: New features.

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Experience the power of managing WiFi access points from the cloud with Tanaza.

Start a free trial
Tanaza OS

What’s new at Tanaza: Cosmo Networks

What’s new at Tanaza: Cosmo Networks


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Last December, we rolled out some exciting new features at Tanaza. In 2020, we hit the ground running by launching Cosmo Networks the first line of white-box WiFi access points with TanazaOS already pre-installed. Please keep reading to learn how we paired hardware for professional usage with our WiFi cloud management software.

 

For many years, customers asked us why they had to install Tanaza’s software on third-party devices. Instead, they would prefer to have ready-to-go access points, cloud-managed with the Tanaza software out-of-the-box. It seems less hassle than buying a Ubiquiti Unifi access point from Amazon and then “flash” it with our software, right?

However, going down that road and becoming a hardware vendor does not align with our mission.

At our core, software and hardware disaggregation are the main drivers of our company strategy and product innovations. In our minds, users should be able to buy hardware and software separately; therefore, avoiding vendor lock-in due to vertically-integrated hardware and software bundles.

Historically, software and hardware disaggregation can be appreciated in many fields. A great example is the Microsoft Windows system, which can run on almost any computer -not Apple devices, of course. Another example is the Android operating system, currently the most-used smartphone OS worldwide, which runs on mobile devices from multiple hardware vendors.

We believe that disaggregation will also happen in the WiFi area. In this way, service providers can benefit from all the advantages of WiFi software and hardware disaggregation, including cost savings, higher efficiency, and effortless scalability.

How Tanaza works with off-the-shelf and white-box WiFi access points

cosmo-ipad-tanazaOS

To be aligned with our mission, we split our hardware compatibility strategy into two streams. On the one hand, the Tanaza cloud software is compatible with off-the-shelf devices from multiple hardware vendors. Thanks to the TanazaOS installer, the process of installing the TanazaOS operating system on supported access points is much faster than in the past and effortless.

On the other hand, we created Cosmo Networks, a selection of white-box access points for medium and large-scale deployments, running TanazaOS as their default operating system.

The Cosmo Networks WiFi access points can be deployed seamlessly with zero-touch provisioning on the Tanaza WiFi cloud management platform, also together with other brands’ access points (i.e., Ubiquiti, TP-Link). Cosmo Networks access points come with the complete feature set of the Tanaza Cloud Management software and a lifetime license included.

Moreover, the Cosmo Networks devices allow saving on the equipment’s costs, as they are shipped from the ODM factory directly to the customers’ premises, with no intermediaries.

“Thanks to Cosmo Networks, we are offering to our users the opportunity to deploy hundreds of access points on the cloud, with no need to install our software on them”, declares Sebastiano Bertani, CEO and Founder of Tanaza. “I am sure this will help us scale-up our business in many countries, where the supply of compatible off-the-shelf WiFi access points is currently scarce or slow”.

What’s new at Tanaza: New features

What’s new at Tanaza: New features

RF basics for WLAN design

Can’t keep track of all the new features in the Tanaza WiFi cloud management software? Would you like to get an overview of all the functionalities that have been released recently?

Today, we’ll show you a detailed list of fresh new features from Tanaza. You’ll also learn why the new Tanaza platform is so special. And what’s the new feature that promises customers to speed up the process of installing the TanazaOS operating system.

 

New Year, New Start for Tanaza!

It’s 2020, and it’s a fresh start for us at Tanaza. Last year we witnessed the arrival of six new feature releases that give more edge to our software. Another six new features are on the roadmap for Q1 this year. Furthermore, we are on the verge of launching another project that we will let you know soon enough. But for now without further ado, let us turn to the matter in hand, the new features in Tanaza.

 

 

New Features in the Tanaza WiFi cloud management software

 

TanazaOS installer

It’s a software application that speeds up the process of installing the TanazaOS operating system on supported WiFi access points. Whenever network administrators want to upgrade their existing access points with the Tanaza operating system, the installer facilitates this upgrade.

Users only need to download the TanazaOS installer software. Then, connect the supported WiFi access point to the computer and input the device MAC address. Lastly, the installer will automatically install the right Tanaza firmware on the device.

The TanazaOS installer is available for Microsoft Windows (7 and later versions), and macOS (10.10 Yosemite and later versions).

Learn how to use the TanazaOS installer

 

Roaming on external captive portals

 

Fast Roaming on Wifi Networks

 

This feature allows client devices connected to an access point to maintain captive portal authentication as they roam across different access points. The roaming is managed by the Tanaza cloud, which allows faster session transitioning from one access point to the other.

By maintaining a consistent authentication, users experience a better WiFi connection. There’s no discontinuity in the connection when using applications such as VoIP (i.e., Skype calls) over WiFi.

Learn more about how Tanaza supports Fast Roaming

 

External captive portals with and without RADIUS

This functionality was previously available on the Tanaza Classic platform. As of now, network administrators, using TanazaOS-powered devices, can enjoy the perks of enabling their favorite external splash page. It ranges from in-house captive portals to the likes of Meraki’s captive portal, with or without RADIUS settings.

Moreover, it’s possible to configure the SSIDs at the network level. In this way, it’s extremely easy to provision new WiFi access points in the network. Once a new access point is added to an existing network with one or multiple pre-configured SSID, the device immediately starts broadcasting the default SSIDs without any further provisioning.

 

Multi-hotspot capability

Tanaza currently allows adding a maximum of eight SSIDs per network. Users can also enable multiple SSIDs with splash pages on a single access point.

 

The list of WiFi access points compatible with TanazaOS is growing

We recently added two widely-used WiFi access points from Ubiquiti. Now, UniFi AC Mesh Pro and UniFi AC Lite are part of the list of devices compatible with TanazaOS.

Check the full list of compatible devices with the TanazaOS operating system

 

Tanaza Classic Hotspot and TanazaOS are now fully integrated

 

 

This integration allows TanazaOS-powered devices to have external splash pages enabled on SSIDs, including the Tanaza Classic Hotspot captive portal.

Users can take advantage of the Tanaza Classic Hotspot system with the latest Tanaza WiFi cloud management platform. Tanaza Classic Hotspot includes a complete feature-set for social WiFi, paid WiFi, monetization through advertising, and WiFi-based marketing analytics.

It is worth mentioning this feature requires manual activation.

Learn more about how to activate the Tanaza Classic Hotspot and TanazaOS integration

Try Tanaza


Experience the power of managing WiFi access points from the cloud with Tanaza.

Start a free trial

Before you go! Do you want to know what’s hot for Tanaza in 2020?

Spoiler alert! A groundbreaking product launch is around the corner. A promising alternative list of WiFi access points that will shake the universe and even the Cosmo of Networks.
Intrigued?
Then read the next blog post to find out what’s all the fuss about it. What’s new at Tanaza: Cosmo Networks.

Tanaza Intelbras Edition received by the Brazilian public with much excitement

Tanaza Intelbras Edition received by the Brazilian public with much excitement


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Tanaza Intelbras Edition

Tanaza and Intelbras have presented their latest product, “Tanaza Intelbras Edition,” at multiple events in Brazil. The product bundles Intelbras’ access points with the Tanaza cloud management and hotspot software.

“When we started talks with Intelbras about partnering, it became clear that it was an excellent solution to address the needs in the market. Public hotspots were booming and getting installed everywhere; still, IT companies were struggling to find a solution that could be both affordable and complete

Hence, we have decided to combine Intelbras hardware and Tanaza’s software to get the best of both worlds. Their technology is of high quality and with a smart pricing strategy. Our software can provide cloud manageability out of the box, WiFi analytics, hotspot features, like advertising, Facebook login, and so on.

Now, IT professionals in Brazil can experience the Tanaza WiFi cloud platform along with Intelbras access points. The possibilities of this partnership are endlessly, and this it’s just the beginning”, states Sebastiano Bertani,  CEO and Founder of Tanaza.

Carlos Reich, Business Network Manager at Intelbras, states that “the partnership with Tanaza is already a success. The use of cloud technology for WiFi network management has been increasing in Brazil and Latin America. It is a natural movement in the Wireless Enterprise Networks market; therefore, Intelbras sought a worldwide recognized partner, to offer a secure cloud platform with advanced features.”

The new solution has been presented in different events across Brazil

At Futurecom (October 28-31, 2019 – São Paulo), Intelbras showcased their ceiling-mountable access points (AP 310, AP 360, and AP 1210 AC) to 29,000 professionals. All the access points featured the compatibility with the hotspot software Tanaza Intelbras Edition.

In November, Tanaza’s Customer Success Manager, Massimo Dragoni, traveled across Brazil with the Intelbras’ team to present the product at the “WiFi Business Show.” The event was organized in collaboration with Horus Distribuidora de Soluções TecnológicasDistribuidora Route 66, and Plantec Distribuidora.

“It was great to be on the field, directly meeting so many solution providers that want to embrace the opportunities related to WiFi hotspots. It was so much fun working with the Intelbras team. They are very knowledgeable about the company’s market and fully understand their customers’ needs,” states Massimo Dragoni.

Over 10,000 access points in Brazil with Tanaza Intelbras Edition

“Thanks to the events, the current sales pipeline for the product is already over 10,000 access points. These figures include both public and commercial locations that will start offering WiFi connectivity – in some cases also with social login and WiFi analytics features,” states Sebastiano Bertani.

What’s coming up next!

In the upcoming rollout of the Tanaza Intelbras product, we are improving the UX and UI – more user-friendly interface and fully responsive for mobile. Likewise, all features will be available in one platform, with more compatible devices to choose from, including all the outdoor access points. At Tanaza, we envision a future with the Tanaza software already installed in the hardware for an out-of-the-box cloud experience.

Watch Sebastiano Bertani discussing how Intelbras and Tanaza started their partnership.

Sebastiano Bertani, CEO and Founder of Tanaza, presents Tanaza Intelbras Edition

Tanaza accelerates software and hardware disaggregation within the Telecom Infra Project

Tanaza accelerates software and hardware disaggregation within the Telecom Infra Project


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Tanaza joins Telecom Infra Project group

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a collaborative telecom community. Launched in February 2016, TIP was started with the goal of accelerating the pace of innovation in the telecom industry.

TIP splits its initiatives into three main strategic network areas: Access, Transport and Core and Services. For instance, the Access project groups work on identifying and creating innovative infrastructure solutions, technologies, and methodologies to make it easier to connect people to the Internet. The Access group focuses on removing some of the blockers that can make the connection difficult to the end-user. (Telecom Infra Project)

TIP has a diverse network of members made up of over 500 organizations, including operators, technology providers, developers, integrators, and startups. Members of TIP work actively on disaggregating the traditional network deployment approach. Tanaza began participating in the TIP WiFi project in early 2019, with the intent of contributing with its technology to accelerate software and hardware disaggregation.

 

 

What goes on at the Wi-Fi Project Group?

 

The TIP Wi-Fi project group is developing a disaggregated end-to-end Wi-Fi solution, consisting of access points (APs) and a cloud-native control / management plane which optionally interfaces to mobile operators’ core networks to enable mobile data offload. With design being driven by the goal of reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) and easing the operations, the TIP community’s Wi-Fi solution will be attractive to a wide range of service providers.

Tanaza and other members of the project group will collaborate to validate the hardware and software components they are contributing and ensure those components are interoperable. It is expected that the AP reference design will be open-sourced within TIP, in addition to some parts of the controller/management/gateway software. As a result, this will significantly lower the barrier to entry for new vendors joining the ecosystem.

Tanaza is participating in the TIP Summit ’19 conference

TIP Summit 2019 stage
Since 2016, Telecom Infra Project has hosted an annual conference dedicated to people within the Telecom industry. The ones who are changing the world with better connectivity solutions. This year, the TIP Summit ’19 will take place in Amsterdam on November 13-14.

A diverse group of voices from the likes of David del Val Latorre, CEO of Telefonica R&D, Miguel Marin, Technology Director of Vodafone and Tareq Amin, CTO of Rakuten Mobile, will be part of the engaging keynotes and panels at TIP Summit ’19. The speakers will share their experiences focusing on the challenges and opportunities of building and deploying telecom network infrastructures.

On November 14, Sebastiano Bertani, CEO of Tanaza, will participate in the panel “Building an Open Wi-Fi System for communication service providers” moderated by Shah Rahman, Software Engineering Manager of Facebook. The panel will bring together vendors who are collectively working on the TIP Wi-Fi Project group, to discuss how they are enabling CSPs to provide better, faster and cheaper Wi-Fi connectivity to their customers.

If you are attending the TIP Summit ‘19, join our CEO at this luminary panel session to learn more about the contributions OEM partners have made to the TIP Wi-Fi Project Group.

See you in Amsterdam!