NARA & Tanaza’s AI journey

NARA: Tanaza’s AI-powered assistant

Since the release of GPT-3.5 at the end of 2022, it became clear that AI was finally getting ready to significantly impact all industries. As tech enthusiasts who have dedicated the past decade to cloud computing and networking, we were eager to explore the potential of AI in our field.

Our journey began with extensive research, testing various AI options, and refining our concepts. By December 2023, we launched the Tanaza GPT agent integrated with ChatGPT. Today, I am thrilled to introduce NARA, our AI assistant.

NARA

NARA is designed to assist Tanaza users at every stage of their journey: from initial discovery and evaluation to adoption and large-scale operations. It can answer specific questions in real-time, help get started with Tanaza or provide guidance to troubleshoot networks. Furthermore, it can recommend the best Apps from our marketplace based on users’ needs. These are capabilities that are already available and we encourage you to play with it on support.tanaza.com.

NARA example 1
NARA example 2

Tanaza’s AI journey and lessons learned so far

Our ultimate vision is for NARA to fully automate Wi-Fi and enterprise networks, making them entirely AI-driven. We believe this is achievable, and this is fully reflected in our high-level roadmap.

Tanaza – Product roadmap 24-25

The path to this point has been challenging. Despite the amusement generated by ChatGPT (when it gets it right), developing a controlled AI that performs precisely as needed and avoids hallucinations is akin to “keeping a wizard inside a cage“. We evaluated various chatbot solutions and found that existing tools required significant tuning and curated knowledge to function correctly. We needed an AI that adhered to our principles and met our specific needs.

Additionally, we’ll need to integrate authentication systems, connect to our knowledge base and production systems with different access levels, and ensure consistency with our privacy policy. We aimed to learn from thousands of cases and conversations in our CRM while protecting private information. These requirements led us to build a system that is both open and controllable. In a rapidly evolving context, we chose to create a framework that leverages the latest LLM models while maintaining full control of all aspects.

Here are the key guiding principles we adopted:

  • MVP Approach: Start with a minimum viable product and expand its scope over time.
  • LLM Agnostic: Our framework can leverage the most efficient models, whether from LLAMA, OpenAI, Claude, or others.
  • Curated Knowledge: Knowledge must be carefully curated, whether created by humans or synthesized from multiple sources.
  • Unified Agent: Instead of multiple agents for different purposes, we opted for a single source of truth representing our company’s knowledge. This makes the problem harder to solve, but delivers an incredible experience to users.
  • Regression Protection: Automatic testing is crucial, with a different LLM testing the output of each test case.
  • Coachability: Any Tanaza senior employee should be able to train our AI, similar to how they mentor junior employees. Coaching NARA has been exhilarating (like giving input to Johnny 5).
  • Extensibility: Starting with 0-shot learning, the AI will evolve to deeper connections with production systems, real-time diagnostics, and ultimately an always-on AI agent capable of auto-driving networks.

This journey is incredibly exciting. The potential applications of AI in networking are limitless, and we are proud to bring these capabilities to our users, adding the AI pillar to our core principles of cloud and hardware/software disaggregation.

A big thank you to all of our users and partners for joining us on this journey in building next-gen AI-powered infrastructure.

Tanaza Now Supports All TIP OpenWiFi™ Access Points

Telecom Infra Project and Tanaza Collaborate to Extend Tanaza Platform Compatibility to TIP OpenWiFi™ Access Points.

Today, Tanaza proudly announces the general availability of the Tanaza platform supporting all OpenWiFi™ compliant access points (in addition to the others already supported thanks to the Linux-based TanazaOS). This collaboration with Telecom Infra Project (TIP) marks a significant milestone in the journey towards a disaggregated networking market, pushing the boundaries of innovation and reducing the effects of lock-in strategies applied by incumbents.

The Tanaza platform, a pioneer in hardware/software disaggregation since 2011, has supported various off-the-shelf devices from third-party manufacturers such as Ubiquiti and MikroTik. Now, Tanaza extends its compatibility to ALL OpenWiFi™ compliant devices, giving out-of-the-box interoperability with OpenWiFi™ hardware providers included in the TIP community.

Sebastiano Bertani, CEO of Tanaza, expressed the importance of this achievement, stating, “Our technology has reached widespread global adoption, featuring over 60,000 active access points. It has been utilized by some Tier-1 telco providers, leveraging the synergy of SDN networking and hardware flexibility to empower their B2B managed Wi-Fi offering. Bringing to production OpenWiFi™ compliant hardware has been a natural step for us. It not only enhances Wi-Fi hardware flexibility, but also envisions extending this capability to switches, for a complete “OpenLAN” solution. But most of all, it consolidates a solid foundation to shape the innovation of the next decade, on top of a common layer. For instance, our ChatGPT AI integration (TanazaGPT) enables the control of any networking device connected to our platform, and the same will be for any other App and service built on top, ranging from hyperconvergence to cybersecurity”.

Jack Raynor, TIP OpenLAN™ and OpenWiFi™Co-chair, said, “We are proud of this collaboration with Tanaza. This achievement aligns with our commitment to fostering an open and collaborative ecosystem in the telecommunications industry, transitioning the market from vertically integrated to horizontally structured”.

About TIP / OpenWiFi™
Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenLAN Project Group is a collaborative community that aims to accelerate the pace of innovation in the telecom industry. OpenWiFi™, an initiative within TIP’s OpenLAN Project Group, focuses on advancing open and disaggregated Wi-Fi solutions.

About Tanaza
Tanaza is a leading provider of cloud-based networking platforms to enable B2B managed Wi-Fi and NaaS. Since its inception, it has adopted a cloud-only approach and hardware/software disaggregation as its founding pillars. An early member of TIP OpenWiFi™, Tanaza provided an initial Proof of Concept (PoC) of OpenWiFi™ at MWC2020. Tanaza technology has been used in projects with Meta, Fortinet, Sercomm, Etisalat, and NEC, among others.

TanazaGPT: OpenAI ChatGPT integration

Tanaza proudly introduces TanazaGPT, the latest integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, marking a significant stride in bringing artificial intelligence to the forefront of Wi-Fi network management.

TanazaGPT provides users with a sophisticated toolset for efficient monitoring and control of Wi-Fi networks. This integration streamlines network management tasks and enhances troubleshooting capabilities, all driven by the intelligence of ChatGPT.

Experience the future of network management with TanazaGPT – the perfect synergy of Tanaza‘s expertise and the AI prowess of ChatGPT.

This is just a first example of the AI’s transformative role in Wi-Fi network management ahead of us.

 

Mobile World Congress 2023

Join Tanaza at the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona

The Mobile World Congress  – MWC 2023 – is the event of the year for global telecommunication operators, MSPs, ISPs, SPs, OEMs, ODMs, and the most influential companies in the connectivity industry. 

From 27th February to 2nd of March 2023, Tanaza will be there at the stand n.8.1A20.20 in the EIC Pavilion, Fira Barcelona Gran Via, to promote its revolutionary mission to democratize the Wi-Fi sector and its vision to become the new “Android of WiFi networks”.

The overwiew

Now more than ever, the Wi-Fi industry is facing the need for a new paradigm where vendor-lock logics are replaced by open network infrastructures that help to reduce CAPEX and OPEX costs. Two years of lockdown and the actual uncertainty generated by an impending global recession have urged small, medium, and enterprise MSPs, ISPs, and SPs to think of new strategies to cut unnecessary operating costs and to discover the potentiality of cloud-based managed solutions for remote network monitoring and management.

In this turbulent landscape, Tanaza continues to create value for its partners and users by allowing unprecedented efficiency in network management, and by freeing in general users from locked-in vertical solutions that impose a software/hardware bundle.

The Mobile World Congress 2023 is the ideal exhibition where Tanaza can connect directly with thousands of visionary senior executives and change-makers from the top global companies and from the most disruptive SMBs that support fast-changing innovation.

Meet our experts

At our stand, our experts will explain:

– how to speed up the WiFi Network installation process in the cloud through MAC address typing.

– how you can easily troubleshoot networks, enable SSIDs, configure IP addresses, set radio power and channels, and more.

– how MSPs, ISPs, and SPs professionals can take advantage of multiple integrations and add-ons from the official Tanaza Marketplace to customize their network architectures with some of the most advanced hotspot management and network monitoring solutions.

– the new stack of 1-click advanced networking features, including QoS for business applications, client isolation, assisted and fast roaming, sticky client auto disconnection, and much more.

– how Tanaza can significantly reduce CAPEX / OPEX spending in different sectors and industries.

– the entire selection of Tanaza Compatible Devices and Tanaza Powered Devices, what are the next devices available, and our roadmap for new interesting features.

Book a meeting with us

We are at booth 8.1A20.20 in the EIC Pavilion

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Edgecore EAP102T

Edgecore EAP102-T Wi-Fi6 Tanaza Powered Device

Thanks to the new strategic partnership among Tanaza and Edgecore Networks, Edgecore EAP102-T is now part of the Tanaza Powered Devices selection.

Zero Touch Provisioning – A scientific method to reduce unnecessary network activities and Scope3 emissions

Zero Touch Provisioning - Tanaza

Zero Touch Provisioning – A scientific method to reduce unnecessary network activities and Scope3 emissions

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WiFi Management Platform

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about Zero Touch Provisioning.

The Zero-touch provisioning is the process that can reduce time-consuming networking activities such as operating systems updating, patches or bug fixes, and features implementation, setting up WiFi access points automatically, and following agile principles.
Zero-touch provisioning could have economic and enviromental impacts when MSPs, ISPs, and SPs have to deploy a consistent number of WiFi devices.
Typically, the AP installation procedure is one of the highest cost factors in the business plan of every company.
Adding hundreds or thousands of WiFi access points through repetitious manual commands requires a lot of effort and time that becomes a lot of money in large-scale environments.
Not to mention wrong configurations, errors, and other network problems that can exceed the forecasted budget.

Zero-touch provisioning can reduce time-consuming activities scientifically

Zero-touch provisioning method is based on a solid scientific approach. In 2021, Ivan Grgurević (Associate Professor at Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences at University of Zagabria) and Ivan Simunić (Solutions Architect at Ericsson and Associate Professor at Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences at University of Zagabria) have conducted a definitive study about the automation of network device configuration using Zero-Touch Provisioning.

The conference paper has shown proven significant savings in the installation time: until
over 95% (depending on the AP)

Installation time and provisioning costs represent an important cost in the CAPEX/OPEX model.
This is why this scientific study has mathematically shown as the reduction of AP installation time is directly related to the reduction of deployment costs.

Tanaza has pioneered the zero-touch provisioning methodology as a cost reduction catalyst for network deployment, when in 2020, we published an article about the real cost of wireless networks and how to calculate the TCO of WiFi networks.

Zero-touch provisioning can reduce Scope 3 – Categories 6-7 emissions

When a ZTP is implemented in the network deployment process, MSPs, ISPs, and SPs can avoid sending technical employees onsite to perform the installation of the network access points.
Network administrators can remotely configure WiFi access points and send them pre-configured to the customer’s premises for installation.

This contributes to a significant reduction in indirect greenhouse emissions.

Today, the most valuable study conducted about the emissions for MSPs, ISPs and SPs shows that:

“Average CO2/km emissions vary by vehicle type and age, so the 120gr/km considered here is an optimistic scenario.​ If you multiply these numbers with several hundreds of field interventions typically run per day you can quickly see that there are tons of CO2 emitted per month.”
– Cisco Study

 

In environmental science, business travel carbon footprinting (travel by air, rail, bus, automobile or other modes of travel, employee commuting, and hotel stays) is part of the Scope 3 – Categories 6-7 emissions (indirect greenhouse emissions – CO2, CH4, N2O, HFC, or CO2e emitted per kilometer or per passenger-kilometer traveled.)

Different studies conducted by GHG Protocol and Carbon Trust has shown that these categories represent some of the largest sources of emissions for companies (in some cases as high as 85% to 95%).
Zero Touch Provisioning can reduce Scope3 emissions
Net zero (that cover Scope1, 2 and 3) can’t happen without a total revolution of supply chains.
Zero touch provisioning in network configurations can be part of that change.
Through the reduction of business travels and the programmatic obsolescence of devices to change periodically, ZTP can indirectly help MSPs, ISPs and SPs to obtain international certifications as PAS 2060 in order to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to decarbonisation, and the neutralization of remaining impact through the support of environmental projects.

 

How does zero-touch provisioning work?

The Tanaza zero-touch provisioning feature is based on a highly complex algorithm. We try to resume in a few lines the ZTP architecture, trusting to express what are the branches and bounds that concur to cut costs for companies.
When a WiFi device has activated the zero-touch provisioning capability, the algorithm starts:
– to search for a DHCP server on the network to obtain the IP address,
– to obtain gateway information,
– to verify the location of the DNS server.

At this point, if the location of the DNS server is not provided or unreachable, DHCP uses other DNS services.

When the device has obtained an IP address, it faces other configuration obstacles such as:
– firewalls.

The device processes the DHCP options and locates configuration files, executes scripts, and upgrades and/or downgrades software.

If both the image and configuration files are present, the image is installed and the configuration is applied.

If only the image file is present, the image is installed on the device.

If the image is the same as the image already installed on the device, ZTP continues and skips the installation step.

If the image was unable to be fetched by the device, ZTP will try to fetch the image again.

If the image has corrupted, the installation fails.

If installation fails for any reason, ZTP will restart.

If there is no image or configuration file, the ZTP process starts again.

If there is no file server information, the ZTP process starts again.
Once the configuration is committed, the ZTP process has been deemed successful and terminates.

The precedent list is only a brief sequence of the operation that occurs during the ZTP provisioning process.
In the best cases, we have counted 19 operations that network administrators can solve with further sub-tasks and manual commands.
In these steps, random events and triggers that can cause the restart of the process can suddenly happen, increasing the number of time-consuming operations.

For instance, these events are:
– Request for the configuration file, script file, or image file fails.
– The configuration file is incorrect, and the commit fails.
– No configuration files and no image files are available.
– The image file has been corrupted, and installation fails.
– No file server information is available.
– The DHCP server does not have valid ZTP parameters configured.
– When none of the DHCP client interfaces goes to a bound state.
– ZTP transaction fails after six attempts to fetch the configuration file or image file.

Tanaza’s zero-touch provisioning algorithm solves all these passages in a single automatic operation, allowing the access points configuration in a few seconds.
Tanaza’s zero-touch provisioning algorithm solves all these passages in a single automatic operation, allowing the access points configuration in a few seconds.

Advantages of Zero-touch provisioning

The main advantages of zero-touch provisioning includes:
– automated setup of network devices;
– reduced time in manual configuration;
– reduced costs from less time being spent on manual tasks;
– easier and quicker updates;
– reduction of possible errors generated by human configurations;
– less time to get network devices operational.
– growing efficiency in large-scale device deployments.

Why Tanaza?

  • Tanaza software upgrades existing Wi-Fi networks.
  • Tanaza works with the most common easy-to-procure Wi-Fi access points available in most countries, such as Ubiquiti, MikroTik, TP-Link. If a device model is not supported yet, Tanaza may support it on request for medium to large network deployments. Discover all devices compatible.
  • IT teams do not need to deploy any hardware controller. Tanaza is 100% cloud-based and ready to use with no need for AWS instance deployments.
  • Our platform provides unlimited scalability.
  • It’s powerful and it has an intuitive user interface.

The Tanaza team can help you to select the best hardware that runs the Tanaza Operating System out-of-the-box from our OEM partners for a plug-and-play experience. Discover the Tanaza Powered Devices.

Explore the zero touch provisioning by Tanaza

The Tanaza team can help you to select the best hardware that runs the Tanaza Operating System out-of-the-box from our OEM partners for a plug-and-play experience. 
Get Started

✔︎ Out-Of-The-Box Experience
✔︎ Intelbras, Comfast, Amer Networks, DCN and Yuncore with Tanaza pre-installed

WiFi notification – Receive notifications when access points go offline

WiFi notification alert system – Receive Email Alerts when Access Points Go Offline

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WiFi Management Platform

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✔︎ No credit card needed ✔︎​ Easy configuration

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about how to receive notifications
when access points go offline.

Sometimes, access points can disconnect from networks for various technical reasons (wrong IP configuration settings, loss of power, poor network connectivities by Service Providers, WiFi interferences).
This could happen without warning, at different moments of the day or night.
Tanaza allows users to trigger WiFi notifications sending automatic emails to members or external guests when a device loses contact with the cloud.

Set up offline device notifications and receive real-time alerts when something goes wrong in your network

Network administrators can scan the network status in specific time intervals:

– 1 minute;
– 5 minutes;
– 30 minutes;
– 1 hour;
– 1 day.

The procedure of AP scan starts when the cloud sends multiple pings to the entire network. (Here we use generically the term “ping”. We suggest you read the technical guide about alert notification system to understand more about what ping means)

When the process has terminated, network administrators can visualize a global vision of device status on Mapbox and obtain detailed information about networks, access points and connected clients.

Wireless Network Geomapping - Tanaza

If one or more WiFi devices don’t answer to this ping, the system understands possible network problems are happening and sends as many email alerts as the offline devices are.

Wireless Network Geo Mapping - Tanaza

Technical guide about WiFi notification alert system

Cloud-managed WiFi access points configured in Tanaza are divided in three different categories:

– APs with TanazaOS included in the firmware;
– APs that support SNMP protocol;
– APs that don’t support SNMP protocol.

The first category of the access point is monitored via a proprietary protocol that takes advantage of keepalive packets. These packets can include statistical information about the device. In this case, if TanazaCloud stops receiving keepalive packets, the device is considered “offline”.

The second category of access points is monitored through SNMP protocol. The Tanaza agent, distributed in the AP’s LAN, asks in polling the status through an SNMP request. If the device does not respond to SNMP, the device is considered offline.

The third category of access points is monitored by a simple ping executed by the Tanaza agent and distributed in the AP’s LAN. If the device does not respond to Ping, the device is considered offline.

At that moment the alert notification system triggers real-time emails.
Network administrators can select to send a notification to internal members or external email addresses.

Forget VPN and manual pings on the network

Until now, for this type of scanning, VPNs and manual pings were required.
Thanks to the Tanaza WiFi remote monitoring interface, network administrators can avoid learning useless technical activities and saving time and money without using additional platforms or network solutions.

Network APIs for WiFi alert notifications

The Tanaza WiFi alert notification system works thanks to the integration of multiple types of APIs. Soon we will publish the full list of APIs compatible with Tanaza

With Tanaza WiFi notification system you avoid to receive tons of emails for multiple disconnections

When multiple access points disconnect at the same moment, ideally, network administrators should receive as many emails as the device number. It’s not improbable that it happens.

Tanaza has studied three different mechanisms to avoid this:
1) an anti-email-storm spike that aggregates emails in a single one.
2) an inhibitor that postpones email alerts with a time interval of 1 hour.
3) a large set of APIs to detect when devices go offline and warn network administrators.

Anti Email Storm - Tanaza
24/7 Network Control System
Avoid VPNs and Manual Pings - Tanaza

Test the WiFi notification alert system

Explore the WiFi notification alert system to trigger notification when APs go offline.

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