I’m reaching out to gain a deeper understanding of the Boost feature, specifically regarding its impact on network performance and any associated security considerations. While the knowledge article outlines the steps to enable the feature, it does not provide sufficient detail on how it affects overall network behavior or how each configuration option influences performance and security.
During the recent live stream event, it was mentioned that Boost utilizes the AP to enforce segregation when the “Internet Only” network type is selected. You also noted that if other VLANs are present on the network, additional configurations may be required at the router level. Could you please elaborate on these requirements? Specifically, will the Route10 device automatically apply the necessary rules to ensure proper network segregation?
Additionally, does Alta have any data or guidance on expected network load? For instance, if 10 clients are actively using Boost, is there an estimate of the bandwidth consumption? Any planning resources or performance benchmarks would be helpful in determining whether this is a viable solution given our current internet capacity.
Lastly, I’d like to understand what monitoring capabilities are available. Is there a way to track bandwidth usage attributed to Boost, confirm that the feature is functioning correctly, and view metrics such as the number of connected clients?
I appreciate your time and any insights you can provide.
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Great questions, and hopefully we can add some of these answers to the KB article soon.
If you only have a single VLAN on your network, i.e. VLAN 1, then you do not need to do anything else to ensure that AltaBoost clients are securely partitioned from your LAN clients.
If you do have more than one VLAN, and you are using Route10, you can create a separate VLAN specifically for AltaBoost, and configure it as “Isolated.” You would then set the VLAN on your AltaBoost SSID to match that VLAN ID. This will securely disallow any traffic from your AltaBoost VLAN and the other VLANs on your network.
The amount of network load that AltaBoost will introduce depends on your location and the types of devices that connect to it, and will vary greatly from site to site. You can monitor which devices are using AltaBoost by sorting by your AltaBoost SSID and/or looking for non-blank Identities in the Devices tab (many of them end in wlan.mn). We do plan to add traffier-per-SSID monitoring at some point, which will make this even easier.
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I’m also a little confused about it, but I’m also not very familiar with the idea. So it creates a separate said, when I clicked on it, it was asking for a bunch of auth info that I didn’t have. Do you need to connect to the altaboost said with these creds to utilize its cellular boost?
@Verhelsting You will need a Passpoint profile installed on your device in order to connect to the new SSID. Supported carriers will already have the profile pre-installed on your mobile device. If your phone is not tethered to a carrier, or your carrier does not install Passpoint profiles, the easiest way to install one is to register at OpenRoaming Portal and install the profile.
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thanks, that makes sense!