New Cisco/Intel feature provides troubleshooting data from Intel Wi-Fi endpoints

Cisco and Intel have extended their technology relationship to enable Cisco Wi-Fi gear to gather data from Intel-based PCs in order to troubleshoot and optimize wireless connections for end-user machines.

The companies announced Intel Connectivity Analytics, a feature that helps to evaluate Wi-Fi connectivity and for IT teams to monitor wireless resources.

The feature is supported by Intel-based PCs deployed with Wi-Fi 6/6E chipsets and Cisco Wi-Fi offerings including the Cisco Catalyst 9800 series wireless-controller family, its Embedded Wireless Controller, and the full range of Meraki cloud-managed access points.

The feature is accessed through the Catalyst 9800 series wireless controller menu (version 16.1x and higher) and the Meraki Dashboard, according to Matt MacPherson Cisco’s Wireless CTO. 

Intel Connectivity Analytics extends analytics to the client itself, MacPherson wrote in a blog detailing the new  program.

It gathers specifics about the client make and model, driver version, connection path, and more, giving IT teams visibility into both the network perspective and the clients’, MacPherson stated. 

“The benefit is the ability to quickly correlate device details to solve wireless driver and potential client connection issues at scale,” MacPherson stated. “This results in lower mean time to identification of issues with faster root cause isolation to eliminate long drawn-out troubleshooting steps.”

The program is another tool IT teams can use in hybrid work environments where employee devices have extended periods away from corporate networks, MacPherson stated.

Cisco and other vendors have been adding products and services to help IT teams handle the growth of remote and hybrid networking users.

In Cisco’s case it recently added its ThousandEyes network management agents for Cisco’s Webex collaboration platform. The ThousandEyes Webex Agents are integrated into Webex data centers and provide bi-directional visibility into the Webex environment, giving the IT team visibility between users locations where ever they might be and Webex services.

In addition, the insights from the ThousandEyes agents can be combined with information from Cisco’s Meraki Insight management package to let customers  monitor the performance of web applications and WAN Links on their network and identify if any issues are likely being caused by the network or application.

Cisco and Intel have had tight relationship for over 12 years developing network, wireless, hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and server systems.  Most recently the companies teamed to bring 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors to Cisco’s Unified Computing System servers.