Extollo Una User manual

Extollo Communications
Una Product Guide

The information contained within this document is confidential and cannot be reproduced
or shared without the approval of Extollo Communications. 2
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 5
Product Overview....................................................................................................................... 7
Wi-Fi Self Organizing Network (SON) Overview..................................................................... 8
Powerline Backhaul Overview................................................................................................ 8
Multiple-In Multiple-Out with Beamforming Overview.............................................................. 9
G.hn Powerline Overview........................................................................................................... 9
Una Package Contents.............................................................................................................12
Una Single Unit .....................................................................................................................12
Una Interfaces...........................................................................................................................14
Una LED Status Overview ........................................................................................................16
Creating a Meshed Wi-Fi Network with UNA.............................................................................18
Hardware Installation and Setup...............................................................................................20
Internet Router Connection....................................................................................................20
Remote Una Placement ........................................................................................................20
Pairing Una’s ............................................................................................................................21
Wi-Fi Set-up and Initialization....................................................................................................22
Adding Additional Una’s ........................................................................................................23
Pairing Tip.............................................................................................................................24
Logging into Una.......................................................................................................................26
Determining the IP Address...................................................................................................26
Log In Window.......................................................................................................................27
Manage the Settings on Una.....................................................................................................29
Network Tab..........................................................................................................................29
Devices Tab ..........................................................................................................................30
Devices - Detailed Information...........................................................................................31
Clients Tab............................................................................................................................32
Clients - Detailed Information.............................................................................................33
Configure Tab........................................................................................................................34
Tools Tab..............................................................................................................................35
Software Upgrade from Cloud Server ................................................................................35
Restoring Una to Factory Default..............................................................................................39

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Troubleshooting Una.................................................................................................................41
None of the LED’s Light Up After Installation .....................................................................41
Power LED is Off: ..............................................................................................................41
Wi-Fi LED is off:.................................................................................................................41
The Ethernet LED Does Not Light Up: ...............................................................................41
Una Suddenly Stops Working ............................................................................................41
Contact Technical Support.................................................................................................41
Powerline Network Optimization ...............................................................................................43
Quick Tips.............................................................................................................................43
Optimizing Network Performance..........................................................................................43
Technical Specifications............................................................................................................45

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or shared without the approval of Extollo Communications. 4
Introduction 1

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Introduction
Una meshed Wi-Fi adapters are sold as a single unit (1 x Una).
Una combines Wi-Fi and Powerline technologies to create a self-contained meshed Wi-Fi
system. One Una acts as a gateway and connects to the Internet router via the Ethernet
connection. Plug other Una’s directly into electrical outlets in areas of the home or remote
buildings/workshops that have poor or no Wi-Fi coverage to resolve Wi-Fi dead zones.
Una’s communicate to each other and pass the remote Wi-Fi data across the electrical wiring
back to the Una that is connected to the Internet router.
It is ideal for difficult to reach areas such as basements, upstairs bedrooms and remote
workshops. Multiple Una’s can be used to cover a larger house.
This high performance, low latency meshed Wi-Fi system, is well suited for bandwidth intensive
and real-time applications such as Ultra-HD/4K Smart TV’s, Streaming Video Boxes, Online
Gaming Consoles, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Video Surveillance systems.
Quickly and intuitively create a multimedia home network to share residential Internet access
among all Internet capable devices within the home.

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Product Overview 2

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Product Overview
Una is an intelligent self managing dual band, dual concurrent, MU-MIMO, 2x2 802.11n and 2x2
802.11ac Wave 2 meshed wireless distributed networking system. It has been designed and built
around a Qualcomm Quad-core SOC ARM Cortex A7 CPU with 256 MB of DDR3 memory.
Una’s whole-home Wi-Fi system use multiple router-like nodes, to spread the Wi-Fi signal
throughout the home. This results in greater coverage, faster speeds and a more reliable
connection.
Una’s Mesh Wi-Fi system consist of two or more Una’s (typically 1 x Una per floor) that work
together in order to blanket your house in Wi-Fi. Una’s meshed Wi-Fi system creates a new Wi-
Fi network, separate from your current router’s Wi-Fi.
Despite having multiple Una’s with multiple Wi-Fi signals, the mesh system unifies your Wi-Fi
connections into one network name (known as an SSID). So, no matter where you are in your
home, you’ll only ever see one Wi-Fi network name.
Una’s system will also take care of determining which signal is best for your devices to connect
to. So, as you roam around your home, not only do you not have to worry about changing your
Wi-Fi login from zone to zone, but you can be safe in knowing that the system has connected
your device to the fastest possible Wi-Fi signal.
Una’s dynamic band steering and multi-node coordination determines the best possible Wi-Fi
connection and optimal performance for each attached device. Una optimizes network capacity
by reducing network congestion and auto-selecting the fastest available connection for each
device. Una knows which devices are connected and autonomously manages those connections
by forwarding traffic to the appropriate Una or frequency band depending on the type of content
and distance from Una. Seamless roaming ensures that the appropriate bandwidth is available
when and where it’s needed, whether it’s transferring a file, streaming UHD/4K video or web
browsing.
Una provides ultra-reliable coverage and performance, due to its use of G.hn Powerline backhaul
as the communication backbone between meshed Una’s and the Internet router. User data and
communications between Una’s occurs over the electrical power lines in order to provide the best
coverage possible to all of your devices. Una’s Powerline backhaul technology overcomes the
coverage limitations of conventional wireless meshed network systems which use separate
wireless radios to communicate between other meshed Wi-Fi nodes.
The integration of Wi-Fi and Powerline backhaul working in unison provides better Wi-Fi and
Ethernet coverage for the whole home.

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Wi-Fi Self Organizing Network (SON) Overview
Extollo has integrated intelligent Wi-Fi SON functionalities in to Una’s software. Wi-Fi SON
protocol continuously monitors the meshed Wi-Fi network’s performance and automatically
analyzes and manages network conditions in real-time.
After pairing and configuring Una’s, one Una is elected as the Centralized Access Point (CAP)
and becomes the SON network manager for the meshed Wi-Fi network. It mitigates congestion,
noise, and interference at the same time as ensuring user devices have the best available
connection through band and client steering, and channel load balancing across 2.4GHz & 5GHz
spectrum.
The Una designated as CAP, receives statistical information from other Una’s on the network.
The SON algorithms analyze the information and the output, namely the values of specific
parameters, are then passed on to Una’s either on a periodic basis or when needed to ensure the
meshed Wi-Fi network is optimized.
CAP performs the following:
•works as the network manager and provides the management interface.
•provides none-volatile configuration storage for the network.
•synchronizes wireless configurations automatically.
•manages the roaming of all wireless devices.
•provides load balancing optimization.
Una’s Self-Organizing Network capability is a key component in providing higher speeds, better
coverage and improved reliability.
Powerline Backhaul Overview
Una’s Powerline backhaul has been designed and built around the G.hn Powerline standard
(referenced as ITU-T G.9963). It’s embedded with a Maxlinear processor, integrated DDR
memory and an advanced high-speed Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) system optimized
for 2 x 2 transmission across all three (3) electrical lines – Phase, Neutral and Ground.
Una has a 1Gbps Ethernet interface, a 1.5Gbps Powerline PHY, AC1200 Wi-Fi and act as a
bridge using the power lines as the transmission medium.
Packets arriving at the Wi-Fi or Ethernet interfaces are stored in internal memory. Those
packets are classified according to QoS criteria. The packets are fragmented, then encrypted
with AES 128-bit algorithm and after that encoded with advanced quasi-cyclic low-density parity
check (QC-LDPC) Forward Error Correction (FEC) algorithms. The resulting blocks are mapped
onto an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transceiver with 4096 carriers in
the 0-80 MHz band and transmitted in Powerline frames over the power lines using Multiple-

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Input / Multiple-Output (MIMO) with beamforming according to the MAC protocols specified in
the G.hn Powerline standard.
In the reception direction, the transceiver synchronizes with the Powerline frames to receive
them, demodulate and decoding them, and after that, the resulting segments are reassembled
to form the corresponding Wi-Fi or Ethernet packets. The packets are delivered to the bridge
QoS, which prioritize the packets to the Wi-Fi or Ethernet interfaces.
Multiple-In Multiple-Out with Beamforming Overview
Una’s meshed Wi-Fi adapters support 2x2 MIMO with beamforming across the electrical power
lines.
MIMO increases the number of transmission paths across the power lines. Two, line drivers and
receivers enable Una’s to simultaneously transmit on two of the three electrical power line wires;
Phase, Neutral and Ground. Una’s MIMO paths consist of: Phase-Neutral or Phase-Ground.
Beamforming works by improving what is called the rate over range, at a given distance from the
transmitting adapter; a receiving adapter will have improved performance. This is accomplished
by creating two independent signal paths to optimally focus transmission energy to andfrom client
adapters on a per-packet basis.
Beamforming enables Extollo adapters at either side of a link to get maximum performance by
taking advantage of channels that have strong performance while avoiding paths and carriers that
have weak performance. A reasonable expectation is that beamforming can result in a gain of
anywhere between 2 to 5 dB in performance. Beamforming is adaptive, which means it can
constantly adjust Powerline performance based on real-time events.
The combination of 2x2 MIMO with beamforming improves bandwidth utilization and increase
Una’s network range. This, in turn, improves video streaming, voice quality, and other bandwidth
and latency sensitive transmission protocols.
G.hn Powerline Overview
A G.hn Powerline network can consists of one or more domains. Typically, a residential G.hn
Powerline network will consist of a single domain. In G.hn, a domain is constituted by all Powerline
adapters that can communicate with each other.
One of the Powerline adapters in a G.hn Powerline network becomes the Domain Master (DM).
The function of the DM is to control and coordinate the operation of all Powerline adapters in

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the domain, including admission to the domain, bandwidth reservation, resignation, priorities and
other management operations.
At any given time, only one Powerline adapter is allowed to act as a DM for a domain. In case a
DM fails, the DM function is passed to another Powerline adapter in the domain.
Since all the Powerline adapters in the domain can communicate or directly interfere with each
other, the DM avoids interference between Powerline adapters by coordinating their transmission
time using Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA).
TDMA is a channel access multiplexing scheme that assigns a transmission time slot to each
Powerline adapter in the domain. It allows several Powerline adapters to share the same
frequencies between 2 to 80MHz by dividing the signal into different time slots. The Powerline
adapters transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This allows
multiple Powerline adapters to share the same electrical power lines.
The DM receives signals from all the Powerline adapters within the domain. Thus, any
Powerline adapter within the domain can communicate with another Powerline adapter only
through the DM. The DM further forwards the signals to the corresponding Powerline
addressee within the domain which in turn forwards the signals to the Wi-Fi or Ethernet
interfaces.