CERTIFIED WIRELESS NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR

The CWNA exam measures the engineers ability to know and understand the wireless fundamentals.  Basically the "physics" of it all.   There is ALOT of memorization required for this certification.  I used the Certitrek book to prepare (which is over 1400 pages!) as well as Ken Mayer's CWNA video training.  The material is not difficult to understand, but what makes this exam tough, is just the sheer amount of information and the breadth of knowledge you have to possess.  I spent a year preparing for this exam off and on because it was just too much to take in all at once with a full time job. (even if most of it i already knew or at the least, knew at a high level)   You will need to know RF math, the rule of 3's and 10's (When taking the test from home, Pearson VUE does not allow scratch paper!)  You will be tested heavily on the common 802.11 standards, don't worry about memorizing the experimental stuff...ax and WPA3 is also on the exam.  Know all the spread spectrum standards old and new.  Know your physics!  Frequency, Wavelength, attenuation, free path loss, frenzel zone, curvature of the earth (the test refers to this as "earth bulge", Reflection/Refraction/Deflection, etc.  Know the Uni bands and channels of 2.4 and 5ghz (at the time of this writing, 6ghz was not on the exam) The differences between HT and VHT (n vs ac) and some of the new features/enhancements found in the newer standards such as MIMO, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, etc.  Know your WLAN deployment architecture, BSS IBSS, etc  You should be well familiar with the security constraints of older standards vs new, encryption methods, as well as common hacking methods, and securing the deployment with WIPS, Rouge AP detection, etc.   You will be tested on roaming and fast roaming (check out my blog post on roaming!)