How AirWatch MDM works? Taking a look at the AirWatch's whitepapers, it seems like the product can enforce the restriction of some features such as WiFi.

Is there any information on how this restriction works? Does the Android installation need to be rooted?
Android has a concept called "device administrators" to allow for this kind of control. A device administrator is a special app given extra permissions that normal apps don't have, such as controlling what other apps are allowed to be installed, enforcing security policies, and remote-wiping the device.

You can learn more about how this works under-the-hood on the Android Developers website.

This feature is built into the Android permission model, so it doesn't need the phone to be rooted.