Wireless LANs
Explaining WLAN Technology and
Standards
Unlicensed Frequency Bands
• ISM: Industry, scientific, and • No exclusive use
medical frequency band • Best effort
• No license required • Interference possible
Radio Frequency Transmission
• Radio frequencies are radiated into the air via an antenna,
creating radio waves.
• Radio waves are absorbed when they are propagated
through objects (e.g., walls).
• Radio waves are reflected by objects (e.g., metal surfaces).
• This absorption and reflection can cause areas of low signal
strength or low signal quality.
Radio Frequency Transmission
• Higher data rates have a shorter transmission range.
– The receiver needs more signal strength and better SNR
to retrieve information.
• Higher transmit power results in greater distance.
• Higher frequencies allow higher data rates.
• Higher frequencies have a shorter transmission range.
WLAN Regulation and Standardization
Regulatory agencies
• FCC (United States)
• ETSI (Europe)
Standardization
• IEEE 802.11
• http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/
Certfication of equipment
• Wi-Fi Alliance certifies
interoperability between products.
• Certifications include 802.11a,
802.11b, 802.11g, dual-band
products, and security testing.
• Certified products can be found at
http://www.wi-fi.org.
802.11b
© 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
802.11b Standard
• Standard was ratified in September 1999
• Operates in the 2.4-GHz band
• Specifies direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
• Specifies four data rates up to 11 Mbps
– 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps
• Provides specifications for vendor interoperability (over
the air)
• Defines basic security, encryption, and authentication for the
wireless link
• Is the most commonly deployed WLAN standard
2.4-GHz Channels
Regulatory Domain
Channel Channel
Channel
Center Frequency Range Europe, Middle
Identifier Americas Japan
Frequency [MHz] East, and Asia
1 2412 MHz 2401 – 2423 X X X
2 2417 MHz 2406 – 2428 X X X
3 2422 MHz 2411 – 2433 X X X
4 2427 MHz 2416 – 2438 X X X
5 2432 MHz 2421 – 2443 X X X
6 2437 MHz 2426 – 2448 X X X
7 2442 MHz 2431 – 2453 X X X
8 2447 MHz 2436 – 2458 X X X
9 2452 MHz 2441 – 2463 X X X
10 2457 MHz 2446 – 2468 X X X
11 2462 MHz 2451 – 2473 X X X
12 2467 MHz 2466 – 2478 X X
13 2472 MHz 2471 – 2483 X X
14 2484 MHz 2473 – 2495 X
2.4-GHz Channel Use
• Each channel is 22 MHz wide.
• North America: 11 channels.
• Europe: 13 channels.
• There are three nonoverlapping channels: 1, 6, 11.
• Using any other channels will cause interference.
• Three access points can occupy the same area.
802.11b/g (2.4 GHz) Channel Reuse
802.11b Access Point Coverage
802.11a
© 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
802.11a Standard
• Standard was ratified September 1999
• Operates in the 5-GHz band
• Uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)
• Uses eight data rates of up to 54 Mbps
– 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps
• Has from 12 to 23 nonoverlapping channels (FCC)
• Has up to 19 nonoverlapping channels (ETSI)
• Regulations different across countries
– Transmit (Tx) power control and dynamic frequency
selection required (802.11h)
5-GHz Channels with 802.11h
• 802.11h implements TPC and DFS.
• With 802.11h in February 2004, the FCC added 11 channels.
– 23 channels in the United States (FCC)
– 19 channels in Europe (ETSI)
– UNII-3 band currently not allowed in most of Europe
802.11a Channel Reuse
• 802.11h DFS not available
• Manual channel
assignment required
• 802.11h DFS implemented
• Channel assignment
done by Dynamic
Frequency Selection
(DFS)
• Only frequency bands
can be selected
802.11g
© 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
802.11g Standard
• Standard was ratified June 2003
• Operates in the 2.4-GHz band as
802.11b
– Same three nonoverlapping
channels: 1, 6, 11
• DSSS (CCK) and OFDM transmission
• 12 data rates of up to 54 Mbps
– 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps (DSSS / 802.11b)
– 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps
(OFDM)
• Full backward compatiblity to 802.11b
standard
802.11g Protection Mechanism
• Problem: 802.11b stations cannot
decode 802.11g radio signals.
• 802.11b/g access point communicates
with 802.11b clients with max. 11
Mbps.
• 802.11b/g access point communicates
with 802.11g clients with max. 54
Mbps.
• 802.11b/g access point activates
RTS/CTS to avoid collisions when
802.11b clients are present.
• 802.11b client learns from CTS frame
the duration of the 802.11g
transmission.
• Reduced throughput is caused by
additional overhead.
802.11 Standards
Comparison
© 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
802.11 RF Comparison
802.11b – 2.4 GHz 802.11g – 2.4 GHz 802.11a – 5 GHz
• Most commonly • Higher throughput • Highest throughput
deployed WLAN • OFDM technology • OFDM technology
standard reduces multipath reduces multipath
Pro
issues issues
• Provides up to 23
nonoverlapping
channels
• Interference and noise • Lower market
• Interference and noise from other services in penetration
from other services in the 2.4-GHz band
the 2.4-GHz band • Only three
Con
• Only 3 nonoverlapping nonoverlapping
channels channels
• Distance limited by • Throughput degraded
multipath issues in the presence of
802.11b clients
802.11 Standards Comparison
802.11b 802.11g 802.11a
Ratified 1999 2003 1999
Frequency band 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 5 GHz
No of channels 3 3 Up to 23
Transmission DSSS DSSS OFDM OFDM
1, 2, 5.5, 1, 2, 5.5, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24,
Data rates [Mbps]
11 11 36, 48, 54 36, 48, 54
Throughput
Up to 6 Up to 22 Up to 28
[Mbps]
Range Comparisons
Ratified IEEE 802.11 Standards
802.11: WLAN 1 and 2 Mbps at 2.4 GHz
802.11a: WLAN 54-Mbps at 5 GHz
802.11b: WLAN 11-Mbps at 2.4 GHz
802.11d: Multiple regulatory domains
802.11e: Quality of service
802.11f: Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP)
802.11g: WLAN 54-Mbps at 2.4 GHz
802.11h: Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)
Transmit Power Control (TPC) at 5 GHz
802.11i: Security
802.11j: 5-GHz channels for Japan
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/
Worldwide Availability
http://www.cisco.com/go/aironet/compliance
General Office WLAN Design
• Eight 802.11g access
points deployed
54 Cubes—4 Conference Rooms
• 7 users per access point
Conference Conference
with no conference Room Room
rooms provides 3.8 Mbps
throughput per user
• 7 users + 1 conference
120
room (10 users) = 17 total Feet
users, provides 1.5 Mbps
throughput per user
Conference Reception Conference
Room Room
95 Feet
WLAN as a Shared Medium: Best Practices
2.4-GHz 802.11b bandwidth calculations
• 25 users per cell; general office maximum users limited by bandwidth
• Peak true throughput 6.8 Mbps
– 6.8 Mbps * 1024/25 = 278.5 kbps per user
2.4-GHz 802.11g bandwidth calculations
• 20 users per cell; general office maximum users limited by bandwidth
• Peak true throughput 32 Mbps
– 32 Mbps * 1024/20 = 1683 kbps per user
5-GHz 802.11a bandwidth calculations
• 15 users per cell; general office users limited by coverage, not
bandwidth
• Peak true throughput 32 Mbps
– 32 Mbps * 1024/15 = 2188 kbps per user
WLAN Security
© 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Why WLAN Security?
• Wide availability and low cost
of IEEE 802.11 wireless
equipment
• 802.11 standard ease of use
and deployment
• Availability of sniffers
• Statistics on WLAN security
• Media hype about
hot spots, WLAN hacking,
war driving
• Nonoptimal implementation of
encryption in standard Wired
Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
encryption
• Authentication vulnerability
WLAN Security Threats
Mitigating the Threats
Privacy and Protection and
Control and Integrity
Confidentiality Availability
Intrusion Detection
Authentication Encryption
System (IDS)
Track and mitigate
Ensure that legitimate Protect data as it
unauthorized
clients associate with is transmitted and
access and
trusted access points. received.
network attacks.
Evolution of WLAN Security
Initial Interim Interim Present
(1997) (2001) (2003)
Encryption 802.1x EAP Wi-Fi Protected Wireless IDS
(WEP) Access (WPA)
• No strong • Dynamic keys • Standardized • Identification
authentication and protection
• Improved • Improved against attacks,
• Static, encryption encryption DoS
breakable keys
• User • Strong, user
• Not scalable authentication authentication IEEE 802.11i
(e.g., LEAP,
• 802.1x EAP PEAP, EAP- WPA2 (2004)
(LEAP, PEAP) FAST)
• RADIUS • AES strong
encryption
• Authentication
• Dynamic key
management
Wireless Client Association
• Access points send out beacons
announcing SSID, data rates, and other
information.
• Client scans all channels.
• Client listens for beacons and responses
from access points.
• Client associates to access point with
strongest signal.
• Client will repeat scan if signal becomes
low to reassociate to
another access point (roaming).
• During association SSID, MAC
address and security settings are
sent from the client to the access point
and checked by the access point.
WPA and WPA2 Authentication
WPA and WPA2 Encryption
WLAN Security Summary
802.1x EAP
Mutual Authentication
TKIP Encryption
WPA Passphrase WPA / WPA2
WEP Encryption 802.11i Security
Security Evaluation
• Evaluate effectiveness of encrypted
WLAN statistics.
• Focus on proper planning and
implementation.
• Estimate potential security threats
and the level of security needed.
• Evaluate amount of WLAN traffic
being sent when selecting security
methods.
• Evaluate tools and options applicable
to WLAN design.
Summary
• The 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz frequency bands are used by WLAN
802.11 standards.
• The throughput per user depends on the data rate and the
number of users per wireless cell.
• 802.11b has data rates of up to 11 Mbps at 2.4 GHz.
• 802.11a has data rates of up to 54 Mbps at 5 GHz.
• 802.11g has data rates of up to 54 Mbps at 2.4 GHz.
• 802.11a has a shorter range than 802.11g.
• For maximum efficiency, limit the number of users per cell.
• Different WLAN security types with authentication and
encryption satisfy the security requirements of enterprise
and home users.
WLAN Lab
