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 INDEX

1. Introduction to WLAN 1
2. Working principle of WLAN 1
3. Configuration of WLAN 2
Installation of WLAN 2
Without Base station (Ad- hoc) 2
With base Station (Infrastructure) 3
Types of WLAN 4
Peer-to-peer Connection 4
LAN and remote computer 5
Multiple Access point and extension point 5
Directional Antenna 7
4. Protocols 8
Protocol Stack 8
Physical Layer 9
Frequency Hoping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) 9
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) 13
Infrared Frequency 15
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) 17
Data Link Layer 18
Medium Access Control (MAC) sub layer 18
Logical Link Control (LLC) sub layer 23
Frame format of WLAN 24
5. Service of WLAN 27
6. Deployment of WLAN 28
7. Security 30
8. Application 33
9. Advantage of WLAN 34
10. Disadvantage of WLAN 34
11. Conclusion 35
12. Bibliography 35

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 INTRODUCTION TO WLAN :-
A wireless local area network (LAN) is a flexible data communications
system implemented as an extension to, or as an alternative for, a wired LAN. Using
radio frequency (RF) technology, wireless LANs transmit and receive data over the air,
minimizing the need for wired connections. Thus, wireless LANs combine data
connectivity with user mobility.
Wireless LANs have gained strong popularity in a number of vertical
markets, including the health-care, retail, manufacturing, warehousing, and academia.
These industries have profited from the productivity gains of using hand- held terminals
and notebook computers to transmit real-time information to centralized hosts for
processing. Today wireless LANs are becoming more widely recognized as a general-
purpose connectivity alternative for a broad range of business customers. Business
Research Group, a market research firm, predicts a six fold expansion of the worldwide
wireless LAN market by the year 2000, reaching more than $2 billion in revenues.

WORKING OF WLAN:-
Wireless LANs use electromagnetic airwaves (radio or infrared) to
communicate information from one point to another without relying on any physical
connection. Radio waves are often referred to as radio carriers because they simply
perform the function of delivering energy to a remote receiver. The data being
transmitted is superimposed on the radio carrier so that it can be accurately extracted at
the receiving end. This is generally referred to as modulation of the carrier by the
information being transmitted. Once data is superimposed (modulated) onto the radio
carrier, the radio signal occupies more than a single frequency, since the frequency or bit
rate of the modulating information adds to the carrier.
Multiple radio carriers can exist in the same space at the same time without
interfering with each other if the radio waves are transmitted on different radio
frequencies. To extract data, a radio receiver tunes in one radio frequency while rejecting
all other frequencies.
In a typical wireless LAN configuration, a transmitter/receiver (transceiver)
device, called an access point, connects to the wired network from a fixed location using
standard cabling. At a minimum, the access point receives, buffers, and transmits data
between the wireless LAN and the wired network infrastructure. A single access point
can support a small group of users and can function within a range of less than one
hundred to several hundred feet. The access point (or the antenna attached to the access
point) is usually mounted high but may be mounted essentially anywhere that is practical
as long as the desired radio coverage is obtained.
End users access the wireless LAN through wireless-LAN adapters,
which are implemented as PC cards in notebook or palmtop computers, as cards in
desktop computers, or integrated within hand- held computers. wireless LAN adapters

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provide an interface between the client network operating system (NOS) and the airwaves
via an antenna. The nature of the wireless connection is transparent to the NOS.

CONFIGURATION OF WLAN :-
Installation of wireless LAN :-
An 802.11b wireless network can operate in two modes:
(i) Without base station (ad-hoc)
(ii) With base station (infrastructure).
In ad- hoc mode, your computers talk directly to each other and do not
need an access point. Access point is the device which can communicate to remote
computer directly. In infrastructure mode, data transmitted by the sender computer first
goes to the access point and then access point will send it to the destination computer.
I.e. in infrastructure mode, network traffic passes through a wireless access point. And
access point manages the traffic of the network. An infrastructure-mode wireless Ethernet
segment can be easily added to a traditional wired network to make an integrated wired
and wireless network.

Installing an ad-hoc network :-

Installing a simple ad-hoc network in a small area (such as in a home or small
office) requires placing wireless network interface cards (NICs) in the PCs. They install
just like any other NIC, but usually sport antennas that stick out of the computer‘s case
like little ears. PC-card versions are available for laptop and notebook computers.

Ad-hoc wireless network:-

Ad-hoc wireless networks are an inexpensive and flexible option. An 802.11b

network in the ad-hoc mode is entirely wireless. Each workstation relates on a peer-to-
peer basis with other workstations. You can add a wireless broadband router to an ad-hoc
network to provide Internet access to computers on the network. An ad- hoc network is
suitable only for very small installations where security is not an issue.

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Installing an infrastructure-mode network :-
To install a larger network in infrastructure mode, both NICs and access
points must be installed and configured. Placing access points to ensure proper coverage
and performance can be tricky. For a smaller installation, simple trial and error will often
find the best locations for access points. However, a large wireless network needs some
organization. The best way to decide where to place access points is by performing a site
survey. This is done by placing access points in various locations around the intended
coverage area and recording signal strength and quality. Network and power connections
must also be considered. Often the best place for some access points is on the ceiling.
While an access point can easily be mounted on the ceiling, most buildings do not have
Ethernet and power connections on the ceiling. A partial solution to this problem is to run
just an Ethernet connection to the access point but to use an access point that can be
powered through the Ethernet cable. These access points get power from a device in the
wiring closet that provides DC power over the unused wire pairs in the UTP Ethernet
cable. This feature eliminates the need to run an AC power cable to the access point,
making installation easier. Access points and NICs must be configured after they‘re
installed. Most vendors supply configuration tools with their wireless products and some
even provide for bulk configuration of access points on the same network. Access points
can be configured via telnet, Web-based browsers, or SNMP; from a wireless station; or
by using a serial console port built into the access point itself.

Infrastructure wireless network:-

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 For larger installations or for use in larger buildings, choose an infrastructure-
mode wireless network. An 802.11b network in infrastructure mode depends on access
points connected together. Each workstation communicates with an access point rather
than directly with another workstation. Infrastructure mode is suitable for small- to-
medium-sized wireless networks, but may not offer enough bandwidth for networks with
heavy traffic. And, as with the ad- hoc network, security is still a concern.

TYPES OF WLAN :-

PEER TO PEER NETWORK:-

Wireless LANs can be simple or complex. At its most basic, two PCs equipped
with wireless adapter cards can set up an independent network whenever they are within range
of one another. This is called a peer-to-peer network. On-demand networks such as in this
example require no administration or preconfiguration. In this case each client would only have
access to the resources of the other client and not to a central server.

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Figure 1: A wireless peer-to-peer network

CLIENT AND ACCESS POINT :-

Installing an access point can extend the range of an ad hoc network,
effectively doubling the range at which the devices can communicate. Since the access
point is connected to the wired network each client would have access to server resources
as well as to other clients. Each access point can accommodate many clients; the specific
number depends on the number and nature of the transmissions involved. Many real-
world applications exist where a single access point services from 15-50 client devices.

Figure 2: Client and Access Point

MULTIPLE ACCESS POINT AND EXTENSION POINT:-

Access points have a finite range, on the order of 500 feet indoor and 1000
feet outdoors. In a very large facility such as a warehouse, or on a college campus it will
probably be necessary to install more than one access point. Access point positioning is
accomplished by means of a site survey. The goal is to blanket the coverage area with

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overlapping coverage cells so that clients might range throughout the area without ever
losing network contact. The ability of clients to move seamlessly among a cluster of
access points is called roaming. Access points hand the client off from one to another in
a way that is invisible to the client, ensuring unbroken connectivity.
Sometimes it is possible that an area with in a building, college campus or
industrial complex may not have a wired LAN that supports the installation of the access
point, an alternative method is to employ an extension point. An extension point may be
considered as being similar to a repeater, extending the range of wireless access to a LAN
by relaying signals from a client to an access point.
Both multiple access points and extension points can be used to extend
wireless LAN access capabilities over a relatively large area. For either or both devices,
their use enables clients to move within a large geographic area, in effect providing
notebooks and PDAs with roaming capabilities.

Figure 3: Multiple access points and roaming

To solve particular problems of topology, the network designer might choose
to use Extension Points to augment the network of access points. Extension Points look
and function like access points, but they are not tethered to the wired network as are APs.
EPs function just as their name implies: they extend the range of the network by relaying
signals from a client to an AP or another EP. EPs may be strung together in order to pass
along messaging from an AP to far- flung clients, just as humans in a bucket brigade pass
pails of water hand-to-hand from a water source to a fire.

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Figure 4: Use of an extension point

DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA NETWORK:-

One last item of wireless LAN equipment to consider is the directional
antenna. Let‘s suppose you had a wireless LAN in your building A and wanted to extend
it to a leased building, B, one mile away. One solution might be to install a directional
antenna on each building, each antenna targeting the other. The antenna on A is
connected to your wired network via an access point. The antenna on B is similarly
connected to an access point in that building, which enables wireless LAN connectivity in
that facility.

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Figure 5: The use of directional antennas

PROTOCOLS:-
PROTOCOL STACK:-
The protocols used by all 802 variants, including Ethernet, have a certain
commonality of structure. The physical layer is corresponds to that of OSI model fairly
well, but data link layer in all the 802 protocols is split into two or more sub layers. In
this, the Medium access control (MAC) sub layer determines how the channel is
allocated, that is, and who gets to transmit next. Above it is the Logical Link Co ntrol
(LLC) sub layer, whose job it is to hide the differences between the different 802 variants
and make them indistinguishable as far as the network layer is concerned. The 802.11
protocol defines one Media Access Control layer (MAC) that interacts with three
different Physical layers (PHYs). MAC sub layer of Data Link layer takes care of the
radio access independent procedures.The PHY of the OSI model brings an interface to
the network medium and provides the actual signalling function across the network.
Figure x.x shows lowest protocol layers of IEEE 802.11 and 802.11b comparing them to
other stacks.

OSI 7 Application HTTP

Application layer layer
OSI 6
Presentation
layer
OSI 5
Session layer
OSI 4 OSI 4 TC
Transport layer Transport layer P
OSI 3 OSI 3 I
Network layer Network layer P
OSI 2 LLC layer LLC layer
Data Link layer MAC layer Ethernet 802.3 CSMA/C
OSI 1 OSI 1 10BASE-2, A FHSS,
DSSS,
Physical Physical 10BASE-T Infrared
layer layer
Pair cable, Ai
coax r
cable
OSI model OSI model Example LAN WLAN IEEE 802.11
adapted for LAN implementation standards

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 Figure x.x: Different stacks

The physical layer is separate from medium access sublayer to allow

future upgrades when new frequency bands and modulation techniques become
available.
PHYSICAL LAYER:-

CSMA/CA
Direct Sequence Frequency Hopping
Spread Spectrum Spread Spectrum Infrared
DSSS FHSS

Air

Figure x.x: The three physical options of 802.11

FREQUENCY HOPPING SPREAD SPECTRUM:-

Under frequency- hoping spread spectrum communications, a narrowband
carrier is shifted in this discrete increment of frequency. The frequency shift is based on a
pattern generated by a code sequence that spreads transmission over a wide frequency
band. This result in the name associated with this communications technique.

OPERATION:-
Fig. illustrates an example of frequency hopping spread spectrum
communications. Note that the code or algorithms that define the manner by which
frequencies change can be selected to avoid interference to or from other non-spread-
spectrum communications systems. For example, if frequency band f1 to fn is used for
frequency hopping but fx, where f1< fx < fn, cannot be used due to its assignment to
another use, the algorithm can be altered to preclude the use of fx.

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 Time

In examining figure 11.1, note that the signal frequency remains constant for
a specified time duration. The actual duration or period of time the frequency remains
constant denotes whether the frequency hopping spread spectrum system is a fast-hop or
a slow-hop system. When frequency hopping occurs at a rate that is faster than the
message bit rate, it is a fast-hop system. Conversely, when frequency hopping occurs at a
hop rate slower than the message bit rate, it is a slow-hop system. As you might expect,
under a frequency hopping system, it is also possible for the hop rate message bit rate to
be equal.
Under the IEEE 802.11 standard, frequency hopping spread spread spectrum
communications represent one of three physical layers supported by standard. The IEEE
802.11 frequency hopping physical layer used 79 nonoverlapping frequency channels,
with each channel having a 1 MHz channel spacing. This enables up to 26 collocated
networks to operate, which can provide a reasonably high aggregate throughput.

FREQUENCY ALLOCATION :-
Although the standard specifies 79 nonoverlapped frequency channels, the actual
number of channels used and their power and frequency assignment depend on the
regulatory authority assignment of frequency usage in a particular country. Table 11-2
provides a comparison of a regulations in North America, Europe and Japan that govern
the operation of frequency hopping for wireless LANS.

Geographic Area Frequency Band Hopping Maximum

(MHz) channels trans mit Powe r
North America 2400-2483.5 At least 75;79 used 1W
Europe 2400-2483.5 At least 20;79 used 100mW

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Japan 2471-2497 At least 10;23 used 10mW/MHz

HOPPING CHANNELS :-
In addition to the entries in above table, you should note that different
regulatory bodies restrict the number of hopping channels that can be used in other
locations of the world. For example, in Spain and France, the minimum number of
hopping channels is specified as 20; however, the number of hops defined for IEEE
802.11 standard operation in each country, referred to as the hopping set, is 27 Spain and
France.

MODULATION:
Under the IEEE 802.11 standard, frequency shift keying (FSK) is used for
FHSS b because of its low cost and easy operation. In actuality, two versions are FSK
specified, each more formally referred to as Gaussian-shaped FSK (GFSK). Under
GFSK, which operates at 1 M symbols/s, non-return to zero (NRZ) data are filtered result
is used to frequency modulate a carrier. To provide a 1-Mbps operating rate, which is
mandatory, a two- level GFSK modulation method is used, with binary 1s and 0s
modulated into one of two frequencies. To support the optional 2-Mbps data rate, four-
level GFSK modulation method is employed, with pairs of bits modulated using one of
four frequencies.

COMMUNICATION:
FHSS uses 79 channels each 1-MHz wide, starting at the low end of the
2.4_GHz ISM band. A pseudorandom number generator is used to produce the sequence
of frequencies hopped to. As long as all stations use the same seed to the pseudorandom
number generator and stay synchronized in time, they will hop to the same frequencies
simultaneously. The amount of time spent at each frequency, which is same for each hop
frequency, the dwell time, is an adjustable parameter, but must be less than 400 msec.
FHSS‘ randomization provides a fair way to allocate spectrum in the unregulated ISM
band. It also provides a modicum of security since an intruder who does not know t he
hopping sequence or dwell time cannot eavesdrop on transmissions. Over longer
distances, multipath fading can be an issue, and FHSS offers good resistance to it. It is
also relatively insensitive to radio interference, which makes it popular for building-to-
building links. Its main disadvantage is its low bandwidth.

FRAME FORMAT:
At the physical layer, FHSS transmits data using a predefined frame format.
Fig. below illustrates the IEEE 802.11 standard frequency hopping spread spectrum
frame format.
The FHSS preamble can be considered to include an 80-bit synchronization
pattern used to detect the presence of a signal, resolve antenna diversity, and acquire
symbol timing as well as a 16-bit start of frame delimiter (SFD) that provides symbol-
level frame synchronization. Concerning the latter, the SFD contains four distinct quad-
bit patterns that enable the results of all possible GFSK modulations to be verified. The

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FHSS frame header consists of three fields. The Length fie ld, which is a 12-bit field,
indicates the length of the payload field

Preamble Header Payload Data

Preamble SFD Length Signaling CRC Variable Data

FHSS Frame Format

The second field in the header is a 4-bit Signaling field. One bi. Thus the
maximum length of the variable data field is 4095 bytes.t in this field indicates whether
the data rate is 1 or 2 Mbps, whereas the other three bits are reserved for future use.
Finally, the third field in the header is a 16-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC), which
used the ITU-T generating polynomial as shown below:
G(X) = X^16 +X^12 + x^5 + 1
which is a shorthand representation for the bit sequence 1000100000010001.
Although FHSS can operate at either 1 or 2 Mbps, the preamble and header are
always transmitted at 1 Mbps. Then, if the Signaling field indicates a 2-Mbps operation,
the remainder of the frame is transmitted at that operating rate. Hopping Sequence To
minimize the effect of multipath reflections, the frequency used by FHSS was developed
to provide a minimum hop distance. By establishing a minimum frequency variation
between hops, reflections from one hop have minimal effect on the next hop because it
takes time for the reflections to arrive at a receiver, which will now hopefully be
―looking‖ to receive information at a different frequency. In the United States and
Canada, a predestinated sequence of 79 hop frequencies is used by FHSS, with a
minimum hop distance of 6 channels. The base frequency is 2402 MHz, and a
pseudorandom number in the range 0 to 78 is used to select the next frequency by adding
to the frequency used previously and performing a mod 79 operation on the result. For
example, you can represent the FHSS frequency used as 2402 + b(i), where b(i) is the
base sequence in the range 0 to 78. Then the jth sequence is formed from the base
sequence as follows:

2402 + [b(i) +j] mod 79

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DIRECT SEQUENCE SPREAD SPECTRUM:-
Under direct sequence spread spectrum communications, a carrier is
modulated by a digital code, with the code bit rate being larger than the information bit
rate. The code bits represent a redundant bit pattern generated by the dire ct sequence
spread spectrum technology that is applied to each information bit to be transmitted. This
bit pattern is referred to as a chip or chipping code. The longer the chip, the greater the
resulting ability of a receiver to recover the original data. However, since each
information bit is encoded into a sequence of bits, additional bandwidth is required.

OVERVIEW:-
The IEEE 802.11a standard operates at either 1 or 2 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz ISM
frequency band. At physical layer, each information bit is modulated by an 11-bit
sequence referred to as an 11-bit Barker sequence. The use of the Barker sequence
results in an 11-MHz chipping rate and spreads RF energy across a wider bandwidth than
would be required to transmit the original information bits. At the receiver, the 11-bit
Barker sequence is used to dispread the RF input, enabling the original data to be
recovered.

WORKING OF DSSS:-
To illustrate the operation of direct sequence spread spectrum
communications, let‘s assume that a 3-bit chip or chipping code is applied to each
information bit. Under direct sequence spread spectrum communications, each
information bit is module-2 added to each bit in mission of the information bits 101 based
on a chipping code of 010. Note that because a 3-bit chipping code is used, the three
information bits are transmitted as a sequence of 9 bits.

Information bits 101

Chipping code 010
Transmitted bits (modulo/2 addition) 1010101

In examining the entries in Table 11.1, note that the chipping code is
modulo-2 added to each information bit. That is, the first information bit (1) is modulo-2
added to each bit in the chipping bit code (010). This modulo-2 addition process results in
generation of the bit sequence 101, which is transmitted to represent the information bit
of binary 1. Next, the second information bit (0) is modulo-2 added to each chipping
code bit (010) to generate the bit sequence 010, which is transmitted to represent the
second information bit, whose value is binary 0. Finally, the third information bit (1) is
modulo-2 added to the chipping bit code to generate the 3-bit sequence 101, which is
transmitted instead of the information bit value of binary 1.
If we use the +1s and -1s to represent binary 1s and 0s, we can better view the effect of a
chipping code for the generation of direct sequence spread spectrum communications.
Fig 11-2 illustrates the direct sequence spread spectrum transmission of the 3 information
bits contained in table 11.1 through the use of the chipping code contained in the table.

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 Because the chipping code adds redundancy to the Information being
transmitted, this permits a receiver to recover the original data if one or more bits are
damaged during transmission. Of course, the ability to recover from transmission
impairments depends on the length of the chipping code used and the length of the
transmission impairment. However, when data can be recovered, it is done without the
necessity to have the originator retransmit. Because a receiver without the applicable
chipping code receives a signal that appears to represent low power wideband noise,
direct sequence spread spectrum communications are also applicable for military
communications where reliability and security are important considerations.
Continuing this examination of the IEEE 802.11 specification, a second
physical layer supported by the standard is direct sequence, a second physical layer
supported by the standard is direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). As me ntioned at
the beginning of this chapter, under DSSS, a signal is spread through the use of a
sequence, which results in the use of a wider bandwidth with lower power density.

Although the original IEEE 802.11 standard, now referred to as the IEEE
802.11a specification, defined three physical layers, it should be noted that DSSS is the
only physical layer specified for the recently 802.11b standard, data rates of 5.5 and 11
Mbps are supported. Thus in this section we will describe and discuss the use of DSSS
with respect to both IEEE 802.11b standard uses the same 2.4- MHz bandwidth and
channelization scheme as the 1-Mbps version of the IEEE 802.11a standard. The only
difference between the two is the use of different chipping method, with the IEEE
802.11a standard using an 11-bit Barker chip and the IEEE 802.11b specification being
based on the use of an 8-bit complimentary code keying (CCK) algorithm.

MODULATION:-
Two different modulation methods are supported by the IEEE 802.11a
standard. At an operating rate of 1 Mbps, differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK)
is used. At an operating rate of 2 Mbps, differential quadrature phase-shift keying
(DQPSK) is employed. Under DBPSK modulation, each bit is represented by one of two
possible phase changes. In comparison, under DQPSK, the modulation process operates
on pair of bits, modulating each bit pair into one of four possible phase changes.

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FREQUENCY ALLOCATION:-
Similar to FHSS, the frequency allocations for DSSS can very based on
different regulatory agencies. As an example of potential differences, table below lists the
allowed center frequencies and the corresponding channel numbers for North America,
Europe, and Japan, which can be considered to represent the three major markets for the
use of DSSS wireless LANs.

Channel North Ame rica Europe japan

Number
1 2412 N/A N/A
2 2417 N/A N/A
3 2422 2422 N/A
4 2427 2427 N/A
5 2432 2432 N/A
6 2437 2437 N/A
7 2442 2442 N/A
8 2447 2447 N/A
9 2452 2452 N/A
10 2457 2457 N/A
11 2462 2462 N/A
12 N/A N/A 2484

FRAME FORMAT:

Bits

Preamble SFD Signal Service Length CRC Data

(128) (16) (8) (8) (16) (16)

DSSS Frame Format

Fig illustrates the general DSSS frame format. The DSSS Preamble field
consists of 128 bits and provides a mechanism for the receiving station to adjust to the
incoming signal. This field is followed by the Start of Frame Delimiter (SFD) field. This
16-bit field is followed by an 8-bit Signal field. This field functions as a rate indication
method that allows the receiver to use the applicable modulation method commensurate
with the data rate of originator.
The fourth field in the DSS physical layer is the Service field. This 8-bit field
is currently assigned the value hex 00 to signify IEEE 802.11 compliance, however, is
actual use is presently reserved. The fifth field is the Length field. The function of this 16
bit field is to indicate the number of bytes in the Date field that follows the CRC field.

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Concerning the CRC field, this 16-bit field is used to protect the Signal Service, and
Length fields.

INFRARED FREQUANCY (IF):-

IR was developed as a communications method for remote control

approximately 30 years ago. Infrared (IR) communications s ystems use very high
frequencies that are just below visible light in the electromagnetic spectrum. Like light,
IR radiation cannot penetrate opaque objects, which limits its transmission capability to
direct line of sight or diffuse method of communicatio n.
OVERVIEW :-
The IR transmission employed under the IEEE 802.11a specification is
based on the 850 – 950-nm range, which is nearly visible light. IR reception is based on
diffuse IR transmission, which means that a clear line-of-sight path between transmitter
and receiver is not required. However, the allowable range between stations is limited
approximately 10 m, and the use of this layer is restricted to in-building application. Two
speeds are permitted: 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps. At 1 Mbps, an encoding scheme is used in
which a group of 4 bits is encoded as a 16-bit codeword containing fifteen 0s and a single
1, using what is called Gray Code. This code has the property that a small error in time
synchronization leads to only a single bit error in the output. At 2 Mbps, the encoding
takes 2 bits and produces 4-bit codeword, also with only a single 1, that is 0001,0010,
0100 or 1000. Infrared signals cannot penetrate walls, so cells in different rooms are well
isolated from each other. Nevertheless, due to the low bandwidth ( and the fact that
sunlight swamps infrared signals), this is not a popular option. Position of short light
pulses carry information. Uppermost sequence contains four bits of data at 1 Mbps,
which is encoded into a single 16-PPM symbol. In this example sequence ―1001‖
corresponds to the pulse at tenth pulse slot from the right (the rightmost slot corresponds
to sequence ―0000‖). Duration of modulating PPM-pulses is the same for both data rates
for easier implementation.

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 Data at
1 Mbit/s,
4 bits
One
symbol
16-PPM symbol 16-PPM

Data at
2 Mbit/s,
8 bits
Four
symbols
4-PPM

250 ns 4-PPM symbol

Figure 1.5. PPM signals at 1 and 2 Mbps.

At higher 2 Mbps data rate each pair of bits is encoded into a single 4-PPM
symbol as shown in Figure 1.5. All four bit combinations are shown and we see that for
example ―11‖ is transmitted as a pulse at the last of the four pulse positions.
Correspondingly pulse at the first place represents bit pair ―00‖.

FRAME FORMAT:-
Preamble SFD Data Rate DC level Data
adjustment

Fig. above illustrates the IR physical layer frame format. The

Synchronization and Start Delimiter (SFD) fields function similarly to those fields used
in the DSSS and FHSS frames. However, instead of a Signaling field, the IR frame uses a
Data Rate field to denote the data rate. This field is used to indicate if the operating rate is
what is referred to as the 1-Mbps basic access rate or the enhance access rate of 2-Mbps.
If we compare the frame formats for DSSS and FHSS frames with IR frames, we will
note that Signal Field in first two frames is in same location as the Data Rate frames in IR
frame. Thus, the terminology is changed, the field are positioned and function in same
manner.

ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION

MULTIPLEXING:-
The first of the high speed wireless LANs, 802.11a uses orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) to deliver up to 54 Mbps in the wider 5-GHz ISM band.
As the term FDM suggests, different frequencies are used – 52 of them, 48 for data and 4
for synchronization-not unlike ADSL. Since transmission are present on multiple
frequencies at the same time, this technique is considered a form of spread spectrum, but
different from both CDMA and FHSS. Splitting the signal into many into many narrow
bands has some key advantages over using a single wide band, includ ing better immunity
to narrowband interference and the possibility of using noncontiguous bands. A complex
encoding system is used, based on phase shift modulation for speeds up to 18Mbps and

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on QAM above that. AT 54 Mbps, 216 data bits are encoded into 288-bit symbols. This
technique has a good spectrum efficiency in terms of bits/Hz and good immunity to
multipath fading.

DATA LINK LAYER: -

This layer is divide in to two sub layer Medium Access Control (MAC) sub
layer and Logical link control (LLC) .

Medium Access Control:-

The 802.11 Mac sub layer is protocol is quite different from that of Ethernet
due to the inherent complexity of the wireless environment compared to that of a wired
system. With Ethernet, a station just waits until the ether goes silent and starts
transmitting. If it does not receive a noise burst back within the first 64 bytes, the frame
has almost assuredly been delivered correctly. With wireless, this situation does not hold.
MAC is on the physical layer and the and it supports three technology in physical layer
those are Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum (FHSS) and Infrared Frequency (IF).

BASIC ACCESS METHOD:-

The IEEE 802.11 standard uses a variation of the Carrier Sense Multiple
Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol to provide a wireless access
capability. The CSMA/CA protocol avoids collisions instead of detecting a collision, like
the CSMA/CD protocol used by the IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) standard.
The variation of the CSMA/CA protocol used requires a station that has
information to transmit to first ―listen‖ to the medium. If the medium is busy, the station
will defer its transmission. If the medium is available for a specified time, referred to as
the distributed interframe space (DIFS), the station can transmit. Because it is possible
that another station could transmit at approximately the same time, the acknowledgement
that serves as an indicator to the originator that no collision occurred. Otherwise, if the
sender does not receive an acknowledgement it will retransmit until it either receives an
acknowledgement or a predefined number of retransmissions occur. Concerning the
latter, if the sender cannot receive an acknowledgment after a fixed number of tries, it
will abandon its effort, and the higher layer in the protocol stack will govern how the
inability to transfer data is handled.
The access method used by the IEEE 802.11 standard is referred to as the
distributed coordination function (DCF), which can be considered to represent a
CSMA/CA protocol. The reason for the selection of an access scheme with an
acknowledgment instead of the near-ubiquitous wired LANs Ethernet Carrier Sense
Multiple Access/Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) scheme is that the latter is impractical
for a wireless environment. This is so because a collision detection method would require
a full duplex RF or IR pair of channels, which would be costly. In addition, unlike a
wired LAN, where it is assumed that all stations can hear a collision, in a wireless

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environment this is not always true. Thus the IEEE had a sound basis for bypassing
CSMA/CD for CSMA/CA scheme, which incorporates a positive acknowledgment.

PROBLEMS: -
To start with, there is the hidden station problem mentioned earlier and
illustrated again in fig. Since not all station are within radio range of each other,
transmissions going on in one part of a cell may not be received elsewhere in the same
cell. In this example, station C is transmitting to station B. If A senses the channel, it
will not hear anything and falsely conclude that it may not start transmitting to B.

Fig. Here B wants to send to C so it listens to the channel. W hen it hears a

transmission, it falsely concludes that it may not send to C, even though A may be
transmitting to D (not shown).

MINIMIZING COLLISION WITH DIFFERENT MODES: -

To deal with this problem, 802.11 support two modes of operation. The first, called
DCF (Distributed Coordination Function), does not used any kind of central control
(in that respect, similar to Ethernet). The other called PCF (Point Coordination
Function), use the base station to control all activity in its cell. All implementations
must support DCF but PCF is optional. We will now discuss these two modes in turn.

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DISTRIBUTION COORDINATION FUNCTION:-
When DCF is employed, 802.11 use a protocol called CSMA/CA (CSMA
with Collision Avoidance). In this protocol, both physical channe l sensing and virtual
channel sensing are used. Two methods of operation are supported by CSMA/CA. In
first physical sensing method, when a station wants to transmit, it senses the channel. If
it is idle, it just starts transmitting. It does not sense the channel while transmitting but
emits its entire frame, which may will be destroyed at the receiver due to interference
there. If the channel is busy, the sender defers until it goes idle and then starts
transmitting. If a collision occurs, the colliding stations wait a random time, using the
Ethernet binary exponential back ff algorithm, and then try again later.

The other mode of CSMA/CA operation is based on MACAW and uses

virtual channel sensing, as illustrated in fig. In this example, A wants to send to B. C is
a station within rage of A ( and possible within range of B, but that does not matter). D is
a station within range of B but not within range of A.
The protocol starts when A decides it wants to send data to B. It begins by
sending an RTS frame to B to request permission to send it a frame. When B receives this
request, it may decide to grant permission, in which case it sends a CTS frame back.
Upon receipt of the CTS, A now sends its frame and starts an ACK timer. Up on correct
receipt of the data frame, B responds with an ACK frame, terminating the exchange. If
A‘s ACK timer expires before the ACK gets back to it, the whole protocol is run again.
Now let us consider this exchange from the viewpoint of C and D. C is within
range of A, so it may receive the RTS frame. If it does, it realizes that someone is going
to send data soon, so for the good of all it desists from transmitting anything until the

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exchange is completed. From the information provided the RTS request, it can estimate
how long the sequence will take, including the final ACK, so it asserts a kind of virtual
channel busy for itself, indicated by NAV (Network Allocation Vector) in fig. D does not
hear the RTS, but it does hear the CTS, so it also assets the NAV signal for itself. N ote
that the NAV signals are not transmitted; they are just internal reminders to keep quiet for
a certain period of time.
In contrast to wired networks, wireless networks are noisy and unreliable,
into small part due to microwave ovens, which also use the unlicensed ISM bands. As a
consequence, the probability of a frame making it through successfully decreases with
frame length. If the probability of any bit being the error is p, then the probability of an
n-bit frame being received entirely correct is (1-p)^n. For example, for p=0.0001, the
probability of receiving a full Ethernet frame (12,144 bits) correctly is less than 30%. If
p=0.00001, about one frame in 9 will be damaged. Even if p=0.000001, over 1% of the
frames will be damaged, which amounts to almost a dozen per second, and more if
frames shorter than the maximum are used. In summary, if a frame is too ling, it has very
little chances of getting through undamaged and will probably have to be retransmitted.
To deal with the problem of noisy channels, 802.11 allows frames to be
fragmented into smaller pieces, each with its own checksum. The fragments are
individually numbered and acknowledged using a stop-and-wait protocol (i.e., the sender
may not transmit fragment k+1 until it has received the acknowledgement for fragment
k). Once the channel has been acquired using RTS and CTS, multiple fragments can be
sent in a row, as shown in fig. Sequence is called a fragme nt burst.

Fragmentation increases the throughput by restricting retransmissions to the

bad fragments rather than the entire frame. The fragment size is not fixed by the standard
but is a parameter of each cell and can be adjusted by the base station. The NAV

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mechanism keeps other stations quiet only until he next acknowledgement, but a nother
mechanism (described below) is used to allow a whole fragment burst to be sent without
interference.

POINT COORDINATION FUNCTION:-

In mode is PCF, in which the base station polls the other stations, asking
them if they have any frames to send. Since transmission order is completely controlled
by the base station in PCF mode, no collisions ever occur. The standard prescribes the
mechanism for polling, but not the polling frequency, polling order, or even whether all
stations need to get equal service.
The basic mechanism is for the base station to broadcast a
beacon frame periodically (10 to 100 times per second). The beacon frame
contains system parameters, such as hopping sequences and dwell times (for
FHSS), clock synchronization, etc. It also invites new stations to sign up for
polling service. Once a station has signed up for polling service at a certain rate,
it is effectively guaranteed a certain fraction of the bandwidth, thus making it
possible to give quality-of-service guarantees.
Battery life is always an issue with mobile wireless devices, so 802.11
pays attention to the issue of power management. In particular, the base station can direct
a mobile station to go into sleep state until explicitly awakened by the base station or the
user. Having told a station to go to sleep, however, means that the base station has the
responsibility for buffering any frames directed at it while the mobile station is asleep.
These can be collected later.

PCF and DCF can coexist within one cell

At first it might seem impossible to have central control and distributed
control operating at the same time, but 802.11 provides a way to achieve this goal. It
works by carefully defining the interframe time interval. After a frame has been sent, a
certain amount of dead time is required before any station may send a frame. Four
different intervals are defined, each for a specific purpose. The four intervals are dep icted
in fig.
Control frame or next fragment may be sent
here

SIFS PCF frames may be sent here

DCF frames may be sent here

PIFS

Bad frame recovery done here

DIFS

EIFS

ForACK
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Time
The shortest interval is SIFS (short interframe spacing). It is used to allow the parties in
single dialog the chance to go first. This includes letting the receiver send CTS to respond
to an RTS, letting the receiver send ACK for a fragment or full data frame, and letting the
sender of a fragment burst transmit the next fragment without having to send an RTS
again.
There is always exactly one station that is entitled to respond art a SOFS
interval. If it fails to make use of it chance and a time PIFS ( PCF Interframe Spacing)
elapses, the base station may send a beacon frame or poll frame. This mechanism allows
a station sending a data frame or fragment sequence to finish its fra me without anyone
else getting in the way, but gives the base station a chance to grab the channel when the
previous sender is done without having to complete with eager users.
If the base station has nothing to say and a time DIFS (DCF Inter frame
Spacing) elapses, any station may attempt to acquire the channel to send a new frame.
The contention rules apply, and binary exponential back off may be needed if a collision
occurs.
The last time interval EIFS (Extended Interframe Spacing), is used only bya
station that has just received ab bad or unknown frame to report the bad frame. The idea
of giving this event the lowest priority is that since the receiver may have no idea of what
is going on. It should wait a substantial time to avoid interfering with an ongoing dialog
between two stations.

LOGICAL LINK CONTROL SUB LAYER :-

Logical Link Control (LLC) sub layer hides the differences between then
various kinds of 802 network by providing a single format and interface to the network
layer. This format, interface, and protocol are all closely base on the HDLC protocol.
LLC makes upper half of the data link layer.
Typical usage of LLC is as follows. The network layer on the sending machine passes a
packet to LLC, using the LLC access primitives. The LLC sub layer then adds an LLC
header, containing sequence and acknowledgement numbers. The resulting structure is
then inserted into the payload field of an 802 frame and transmitted. At the receiver, the
reverse process takes place.
LLC provides three service options: unreliable datagram service,
acknowledged service, and reliable connection-oriented service. The LLC header
contains three fields: a destination access point, a source access point, and a control field.
The access points tell which process the frame came from and where it is to be delivered,
replacing the DIX Type field. The control field contains sequence and acknowledgement
numbers, very much in the style of HDLC, but not identical to it. These fields are
primarily used when a reliable connection is needed at the data link level would be used.
For the Internet, best-efforts attempts to deliver IP packets are sufficient, so no
acknowledgements at the LLC level are required.

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 FRAME FORMAT OF MAC DATA:-
FRAME TYPES:
The MAC layer supports three main types of frames: data frames, which are used to
transmit information between stations; control frames, which are used to control access to
the medium; and management frames, which are used to exchange management
information between station at layer 2 but are not forwarded to upper layers in the
protocol suite.
FRAME FORMAT:
Corresponding to different types of frames are variations in the format of IEEE 802.11
standard frames. This section examines the format and operation of several types of MAC
frames.
MAC DATA:
Fig illustrates the format of the MAC data frame used to transmits information between
stations.
Bytes The portions of this frame in the form of several fields are used in other types of
frames. In examining fig, we note that the frame body filed can be up
Frame Duration Address Address Address Sequence Address Data Checksum
Control 1 2 3 4

Bits
Version Type Subtype To From MF Retry Pwr More W O
DS DS

THE 802.11 DATA FRAME

to a maximum of 2312 bytes in length. Thus this provides the ability to transport a
maximum- length Ethernet frame, which has a 1500-byte Information field. Now let‘s see
each field and sub field of frame in detail.

CONTROL FIELD: The 16-bit Control field consists of 11 fields, with 8 being 1-bit
field that when set, indicate that a specific feature or function is enabled. This section
examines the use of each sub field within the Control field.
PROTOCOL VERSION SUB FILED: The 2-bit Protocol version sub field
provides a mechanism to identify the version of the IEEE 802.11 standard. In the init ial
version of the standard, the protocol version field value is set to 0.

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TYPE AND SUB TYPE SUB FIELD: The Type and Subtype sub fields provide
6 bits that identify the frame. The Type sub field is capable of identifying four types of
frames; however, only three types are presently defined. The 4-bits Subtype sub field
identifies a specific types of frame within Type category.
Table lists the Type and Subtype sub field values and description of what the values of
the 6-bit positions indicate. In examining the entries in the ―Subtype Description‖
column, note that the term beacon has nothing to do with a Token-Ring network. Instead,
a beacon frames in periodically transmitted by an access point with the value of its clock
at the time of transmission. This allows receiving stations to stay in synchronization with
the AP‘s clock.
ToDS Sub Field: This 1-bit filed is set to a value of 1 when the frame is addressed to
an AP for forwarding to the distribution system. Otherwise, the bit is set to a value of 0.
FromDS Sub Field: The fromDS sub field is also a 1-bit field. The value of this field
is set to q when the frame is received from the distribution system. Otherwise, the field
value is set to 0.
MORE FRAGMENT SUB FIELD: This sub field is another 1-bit field. The
value of this field is set to 1 when there are more fragments belonging to the same
fragment following the current fragment. Thus this field lets the originator know that a
frame represents a series of fragments into frame.
Fig. Illustrates the frame fragmentation process. Note that fragments 0,1,and 2 would
have their More Fragments sub field values set to 1 in the MAC header in each fragment
in this example. The fragmentation transmission process under the IEEE 802.11 standard
is based on a simple send-and-wait algorithm. Under this algorithm, the transmitting
station cannot send a new fragment until it either receives an ACK for the prior segment
or decides that the fragment was retransmitted a predefined number of times and drops
the entire frame.
RETRY SUBFIELD: This 1-bit field is set to indicate that the frame is fragment
representing the retransmission of a previously transmitted fragment. The receiving
station uses this field to recognize duplicate transmission that can occur if an ACK packet
is lost.
POWER MANAGEMENT SUB FIELD: IEEE 802.11 stations can be in one of
two power modes; power save or active. A station that is active when transmitting a
frame can change its power status from active to power saves.
Through the use of the Power Management sub field, a station can indicate its power
state. This information is used by the access point, which continuously maintains a record
of stations working in the power save mode. The AP will then buffer packets addressed to
such stations until they either specifically request packets by transmitting a polling
request or change their power state.
Another technique used to transmit buffered frames to a station in its power save mode of
operation is obtained through then the used of beacon frames. The AP will periodically
transmit information concerning which stations operating in a power save mode have
frames buffered by the access point as part of its beacon frames. Such stations will then
wake up to receive the beacon frame and note that there is a frame stored at the AP
awaiting delivery. The station will then remain in an active power state and transmit a
polling message to the AP retrieve those frames.

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MORE DATA SUB FIELD : As its name implies, the More Data sub field indicates
that more frames are following the current frame. This 1-bit sub field is set by the AP to
indicate that there are more frames buffered to a particular station. Remember, buffering
at the AP occurs when destination station is in its power save mode of operation. The
destination station can then use this information to decide if it should continue polling or
if the station should change it Power Management Sub field to active.
WEO SUB FIELD: The IEEE 802.11 committee responsible for development of the
wireless standard addressed security through the addition of authentication and
encryption, collectively referred to as wired equivalent privacy (WEP). The setting of the
WEP sub field indicates that the body of the frame is encrypted according to the WEP
algorithm.
The WEP algorithm uses a pseudorandom number generator that is initialized by a 40-bit
secret key. This results in the generation of a key sequence of pseudorandom bits whose
length is equal to the largest possible packet. These bits are then modulo-s added to the
frame bits to encrypt the frame. Each frame is transmitted with an initialization vector,
which restarts the pseudorandom number generator ton provide a new key sequence for
the subsequent frame. Thus this technique is very difficult for a brute force attack to
compromise. Because a station needs to have knowledge of the key to correctly decrypt
data, the key in effect becomes an authentication mechanism.
ORDER SUB FIELD: The last position in the Control field is the 1-bit order sub
field. The setting of this bit indicates that the frame is being transmitted using what is
referred to as the strictly ordered service class. The use of this bit position is to
accommodate the DEC LAT protocol that can not accept change of ordering between
unicast and multicast frames. Thus, for the vast majority of wireless applications, this sub
field will not be used. Now that you have an appreciation for the sub fields within the
Control field, let‘s continue our examination of the MAC data frame.
DURATION/ID FIELD: The meaning of this field depends on the type of frame. In
power save poll message, this field indicates the station identification (ID). In all other
types of frames, this field indicates the Duration value, which represents the time in
microseconds required to transmit a frame and its interval to the next frame.
ADDRESS FIELDS: A frame can contain up to four addresses depending on the
setting of the To DS and FromDS bits in the Control field. These address fields are
labeled address 1 through address 4.
The use of address fields based on the settings of the ToDs and FromDS bits in the
Control fields is summarized in table. In examining table, we note that Address a always
indicates the recipient address. This address can be the destination address (DA), the
basic service set ID (BSSID), or the recipients address (RA). If the ToDS bit is set
Address 1 contains the AP address. When the ToDS bit is not set, the value of the
Address 1 contains the station address. All stations filter on the Address a field value.
Address 2 is always used to identify the station transmitting the packet. If the FromDS bit
is set, the value in the Address 2 field is the AP address; otherwise, it represents the
station address. The Address 3 field also depends on the ToDS and FromDS bit settings.
When the FromDS bit in the Control field is set to a value of 1,the Address 3 field
contains the original source address (SA), If the frame has the ToDS bit set, then the
Address 3 field contains the destination address (DA).

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SEQUENCE CONTROL FIELD: The 2-byte Sequence Control field functions as
a mechanism to represent the order of different fragments that are part of the frame. As
illustrated previously in fig, the Sequence control field consists of two sub fields:
Fragment Number and Sequence Number. This sub field is used to define the frame and
the number of the fragment that is part of frame.
FRAME BODY FIELD: The Frame Body field is used to transport actual
information between stations. As indicated in fig, this field can vary in length up to 2312
bytes.
CRC FIELD: The last field in the MAC data frame is the CRC field. This field is 4
bytes in length and is used to contain a 32-bit CRC.

SERVICES OF WLAN:-
The 802.11 standard states that each conformant wireless LAN must provide nine
services. These are dividing into two categories: five distribution services and four
station services. The distribution services relate to managing cell membership and
interacting with stations outside the cell. In contrast, the station services relate to
activity within a single cell.
The five distribution services are provided by the base stations and deal with
station mobility as they enter and leave cells, attaching themselves to and detaching
themselves from base stations. They are as follows:
ASSOCIATION: This service is used by mobile stations to connect themselves to
base stations. Typically, it is used just after a station moves within the radio range of the
base station. Upon arrival, it announces its identity and capabilities. The capabilities
include the data rates supported, need for PCF services (i.e. polling), and power
management requirements. The base station may accepted, it must then authenticate
itself.
DISASSOCIATION: Either the station or the base station may disassociate, thus
breaking the relationship. A station should use this service before shutting down or
leaving, but the base station may also use it before going down for maintenance.
REASSOCIATION: A station may change its preferred base station using this
service. This facility is useful for mobile stations moving from one cell to another. If it is
used correctly, no data will be lost as a consequence of the handover. (But 802.11, like
Ethernet, is just a best-efforts service.)
DISTRIBUTION: This services determines how to route frames sent to the base
station. If the destination is local to the base station, the frames can be sent out directly
over the air. Otherwise, they will have to be forwarded over the wired network.
INTEGRATION: If a frame needs to be sent through a non 802.11 network with a
different addressing scheme or frame format, this service handles the translation from the
802.11 format to the format required by the destination network.

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 The remaining four services are intracell (i.e. relate to actions within a single cell). They
used after association has taken place and are as follows.
AUTHENTICATION: Because wireless communication can easily be sent or
received by unauthorized stations, a station must authenticate itself before it is permitted
to send data. After a mobile station has been associated by the base station (i.e. accepted
into its cell), the base station sends a special challenge frame to it to see if the mobile
station knows the secret key (password) that has been assigned to it, It proves its
knowledge of the secret key by encrypting the challenge frame and sending it back to the
base station. If the result is correct, the mobile is fully enrolled in the cell. In the initial
standard, the base station does not have to prove its identity to the mobile station, but
work to repair this defect in the standard is underway.
DEAUTHENTICATION: When a previously authenticated station wants to leave
the network, it is deauthenticated. After deauthentication, it may no longer use the
network.
PRIVACY: For information sent over a wireless LAN to be kept confidential, it must
be encrypted. This service manages the encryption and decryption. The encryption
algorithm specified is RC$, invented by Ronald Rivest of M.I.T.
DATA DELIVERY: Finally, data transmission is what it is all about, so 802.11
naturally provide a way to transmit and receive data. Since 802.11 is modeled on Ethernet
and transmission over Ethernet is not guaranteed to be 100% reliable, transmission over
802.11 is not guaranteed to be reliable either. Higher layer must deal with detecting and
correcting errors.

DEPLOYMENT OF WLAN:-

WLAN installations offer companies a way to improve their business operations and
increase revenues. Approaching a WLAN deployment in steps or phases can help make
this process faster and more efficient. The best way to add wireless connectivity is to start
small and plan with an eye toward expansion.

Establish a Security Program:-

Tasks: Address, authentication and encryption concern.
Implement Basic Industry Standard Security

 Service set identifier (SSID): Configure clients with the correct SSID to access
their WLAN. The key should be shared only with those having legitimate need to
access the network.
 Media access control (MAC): Filtering addresses restricts WLAN access to
computers that are on a list you create for each access point on your WLAN. This
should be enabled.
 Wire d equivalent privacy (WEP): Encryption scheme that protects WLAN data
streams between clients and APs as specified by the 802.11 standard. This should

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 be turned on, but it should be realized that flaws have been discovered in this
mechanism.

Implement Advanced Industry Standard Security

(Recommended) Implement the highest level of security feasible in your environment,
including:

 IEEE 802.1X: A security standard featuring a port-based authentication

framework and dynamic distribution of session keys for WEP encryption. A
WPA: Wi-Fi Protected Access* is a security standard that solves the encryption
issues of WEP by utilizing TKIP (Temporal key integrity protocol), which wraps
around WEP and closes the security holes of WEP. WPA also includes the
authentication benefits of 802.1X.
 EAP: Extensible authentication protocol (EAP) is a point-to-point protocol that
supports multiple authentication methods. The support for EAP types depends on
the OS being supported.

Consider Proprietary Security

Consider utilizing a proprietary security solution to protect your WLAN. Implementation,
however, will generally restrict you to a single vendor. As recognized ind ustry leaders of
client and infrastructure systems, Intel and Cisco are working together to enable a
protected, interoperable, and manageable wireless mobility ecosystem.

 Cisco* Compatible Extensions add security, performance, and manageability

benefits to a wireless LAN consisting of Cisco Aironet* infrastructure and
compatible third-party clients.

Other Security Considerations

 Rogue access point: Perform regular network audits to identify rogue access
points and disable or reconfigure them appropriately. Rogue access points are
those installed without the IT departments knowledge and are generally not
configured with any security settings, which leaves an open door for unauthorized
access.
 Virtual private network (VPN): This technology offers additional security by
creating a tunnel that shields your data from the outside world. A common
security policy for many corporations is to require clients to use VPN to access
the corporate network through any wireless access point.

For more information on protecting your WLAN, visit our WLAN Security pages.

Deploy the WLAN

Tasks: Select and purchase equipment, and provide wireless adapters to participants.

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  Set up the infrastructure side: After determining which WLAN Technology
products are right for you, purchase the appropriate number of access points for
your pilot. Choose among the top providers, especially those that will provide
solid product support. Choose access point units that offer interchangeable
antenna options (for example, omni-directional and directional antennas). These
accommodate different spaces so you can fine tune reception for optimal reach.
Access point units need electricity. Larger installations do best using power over
existing Ethernet/Cat-5 cabling to avoid expensive retrofitting of electrical wiring.
Make sure the units you buy support Power over Ethernet or purchase products
that provide this.

Set up the client side: Install network interface cards (NIC), or provide users with
Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology-based notebooks. Create auto- installers to
install all the WLAN drivers, VPN software, etc. in participants' notebook PCs. For
more information on deploying your WLAN.

Provide User Training:-

Tasks: Train participants and gather data.

 Train: Set up a training session for the participants. Make it easy and mandatory
for users to get training on their new systems — preferably at the same time they
receive their wireless-enabled notebook PCs. Set appropriate user expectations for
support and how they should request it. Then train participants to actually call,
report, and get help.

Gather data: Gather user feedback from the beginning of the pilot. This can be even
more important than technical feedback. Consider an informal system in which IT
personnel roam the wireless zones for immediate input from users. You might also
schedule interviews or drop- in lunch meetings to gather comments and reactions.
Collect intermediate metrics for ROI reporting and address technical issues as needed
during the pilot. Make sure to closely monitor the WLAN access and be prepared to
react quickly to seal security leaks or handle other problems.

Step 5: Initiate an Audit Program and Broaden WLAN

Tasks: Evaluate the pilot and broaden WLAN reach.

 Evaluation: Gather and report findings and ROI values. Review ways you can
improve systems to meet needs that the pilot didn't address, such as additional
access points, smoother setup, or user support. Report the findings to stakeholders
to get approval for broader deployments. And communicate outcomes to all your
pilot users because they need to know what became of their efforts to help.

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 Broaden WLAN reach: With an eye to the larger organization, return to Step 1 and
reassess the questions and decisions you made for the pilot in light of scaling the
WLAN to include more zones. Decide whether to deploy wireless across the entire
network, or expand it selectively to serve the next level of mobile user needs.
Standardize security access across the site no matter how large the WLAN gets so
users won't run into lockout problems as they roam.

SECURITY:

It is potentially much easier to compromise security in the WLAN environment than in

the fixed LAN environment because data is transmitted through the air using radio waves
and can be received by any WLAN client in the vicinity of the access point.
Radio waves travel through ceilings, floors and walls so transmitted data may reach
unintended recipients on different floors and even outside the building itself. Similarly,
there is no way to guarantee that a WLAN transmission will reach only a single recipient.
This has led to the so-called ‗drive by hacking‘ where individuals gain access to data
emanating from the WLANs of buildings. This has done much to create public alarm
about the security of WLANs an indeed ALLnet‘s survey found that this is still a major
concern for organizations today.
However, practical measures can be implemented that will all but eliminate security
breaches. The first of these is to do with the positioning of the access points-clearly, if
they are situated away from an outside wall, there is less chance of transmission leaving
the building. There are also a number of security measures that will prevent even
transmissions outside of the building from being intercepted.
802.11b defines two mechanisms for control and privacy on WLANs. Service Set
Identifiers (SSIDs) and Wired Equipment Privgacy (WEP).

SERVICE SET IDENTIFIERS (SSIDs):

An SSID is common name for the devices in a WLAN subsystem and services to
logically segment that subsystem. However, access points are usually set to broadcast
SSID‘s and their use as a handle to permit/deny access is dangerous because it is
typically not well secured.
WIRED EQUIVALANCE PRIVACY (WEP):
WEP offers mechanism for securing WLAN data streams and uses the same key
algorithms for both encryption and decryption of data. It aims to provide access control to
prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to the network and privacy that protects
WLAN data streams by encrypting them and allowing decryption only by users with the
correct keys.
With WEP, a static key is applied to the data. This is then encrypted, sent and decrypted
at the other end. Part of the key is in the Initialization Vector, contained in the first part of
the header of every IP packet, and is sent unencrypted. This is where the flaws start to
appear.

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First of all, static keys can easily be compromised if a single user loses their key. Also, a
hacker in a wireless environment can‘sniff‘ packets being sent through the air and, over a
period of time as short as 35 seconds on a busy network, can get sufficient data to
reconstruct the key.
At this point, the key can be added to the device and the hacker is now able to access all
available corporate resources and wreak whatever damage he wants.
DYNAMIC WEP KEY ALLOCATION:
A simple means of addressing this problem is to implements a process called Dynamic
WEP key Allocation. This does exactly what it says on the tin: WEP keys are allocated
dynamically, and can be changed as often as necessary to prevent the full key falling into
the wrong hands. Dynamic WEP Key Allocation can be implemented on a WLAN using
various third party tools in software or hardware.
AUTHENTICATION:
Authentication technologies confirm that a user is indeed who they say they are and a
number of considerations need to be borne in mind:
Centralized management to create a single repository for all keys, which then don‘t
have to be distributed to each access point.
User based rather than device based authentication which minimizes the risks of
intrusion through loss or theft of device.
Mutual authentication using the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), a general
protocol for authentication that supports multiple authentication methods and specified as
part of the IEEE 802.1 x specifications.
Using EAP, a mobile user connects to a WLAN through an access point, which requests
the identity of the user and transmits that identity to an authentication server such as
RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial- in User Service). The server asks the access point
for proof of identity, which the access point gets from the user and the sends back to the
server to complete the authentication. Use of such authentication systems ensures that a
user does not inadvertently connect to a rogue access point and mitigates against‘ man in
the middle‘ authentication attacks. A variety EAP authentication schemes are available of
which EAP-TLS (Extensible Authentication Protocol – Transport Layer Security) is the
best available, offering mutual authentication, b ut at a high cost. EAP – TTLS
(Extensible Authentication Protocol – Tunneled Transport Layer Security) promises
much but is currently a draft specification and therefore not yet widely supported.
It is important that EAP is disabled if a public WLAN hotspot is the means of access. In
this case, secure IP VPN client software or an SSL VPN should be employed for access
to corporate systems to ensure secure, tunnelled remote access.
VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS (VPNs):
Further security measures can be put in place by implementing industry standard security
encryption with a new or existing IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN) over the WLAN.
This encrypts data to whatever level of security is required, e.g. 3 DES (Triple Data
Encryption Standard) or AES (Advance Encryption Standard). A VPN allows encrypted
access to network resources for authorized users, ensuring no unauthorized individuals
can gain entry.
ADDITIONAL SECURITY MEASURES:
The security measures outlined above are generally considered by most organizations to
be sufficient. However, in some situation – or for organizations with very strict security

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policies – many additional security measures and procedures can be applied. Where this
is the case, ALLnet‘s specialist security team is on hand to advise.

APPLICATION OF WLAN:-
WLANs are most likely used in office, hospital of school environments. These provide
challenging environments for WLAN planners. WLAN is also used outdoors as city,
town, suburb or block wide networks.

Offices:
Small offices require one access point. The traveling workers find it easy to enter the
different offices since they only need to power up their laptops not needing even
unbreakable electricity that the desktops do. The internet connection of a small office is
nowadays normally up to 2 Mbps. The capacity of any access point is enough to satisfy
that. If the office moves no or little investments are lost because the LAN cable of the
computers is air, not a physical one. Taking the access point equals taking the network
with.

Larger offices need careful planning. Questions like how much of the computers are kept
in the physical network, who will have a laptop and for what purpose will rise. Not every
worker is willing to have a laptop, since it may indicate working at home. Whe re should
the WLAN network reach?

If the two offices are close by WLAN offers a possibility of connecting them with the air
interface. The offices across the street can be thus connected to each other without any
external, most likely hired and costly, cabling. The maximum distance for such a
connection n Europe is 6-8 km with polar antennas.

Hospitals:
Laptops with WLAN are being used in hospitals. The doctors carry laptops, not recording
cassette players. They type the orders directly at the patient to the hospital servers.
Previously this would have taken at least hours as the dictations of the doctors were typed
by assistants to the computers. This real time aspect is a benefit for the whole health care
organization and the patients.

Hospitals are full of electronic devices. Many of them are sensitive to radio frequencies
like from GSM phones. A GSM call witnessed by the author made the steady heart beat
on EKG analyzer look very different. WLAN, as described earlier, uses low amplitude

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communication hidden in pseudo noise. This means that the sensitive hospital equipment
is not disturbed by the WLAN connections at all.

Training:
Another use for wireless LANs involves training at private organizations and colleges

and universities. Although many classrooms are permanently wired, in a dynamic

training environment, the addition of new training classes when existing wired

classrooms are all in use or reserved can be easily supported by wireless LANs. Thus

wirelesses LANs add both flexibility and responsiveness to the networking requirements

of different applications.

Advantage of WLAN:-

The widespread reliance on networking in business and the meteoric growth of the
Internet and online services are strong testimonies to the benefits of shared data a nd
shared resources. With wireless LANs, users can access shared information without
looking for a place to plug in, and network managers can set up or augment networks
without installing or moving wires. Wireless LANs offer the following productivity,
convenience, and cost advantages over traditional wired networks:

 Mobility: Wireless LAN systems can provide LAN users with access to real-time
information anywhere in their organization. This mobility supports productivity
and service opportunities not possible with wired networks.
 Installation Speed and Simplicity: Installing a wireless LAN system can be fast
and easy and can eliminate the need to pull cable through walls and ceilings.
 Installation Flexibility: Wireless technology allows the network to go where wire
cannot go.
 Reduced Cost-of-Ownership: While the initial investment required for wireless
LAN hardware can be higher than the cost of wired LAN hardware, overall
installation expenses and life-cycle costs can be significantly lower. Long-term
cost benefits are greatest in dynamic environments requiring frequent moves and
changes.
 Scalability: Wireless LAN systems can be configured in a variety of topologies to
meet the needs of specific applications and installations. Configurations are easily

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 changed and range from peer-to-peer networks suitable for a small number of
users to full infrastructure networks of thousands of users that enable roaming
over a broad area.

Disadvantage of WLAN:-
The biggest disadvantages of WLAN are actually disadvantages of the laptop computers.
The laptops are still some what heavy to carry. The user interface with the mouse in the
middle with several different implementations is nothing good. They just twist the right
or left arm significantly. Using an external mouse requires a GSM phone size extra
equipment being carried with.

The biggest nuisance is the Windows operating system when moving from one
environment to another. There in no easy way to change the environment. The IP address
and related configuration is in the system file which is loaded into the memory. First all
changes would require a reboot. The changes would require an additional program like
TCP/IP Switcher or remembering a number of configuration data somehow.

The configuration of Netscape is easier. It is possible to configure user profiles and take
them into use one by one.

The prices of WLAN equipment are coming down all the time, but powerful laptops are
still quite expensive. Also equipping the laptops with cameras and microphones requires
investment.

So far to my knowledge there are no applications that really would benefit of WLAN or
be specially programmed to work over WLAN. The same applications would naturally
work with desktops too, because WLAN stackwise is only on the two first layers of OSI
stack. A special WLAN application would be for example a video stream that adapts to
the altering transmission rate.

CONCLUSION: -

Planning your network with wireless LAN and save a lost of expense and
inconvenience later, by consider following factors:
 Security Requirements
 Bandwidth Requirements
 Environmental factors that may interfere with wireless transmission
 Ease of installation
 Total number of network users
 Number of laptop users who will want wireless connection

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BIBILIOGRAPHY: -
Computer Network – by tananboum
www.blackbox.com
wireless.ittoolbox.com
www.proxmin.com/wireless/whitepaper/whatwlan.html
http://trade.hamk.fi/~lseppane/courses/wlan/doc/WLANmat.doc
http://www.interl.com/businesssssssss/bus/infrastructure/wireless/deployment/index.html

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