802.

11: Introduction
Reference: IEEE 802.11: moving closer to practical wireless LANs; Stallings, W.; IT Professional, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, MayJune 2001; Page(s): 17 23 (802.11Intro-1.pdf)
Chapter 4, sections 2-4, Wireless Communications and Networks, by William Stallings, Prentice Hall

802.11 Terminology

802.11 Architecture

802.11 Architecture (cont)

802.11 Services

Implemented in every 802.11 station Provided between BSS ( in an AP)

802.11 Services (cont)

Association
Before a station can transmit or receive frames on a wireless LAN, it must make its identity and address known To do so, it establishes an association with an access point The access point can then communicate this information to other access points, which makes it easier to route and deliver addressed frames

Disassociation
Makes it possible for either a station or an access point to notify other access points that an existing association is terminated
6

802.11 Services (cont)

Authentication
Stations must use an authentication service to establish their identity with other stations IEEE 802.11 does not mandate any particular authentication scheme, which could be anything from relatively unsecure handshaking to public-key encryption It does specify two authentication algorithms, which vendors can decide to include in their products
Open-system authentication Shard-key authentication
7

802.11 Services (cont)

Distribution
The primary service used by stations to exchange MAC frames when the frame must traverse the DS (Distribution System) to get from a station in one BSS to a station in another BSS

Integration
Enables transfer of data between a station on an IEEE 802.11 LAN an a station on an integrated IEEE 802.x LAN
8

802.11 Services (cont)

Privacy
To ensure privacy, IEEE 802.11 provides for the optional use of encryption by specifying a scheme based on the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm To provide both privacy and data integrity, the WEP algorithm uses an encryption scheme based on the RC4 encryption algorithm The idea in RC4 is that two communicating parties must share a 40-bit key which encrypts and decrypts all frames For much stronger protections, some 802.11 vendors offer optional 128-bit encryption
9

802.11 Protocol Architecture

10

802.11 Protocol Architecture (cont)

11

IEEE 802.11 MAC Logic

12

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA)

13

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont)

SIFS (short inter-frame space)
The shortest IFS, used for all immediate response actions

PIFS (point coordination function IFS)

A mid-length IFS, used by the centralized controller in the PCF scheme when issuing polls

DIFS (distributed coordination function IFS)

The longest IFS, used as a minimum delay for asynchronous frames contending for access
14

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont)

SIFS is used for
Acknowledgment (ACK)
MAC-level ACK provides for efficient collision recovery

Clear to send (CTS)

Sender sends Request to Send (RTS) frame
If receiver is ready to receive, responds with a CTS frame All other stations defer using the medium until they see a corresponding CTS, or timeout

Poll response
For PCF
15

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont)

16

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont)

17

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont)

18

802.11 MAC Frame Format

19

802.11 Physical Layer Spec.

20

802.11 Physical Layer Spec. (cont)

21