Wireless LAN

Presented By : Pooja Maheshwari

Guided By : Dr Jerry Gao

 LAN/WLAN World
LANs provide connectivity for
interconnecting computing resources
at the local levels of an organization
Wired LANs
Limitations because of physical,
hard-wired infrastructure
Wireless LANs provide
Flexibility
Portability
Mobility
Ease of Installation
Wireless LAN Applications
Medical Professionals
Education
Temporary Situations
Airlines
Security Staff
Emergency Centers
 IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN
Standard
In response to lacking standards, IEEE
developed the first internationally
recognized wireless LAN standard
IEEE 802.11
IEEE published 802.11 in 1997, after
seven years of work
Most prominent specification for WLANs
Scope of IEEE 802.11 is limited to
Physical and Data Link Layers.
Benefits of 802.11 Standard
Appliance Interoperability
Fast Product Development
Stable Future Migration
Price Reductions
The 802.11 standard takes into account
the following significant differences
between wireless and wired LANs:
Power Management
Security
Bandwidth
 IEEE 802 LAN Standards
Family

IEEE 802.2 OSI Layer 2

(Data Link)
Logical Link Control (LLC)

IEEE 802.4 Mac

IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.5 IEEE 802.11
Token
Carrier Token Wireless
Bus
Sense Ring PHY
OSI Layer 1
(Physical)
 IEEE 802.11 Terminology
Access point (AP): A station that provides
access to the DS.
Basic service set (BSS): A set of stations
controlled by a single AP.
Distribution system (DS): A system used to
interconnect a set of BSSs to create an
ESS.
DS is implementation-independent. It can be a
wired 802.3 Ethernet LAN, 802.4 token bus,
802.5 token ring or another 802.11 medium.
Extended service set (ESS):Two or more
BSS interconnected by DS
Portal: Logical entity where 802.11 network
integrates with a non 802.11 network.
WLAN Topology
Ad-Hoc Network
WLAN Topology
Infrastructure
 IEEE 802.11 Services:
Distribution of Messages
Distribution service (DS)
Used to exchange MAC frames from
station in one BSS to station in another
BSS
Integration service
Transfer of data between station on
IEEE 802.11 LAN and station on
integrated IEEE 802.x LAN
 Association Related Services
Association
Establishes initial association between
station and AP
Re-association
Enables transfer of association from one
AP to another, allowing station to move
from one BSS to another
Disassociation
Association termination notice from
station or AP
Re-Association
 Access and Privacy Services
Authentication
Establishes identity of stations to each
other
De-authentication
Invoked when existing authentication is
terminated
Privacy
Prevents message contents from being
read by unintended recipient
 IEEE 802.11 Medium
Access Control
MAC layer covers three functional
areas:
Reliable data delivery
Access control
Security
 Reliable Data Delivery
Loss of frames due to noise, interference, and
propagation effects
Frame exchange protocol
Source station transmits data
Destination responds with acknowledgment (ACK)
If source doesnt receive ACK, it retransmits
frame
Four frame exchange for enhanced reliability
Source issues request to send (RTS)
Destination responds with clear to send (CTS)
Source transmits data
Destination responds with ACK
 Access Control
Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
Distributed access protocol
Contention-Based
Makes use of CSMA/CA rather than CSMA/CD
Suited for ad hoc network and ordinary
asynchronous traffic
Point Coordination Function (PCF)
Alternative access method on top of DCF
Centralized access protocol
Contention-Free
Works like polling
Suited for time bound services like voice or
multimedia
 CSMA/CD vs. CSMA/CA
CSMA/CD CSMA/Collision detection
For wire communication
No control BEFORE transmission

Generates collisions

Collision Detection-How?

CSMA/CA CSMA/Collision Avoidance

For wireless communication
Collision avoidance BEFORE transmission

Why avoidance on wireless?

Difference in energy/power for transmit & receive

Difficult to distinguish between incoming weak

signals, noise, and effects of own transmission
 Interframe Space (IFS)
Defined length of time for control
SIFS - Short Inter Frame Spacing
Used for immediate response actions e.g ACK, CTS
PIFS - Point Inter Frame Spacing
Used by centralized controller in PCF scheme
DIFS - Distributed Inter Frame Spacing
Used for all ordinary asynchronous traffic

DIFS (MAX) > PIFS > SIFS (MIN)

 RTS-CTS-DATA-ACK

DIFS: Distributed IFS

RTS: Request To Send
SIFS: Short IFS
CTS: Clear To Send
ACK: Acknowledgement
NAV: Network Allocation Vector
DCF: Distributed Coordination Function
 MAC Frame Format

2 2 6 6 6 2 6 0-2312 4

Frame Duration Addr 1 Sequence Addr 4 Frame

Addr 2 Addr 3 CRC
Control ID Control Body

802.11 MAC Header

Bits: 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Protocol To From More Pwr More

Type SubType Retry WEP Order
Version DS DS Frag Mgt Data

Frame Control Field

 MAC Layer Frames
Data Frames
Control Frames
RTS,CTS,ACK and PS-POLL
Management Frames
Authentication and De-Authentication
Association, Re-Association, and
Disassociation
Beacon and Probe frames
 IEEE 802.11 Security
Authentication provided by
open system or shared key
authentication (Authentication
is used instead of wired media
physical connection)
Privacy provided by WEP
(Privacy is used to provide the
confidential aspects of closed
wired media)
An Integrity check is
performed using a 32-bit CRC
Authentication
WEP Encryption/Decryption
 Is WLAN Secure ?
The Parking
Lot attack
Man in the
middle attack
Freely
available tools
like Air Snort,
WEP crack to
snoop into a
WLAN
 Physical Media Defined by
Original 802.11 Standard
Frequency-hopping spread spectrum
Operating in 2.4 GHz ISM band
Lower cost, power consumption
Most tolerant to signal interference
Direct-sequence spread spectrum
Operating in 2.4 GHz ISM band
Supports higher data rates
More range than FH or IR physical layers
Infrared
Lowest cost
Lowest range compared to spread spectrum
Doesnt penetrate walls, so no eavesdropping
 Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum
Signal is broadcast over seemingly random
series of radio frequencies
Signal hops from frequency to frequency at
fixed intervals
Receiver, hopping between frequencies in
synchronization with transmitter, picks up
message
Advantages
Efficient utilization of available bandwidth
Eavesdropper hear only unintelligible blips
Attempts to jam signal on one frequency succeed
only at knocking out a few bits
 Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum
Each bit in original signal is represented
by multiple bits in the transmitted signal
Spreading code spreads signal across a
wider frequency band
DSSS is the only physical layer
specified for the 802.11b specification
802.11a and 802.11b differ in use of
chipping method
802.11a uses 11-bit barker chip
802.11b uses 8-bit complimentary code
keying (CCK) algorithm
 IEEE 802.11a and IEEE
802.11b
IEEE 802.11a
Makes use of 5-GHz band
Provides rates of 6, 9 , 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps
Uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM)
IEEE 802.11b
802.11b operates in 2.4 GHz band
Provides data rates of 5.5 and 11 Mbps
Complementary code keying (CCK) modulation
scheme
For more information:
http://home.no.net/coverage/rapport/80211.htm
 Other Standards
Japan has introduced Millimeter Wave
Wireless LAN (MWWL).
Europe has introduced HIPERLAN (High
Performance Radio Local Area Network)
Features,capabilities, and technology similar
to those of IEEE 802.11 used in US
Developed by ETSI (European
Telecommunications standards institute)
Provides high speed communications
(20Mbps)
Has technical advantages such as inclusion
of Quality of Service
HIPERLAN-reference model
Application Layer

Presentation Layer
higher layer protocols
Session Layer

Transport Layer Medium Access Control

(MAC) Sublayer
Network Layer
Channel Access Control
(CAC) Sublayer
Data Link Layer

Physical Layer Physical (PHY) Layer

OSI HIPERLAN
Reference Model Reference Model

For more information: http://www.hiperlan.uk.com/

http://www.netplan.dk/hip.htm
 Future of WLAN
WLANs move to maturity
Higher Speeds
Improved Security
Seamless end-to-end protocols
Better Error control
Long distances
New vendors
Better interoperability
Global networking

Anywhere, anytime,any-form connectivity

 References
Geier, Jim (1999). Wireless LANs.
Macmillan Technical Publishing.
Held, Gil (2001). Data over Wireless
Networks. McGraw Hill.
Stallings, William (2001). Wireless
Communications and Networks.
Prentice Hall.
http://www.wlana.org/

http://www.intel.com/network/connect
ivity/resources/doc_library/document
s/pdf/np1692-01.pdf