Chapter 7 - Security

Abstract

This chapter focuses at Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), why it fails, and what is being done to close these loopholes. It is interesting to compare the security architecture in 802.11 with the security architecture in Traditional Wireless Networks (TWNs). 802.11 relies on preshared keys between the mobile nodes/stations and the access points (APs). WEP uses a preestablished/preshared set of keys and is used to encrypt an 802.11 Media-access control Protocol Data Unit (MPDU). To ensure that a packet has not been modified in transit, 802.11 uses an integrity check value (ICV) field in the packet. The security proposal uses the advanced encryption standard (AES) in its default mode. Just like key establishment and key hierarchy, Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) had also adopted the authentication architecture specified in 802.11i completely. The 802.11i protocol fixes many of the loopholes that were discovered in the base 802.11 security protocol. Most applications will probably end up using Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) or transport layer security (TLS)/secure sockets layer (SSL) for ensuring secure signaling and will use Secure Real-time Transport protocol (SRTP) for a secure Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream in voice communication.