The impact of the security mechanisms in the throughput of the WLAN networks

Abstract

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is the fastest growing technology in the telecommunications industry. The huge increase in the use of this technology has provided great opportunities for hackers and abusers as well. Attackers are becoming more and more sophisticated, obtaining access to sensitive data, especially in wireless networks. In order to prevent unauthorized access, the security issue must be addressed appropriately and should be treated by using strong security mechanisms such as advanced encryption algorithms and efficient legalization processes, To ensure user satisfaction, a WLAN should provide not only security to the clients, but the performance as well. However, security mechanisms can often hinder network performance. In this paper we will address the impact of the security mechanisms on the throughput performance of WLAN networks. For our goal we have set up a simple WLAN network and carried out measurements while changing the security methods. We have evaluated the impact of the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), WPA (WiFi Protected Access) and WPA2 encryption methods on WLAN TCP throughput.