Fundamentals of Mobile and Pervasive Computing

Chapter 15Security in Wireless Local Area Networks

This chapter presents the security techniques used in local area networks, specifically the IEEE 802.11 standard (IEEE, 1999). After an introduction to the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) standard, we discuss its security mechanisms and focus on the flawed wired-equivalent privacy (WEP), covering its intentions and shortcomings, as well as the ways to get the best protection given limited coverage; WiFi Protected Access (WPA), an interim protocol to fix the shortcomings of WEP; and 802.11i, the IEEE standard to provide strong encryption, key management, and support for authentication. We conclude by discussing virtual private networks (VPNs) and firewall protections in the context ...