Wireless Security Architecture

CHAPTER 5Planning and Design for Secure Wireless

Chapter 1, “Introduction to Concepts and Relationships,” offered an introduction to the foundational concepts and relationships of the security and wireless networking realms. Chapters 2 through 4 included deep technical dives in the disciplines of segmentation, wireless security profiles and standards, authentication, authorization, and the domain services impacting wireless security.

This chapter begins our journey into Part II, “Putting It All Together,” in which knowledge from the prior chapters comes together in actionable guidance.

Instead of following a model of traditional design methodology, this chapter walks through my own methodology—including the planning processes, documentation templates, and decision trees I've used to help hundreds of clients architect secure wireless.

What I've noticed over the years is that most networking professionals within an organization tend to wing it when it comes to planning, often bypassing any formal scoping and documentation and skipping to configuring products. However, I think it's fair to say these teams have enjoyed the process and benefited from the more structured planning that accompanies having a third party involved in the design architecture.

It's natural to feel so familiar with an environment that you dismiss any formal planning, but even a slightly structured model with some basic documentation is extremely helpful in tasks of planning, communicating, monitoring, and ...