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802.11: Introduction. Reference: “IEEE 802.11: moving closer to practical wireless LANs”; Stallings, W. ; IT Professional, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, May-June 2001; Page(s): 17 –23 (802.11Intro-1.pdf) Chapter 4, sections 2-4, Wireless Communications and Networks , by William Stallings, Prentice Hall.
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802.11: Introduction Reference:“IEEE 802.11: moving closer to practical wireless LANs”; Stallings, W.; IT Professional, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, May-June 2001; Page(s): 17 –23 (802.11Intro-1.pdf) Chapter 4, sections 2-4, Wireless Communications and Networks, by William Stallings, Prentice Hall
802.11 Services Implemented in every 802.11 station Provided between BSS ( in an AP)
802.11 Services (cont) • Association • Before a station can transmit or receive frames on a wireless LAN, it must make its identity and address known • To do so, it establishes an association with an access point • The access point can then communicate this information to other access points, which makes it easier to route and deliver addressed frames • Disassociation • Makes it possible for either a station or an access point to notify other access points that an existing association is terminated
802.11 Services (cont) • Authentication • Stations must use an authentication service to establish their identity with other stations • IEEE 802.11 does not mandate any particular authentication scheme, which could be anything from relatively unsecure handshaking to public-key encryption • It does specify two authentication algorithms, which vendors can decide to include in their products • Open-system authentication • Shard-key authentication
802.11 Services (cont) • Distribution • The primary service used by stations to exchange MAC frames when the frame must traverse the DS (Distribution System) to get from a station in one BSS to a station in another BSS • Integration • Enables transfer of data between a station on an IEEE 802.11 LAN an a station on an integrated IEEE 802.x LAN
802.11 Services (cont) • Privacy • To ensure privacy, IEEE 802.11 provides for the optional use of encryption by specifying a scheme based on the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm • To provide both privacy and data integrity, the WEP algorithm uses an encryption scheme based on the RC4 encryption algorithm • The idea in RC4 is that two communicating parties must share a 40-bit key which encrypts and decrypts all frames • For much stronger protections, some 802.11 vendors offer optional 128-bit encryption
IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA)
IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont) • SIFS (short inter-frame space) • The shortest IFS, used for all immediate response actions • PIFS (point coordination function IFS) • A mid-length IFS, used by the centralized controller in the PCF scheme when issuing polls • DIFS (distributed coordination function IFS) • The longest IFS, used as a minimum delay for asynchronous frames contending for access
IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing (cont) • SIFS is used for • Acknowledgment (ACK) • MAC-level ACK provides for efficient collision recovery • Clear to send (CTS) • Sender sends Request to Send (RTS) frame • If receiver is ready to receive, responds with a CTS frame • All other stations defer using the medium until they see a corresponding CTS, or timeout • Poll response • For PCF