Northeastern Illinois University

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WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK
(WLAN)

• Northeastern Illinois University

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Authors

• Salwa Abdelrahim
• Samia Nur Eldayim
• Supervisor Prof. Cafatori

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Introduction

• Who are we ?
• What is the project about?
• Presentation highlights.

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Wireless Networking

• What is Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)?

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Differences between WLANs and LANs

• Privacy issues.
• Connectivity issues.
• Mobility.
• National regulatory requirements.

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Similarities between LAN and WLAN

• Same Ethernet standard.
• Share common network Protocols.

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Why Wireless?

• Mobility
• Flexibility
• Ease and Speed of Deployment
• Cost Saving
• Scalability

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Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Standards

• IEEE 802.11 Standard.
• What Exactly Does 802.11 Define?
• IEEE WLAN Standards.
• Decision on Which WLAN Hardware is Best.
• Update on New Standards.

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802.11 a/b/g
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Security options

• MAC filtering
• Disabled clients
• Local authentication
• Radius authentication
• Access control list

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Security strategy

• open Authentication
• pre- shared key authentication (WEP)
• web authentication
• public key infrastructure (PKI)
• 802.1X
• WI-FI protected access authentication
• WPA
• WPA2 (802.11i)

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WEP vs WPA

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WPA vs WPA2
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Open Area Vs Closed area.

• 802.11 signal range in a free space incur
  minimum or no loss e.g. a warehouse.
• Caution is needed when there are some
  obstructions in the area e.g. campus buildings.
• Loss of 3 db means half of the transmission has
  been lost.

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Obstruction loss of 3.0 DB or more
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WLAN Setup steps

• Define Requirements.
• Design.
• Perform site survey.
• Deployment.
• Improve the network based site survey results.
• Periodic site survey.

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Deployment
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Site Survey

• Preliminary plan.
• System requirements.
• Analysis features
• - Access point location.
• - Signal strength.
• - Strongest Access point.
• - SNR.
• - Interference.
• - Transmission Speed.
• - Signals at channels.
• - Access point placement tips.
• - Access point count.

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Received signal strength intensity
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Campus Project

• Available Technologies in the market e.g. Cisco,
  Alcatel, Aruba, etc.
• Why did we choose Alcatel Technologies.
• Components Required
• -Existing network infrastructure.
• DHCP, AAA,DNS,VPN.
• -Clients (PC, PDA, Handset, etc).
• -Access points.
• - WLAN switches.

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Access points (AP) mounting considerations

• Mount AP standing or hanging either straight up
  or down and above obstructions.
• Consider the antenna gain when mounting for
  proper radio orientation.
• Mount AP in the same location as clients.

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Continue AP mounting

• Position AP in the center of covered area.
• Do not position the AP more than 140 feet apart
  or higher than 16 feet.
• Do not mount the AP within 3 feet of any metal
  obstruction e.g. metal ducts, electric conduit,
  water pipes, elevator shafts and metal walls.

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AP Approach to contain Vulnerability and
unauthorized access

• Avoid placing AP against exterior walls or
  windows to avoid leak.
• Reduce the broadcast strength of AP to keep
  within the area of coverage and avoid parking lot
  coverage.
• Change the default SSID and allow APs to
  broadcast their SSID.
• Change default management password on APs.

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Steps and tools for WPA and WPA2 Deployment

• Security mechanism and credentials.
• User authentication database.
• Client operating system.
• Supplicants.
• EAP types.
• Authentication server.
• Access points and clients NIC card.

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Switch administration

• Switch features.
• Switch configuration management.
• Using CLI.
• Using switch web interface.

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Monitor Menu
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Wlan Menu

• New SSID being created

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Conclusion

• Designing a wireless network is not an
  easy task. Many wireless attributes should be
  considered throughout the design process
• Following the steps needed to setup a wireless
  local area network.
• Making the right decision in choosing the
  appropriate hardware and software which are
  suitable to the coverage area.

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Cont,

• As wireless regulations continually change it is
  important to reference the activities of the
  regularity committees before designing WLAN,
  nationally this include the Federal
  Communications Commission (FCC) and National
  Telecommunications and Information Administration
  (NTIA).

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Cont,

• WPA enhances data protection and access control
  on existing and future WI-FI wlan.
• WPA2 provides improved encryption with AES and a
  high level of assurance.
• WPA2 able to meet government and enterprise
  security requirements.

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Recommendations

• Alcatel with POE.
• Deploy Wlan in NEIU using WPA and WPA2.
• Periodic site survey.
• Documentations for deployment and trouble
  shouting.
• Implement the complete site survey
  recommendations for AP count.

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References

• Alcatel internetworking,Inc. Omni Access
  4000/4100 introduction, installation,
  administration and maintenance Student guide
  2.0.2
• Arunesh Mishra, William A.Arbaugh, An initial
  security Analysis of the IEEE802.1x standard, 6
  Feb 2002
• Jeffrey Wheat, Designing a wireless network
  Mattbews.Gast,802.11 wireless network
• www.cisco.com, wi fi protected access,WPA2 and
  IEEE 802.11i
• www.wi-fi.org, Deploying wi fi protected access
  (WPA) and (WPA2) IN THE Enterprise, March
  2005
• www.wi-fi.org, Enterprise solutions for wireless
  LAN security , wi-fi Alliance Feb 6 2003
• www.wi-fi.org , wi-fi protected access, strong
  standards-based, interoperable security for today
  wi-fi networks , wi-fi Alliance April 29,2003
• 15 www.wi-fi.org/open section/secure.asp TID 2
  wi-fi security

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Questions?