10 - Wireless LANs

10 - Wireless LANs
By Muhammad Asghar Khan

Reference: CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide By Wendell Odom
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Agenda

Differences B/W Ethernet LANs & Wireless LANs Radio Frequency Transmission Organizations that Standardize WLANs WLAN Standards Comparison WLANs Topology Building Blocks

Ad hoc Mode Infrastructure Mode Frequency Bands Frequency Encoding

www.asghars.blogspot.com
WLANs Layer 1

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Agenda

Interference Coverage CSMA/CA Algorithm
WLANs Layer 2
Implementing a WLAN Wireless LAN Security WLAN Security Standards
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Differences B/W Ethernet LANs & Wireless LANs
The big difference b/w the two is that WLANs uses radio waves to transmit data while the Ethernet LANs uses electrical signals or light WLANs must meet country-specific RF regulations Ethernet LANs uses the CSMA/CD while WLANs use the CSMA/CA (Collision Avoidance) algorithm Collision detection is not possible in WLANs, because a sending station cannot receive at the same time that it transmits and, therefore, cannot detect a collision. Instead, WLANs use the Ready To Send (RTS) and Clear To Send (CTS) protocols to avoid collisions
4 www.asghars.blogspot.com
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Differences B/W Ethernet LANs & Wireless LANs
Ethernet LANs can support full-duplex (FDX) communications if switch is used while with WLANs , if more than one device at a time sends radio waves in the same space and at same frequency, nether signal is clear so the half-duplex (HDX) mechanism must be used
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Radio Frequency Transmission

Radio frequencies range from the AM radio band to frequencies used by cell phones Radio frequencies are radiated into the air by antennas that create radio waves When radio waves are propagated through objects, they might be:

Absorbed e.g. by walls Scattered e.g. by striking with uneven surfaces Reflected e.g. by metal or glass surfaces
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Organizations that Standardize WLANs

Regulatory agencies control the use of the RF bands Regulatory agencies include the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the United States and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) for Europe The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) defines standards for specific types of WLAN i.e. 802.11 The Wi-Fi Alliance offers certification for interoperability between vendors of 802.11 products
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WLAN Standards Comparison
The IEEE introduced WLAN standards with the creation of the 1997 ratification of the 802.11 standard The original 802.11 standard has been replaced by more-advanced standards Table compares the different WLAN standards
802.11 (1997) 2.4 GHz 20 DSSS, FHSS 1, 2 802.11a (1999) 5 GHz 23 OFDM 802.11 b (1999) 2.4 GHz 11 DSSS 802.11g (2003) 2.4 GHz 11 OFDM, DSSS 802.11 n (2009) 2.4/5 GHz 20 OFDM 7.2, 14.4, 21.7, 28.9, 802.11ac (Draft; Nov-11) 5 GHz 5 OFDM -
Standard
Frequency Band No of Channels Modulation Data Rates in Mbps

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6, 9, 12, 1, 2, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 5.5, 11 18, 24, 36, www.asghars.blogspot.com 36, 48, 48, 54 54
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WLAN Standards Comparison
Table below shows the maximum range limits for different WLANs standards
802.11 (1997) 802.11a (1999) 802.11 b (1999) 802.11g (2003) 802.11 n (2009) 802.11ac (Draft; Nov-11)
Range (feet)
Indoor
Outdoor
66
330
115
390
115
460
125
460
230
820
820
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WLANs Topology Building Blocks
The standard 802.11 defines the following topologies:
Ad hoc Mode
Ado hoc is the Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) topology i.e mobile clients connect directly without an intermediate access point Ad hoc mode acts as workgroup, therefore, a drawback of peer-to-peer networks is that they are difficult to secure
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Infrastructure Mode

In infrastructure mode, clients connect through an access point There are two infrastructure modes:
Basic
Service Set (BSS) The communication devices that create a BSS are mobile clients using a single access point to connect to each other or to wired network resources The Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID) is the Layer 2 MAC address of the BSS access points radio card
AP
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Extended
Services Set (ESS)
The wireless topology is extended with two or more BSSs connected by a distribution system (DS) or a wired infrastructure An ESS generally includes a common SSID to allow roaming from access point to access point without requiring client configuration
AP 2
AP 1
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WLANs Layer 1
WLANs transmit data at L1 by sending & receiving radio waves WLAN radio waves have a repeating signal that can be graphed over time The radio wave has the following attributes:
Frequency
The number of times the waveform repeats per second, measured in hertz (Hz) Amplitude is the height of the waveform, representing signal strength
Amplitude
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WLANs Layer 1
Phase
Phase is the particular point in the repeating waveform

Phase
Graph below shows the graph of an 8KHz signal

Amplitude
The FCC or other national regulatory agencies specify some ranges of frequencies called frequency bands Frequency band is the range of consecutive frequencies
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WLANs Layer 1
Wider the range of frequencies in a frequency band, the greater the amount of information that can be sent in that frequency band Frequency Bands
Frequency bands can be categorized in:
Licensed Bands
The FCC or equivalent agencies in other countries, license some frequency bands like AM, FM radio & mobile phones
Un-Licensed Bands
Un-licensed frequencies can be used without any permission from the regulatory agency, however; devices that use these frequencies must still conform to the rules set up by the regulatory agency
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WLANs Layer 1
FCC defines three un-licensed frequency bands, table below shows these frequency bands
When WLAN NIC or AP sends data, it can modulate the radio signals frequency, amplitude & phase to encode 0 or 1
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WLANs Layer 1
Frequency Encoding
There are three general classes of encoding:
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

It uses all the frequencies in the band, hopping to different ones The original 802.11 WLAN standard used FHSS
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

It uses one of several separate channels or frequencies Designed for 2.4 GHz un-licensed band and used with 802.11b This band has bandwidth of 82 MHz with a range from 2.40 GHz to 2.483 GHz FCC divides the band into 11 different overlapping DSSS channels as shown on next slide
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WLANs Layer 1
The three shaded channels do not overlap enough, therefore; these channels (1,6, and 11) can be used in the same space for WLAN and they wont interfere with each other The significance of the non-overlapping channels is that when you design WLAN with more than one AP (ESS), APs with overlapping coverage areas should be set to use different nonoverlapping channels; as shown on next slide
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WLANs Layer 1
BSS 1 BSS 2 BSS 3
In the above design all the three BSS can send at the same time without interference with each other Each cell is running at a maximum data rate of 11 Mbps, while at a cumulative bandwidth of 33 Mbps which is called WANs capacity
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WLANs Layer 1
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

Like DSSS, WLANs that uses OFDM can use multiple non-overlapping channels Its is used by 802.11a, 802.11g & 802.11n
Interference
WLANs can suffer from interference from many sources like walls, floors or even from other radio waves in the same frequency range The Signal-to-Noise Ration (SNR) calculation measure the WLAN signal as compared to other undesired signal (noise) in the same space The higher the SNR, the better the WLAN devices can send data
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WLANs Layer 1
Coverage

WLAN coverage area is the space in which two WLAN devices can successfully send data Coverage area depends:
Frequency band used by WLAN standard Obstruction b/w & near WLAN devices Interference from other RF energy Encoding technique like DSSS and OFDM
Figure on next slide shows the concept of coverage area with varying speed for 802.11b BSS
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WLANs Layer 1
WLAN standards supports the idea of multiple speeds A device near the AP may have strong signal, so it can transmit & receive data with the AP at higher rates; while a device at the edge of the coverage area , where the signals are weak, may still be able to send & receive data but at a slower speed
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WLANs Layer 2
The following problems occurs with WLAN media access at L2
If two or more WLAN devices send at the same time, using overlapping frequency ranges, a collision occurs Also the device that is transmitting data cannot concurrently listen for received data
To avoid this problems the WLAN is to use the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) algorithm The following list summarizes the key points about CSMA/CA algorithm:
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WLANs Layer 2
1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
Listen to ensure that the medium is not busy i.e no radio waves currently are being received at the frequencies to be used Set a random wait timer before sending a frame When random timer passed, listen again to ensure that the medium is not busy, If isnt, send the frame After the entire frame is sent, wait for an acknowledgment If no acknowledgment is received, resent the frame, using the CSMA/CA logic to wait for an appropriate time to send again
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Implementing a WLAN
The following steps guide the installation of a new BSS/ESS WLAN
Step 1: Verify the existing wired network
Connect a laptop Ethernet NIC to the same Ethernet cable that will be used for the AP, if the laptop can acquire an IP, mask & other info using DHCP, and can communicate with other hosts, it is ready to accept the AP AP uses the straight-through Ethernet cable to connect to the LAN switch APs operate at L2 and dont need an IP address to perform their main functions, but for management as we used in Ethernet switch, APs should also have an IP address AP needs an IP address, subnet mask, default gateway IP address & possibly the IP address of a DNS server
Step 2: Install & Configure the APs Wired & Details

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Implementing a WLAN
The Ethernet switch ports to which the APs to be attached should be in the same VLAN The following figure shows the ESS WLAN with all APs in Ethernet VLAN2
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Implementing a WLAN
Step 3: Configure APs Details
APs can be configured with variety of parameters like:

IEEE Standard; e.g. a, b, g or multiple Wireless Channels; e.g. 1, 6, and 11 Transmit Power Service Set Identifier (SSID); 32-bit character for WLAN which allows for roaming b/w APs, but inside the same WLAN
Step 4: Install & Configure One Wireless Client
The clients WLAN NIC tries to discover all APs by listening on all frequency channels for the WLAN standard it supports and select the AP from which the client receives the strongest signal
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Implementing a WLAN
With Microsoft OS, the WLAN NIC the Zero Configuration Utility (ZCF) allows PCs to automatically discover the SSIDs of all WLANs Also some WLAN NIC manufactures provide software that can control WLAN NIC instead of OS
Step 5: verify WLAN Works from the Client
If it does not work, perform the site survey as:

Is the AP at the center of the area? Is the AP or client right next to a lot of metal? Is the AP or client area source of interference e.g. oven etc
It can be done with laptop, using WLAN NICs tools (most WLAN NIC software shows signal strength & quality), walk around while looking at signal quality measurement
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Implementing a WLAN
Beside site survey you may also want to check the following:
Check to make sure that the NIC & APs radio waves are enabled Check the AP to make sure that it has latest firmware Check AP configuration, particularly the channel configuration to ensure that it does not use a overlapping channel
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Wireless LAN Security
WLANs introduce a number of vulnerabilities that don not exist for wired Ethernet LANs Following are the several categories of threats:
War Drivers

This type of attacker often just wants to gain Internet access for free The attacker drives around, trying to find APs that have no security or weak security The motivation for hackers is to either find information or deny services The end goal of hacker is to enter the wired network using the wireless network without having to go through Internet connections that have firewalls
Hackers

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Employees
Employees can help hackers gain access to the Enterprise network The attacker captures the packets in WLAN, finding SSID & cracking security keys (if they are used) Then the attacker can set up her own AP, with the same setting and get the Enterprises clients to use it
Rogue AP

To reduce the risk off such attacks, three main types of tools can be used:
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Manual Authentication b/w the Client & AP

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Encryption; uses a secret key & a mathematical formula to scramble the contents of the WLAN frame Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and WLAN-specific tools like Ciscos Structured Wireless-Aware Network (SWAN)
Table lists key vulnerabilities along with the solution
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WLAN Security Standards
Table lists the four major WLAN security standards
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

WEP provided weak authentication & encryption The main problems with WEP were as:
Static Pre-Shared Keys (PSK) 64-Bits keys that can be easily cracked
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WEP should not be used today
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Due to these problems, many vendors included a couple of features that are not part of WEP
SSID Cloaking
An AP feature that tells the AP to stop sending periodic Beacon frames Beacon frames lists the APs SSID & other configuration information
MAC Filtering
AP can be configured with a list of allowed WLAN MAC addresses
Cisco Interim Solution b/w WEP & 802.11i Because of the problems with WEP, vendors such as Cisco, and the Wi-Fi Alliance industry association, looked to solve the problem with their own standards
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The main features of Cisco enhancements included the following:
Dynamic key exchange (instead of static pre-shared keys) User authentication using 802.1x; instead of authenticating the device by checking to see if the device knows a correct key, the user must supply a username and password A new encryption key for each packet
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
After Cisco integrated its proprietary WLAN security standards into Cisco APs, the Wi-Fi Alliance created a multivendor WLAN security standard WPA
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WPA essentially performed the same functions as the Cisco proprietary interim solution, but with different details:

Use dynamic key exchange, using the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) Use of either IEEE 802.1X user authentication or simple device authentication using pre-shared keys
IEEE 802.11i (WPA-2)

IEEE ratified the 802.11i standard in 2005 Like Cisco-proprietary solution & the Wi-Fi Alliances WPA 802.11i uses:

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Dynamic key exchange Stronger encryption User Authentication
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However; the details are different and 802.11i is not backward compatible It uses the Advance Encryption Standard (AES) Wi-Fi Alliance calls 802.11i WPA2, meaning second version of WPA Table summarizes the key features of various WLAN security standards
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10 - Wireless LANs

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10 - Wireless LANs

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10 - Wireless LANs

By Muhammad Asghar Khan

Ad hoc Mode Infrastructure Mode Frequency Bands Frequency Encoding

Interference Coverage CSMA/CA Algorithm

Implementing a WLAN Wireless LAN Security WLAN Security Standards

Differences B/W Ethernet LANs & Wireless LANs

Differences B/W Ethernet LANs & Wireless LANs

Radio Frequency Transmission

Organizations that Standardize WLANs

WLAN Standards Comparison

Frequency Band No of Channels Modulation Data Rates in Mbps

WLAN Standards Comparison

WLANs Topology Building Blocks

The standard 802.11 defines the following topologies:

WLANs Topology Building Blocks

WLANs Topology Building Blocks

Services Set (ESS)

Phase is the particular point in the repeating waveform

Graph below shows the graph of an 8KHz signal

Frequency bands can be categorized in:

There are three general classes of encoding:

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

The following problems occurs with WLAN media access at L2

The following steps guide the installation of a new BSS/ESS WLAN

Step 1: Verify the existing wired network

Step 2: Install & Configure the APs Wired & Details

Step 3: Configure APs Details

APs can be configured with variety of parameters like:

Step 4: Install & Configure One Wireless Client

Step 5: verify WLAN Works from the Client

If it does not work, perform the site survey as:

Wireless LAN Security

Wireless LAN Security

Manual Authentication b/w the Client & AP

Wireless LAN Security

Table lists key vulnerabilities along with the solution

WLAN Security Standards

Table lists the four major WLAN security standards

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

WEP should not be used today

WLAN Security Standards

AP can be configured with a list of allowed WLAN MAC addresses

WLAN Security Standards

The main features of Cisco enhancements included the following:

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

WLAN Security Standards

IEEE 802.11i (WPA-2)

Dynamic key exchange Stronger encryption User Authentication

WLAN Security Standards

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