Security Basics mailing list archives
Re: Wireless N
From: Paul Cychosz <pacychosz () wisc edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:07:25 +0000 (GMT)
Hi, 802.11n has no security enhancements. It is purely high-throughput enhancements (theoretical speeds of around 600mbps in it's best mode). Right now you can probably buy pre-n devices but it isn't worth it. There are 2 main proposals, TGn Sync, and WWiSE... but now they're combining them into a Joint Group proposal (that will be probably heavily sided towards TGn Sync since it got 74% of the last vote... 1% more and it would have been chosen outright) that should be finished some time very soon. Basically, there are enhancements to the MAC and PHY layer. The mac layer implements some 802.11e stuff (QoS, block ACKs, etc.) and aggregates several MSDU/MPDU (mac-layer frames) together so it can send it out all at once, eliminating contention for the wireless channel between frames. There are some other things in the MAC layer, but the general idea is that it removes overhead, allows multiple recipients, header compression, 1 ACK for many frames, not having to wait a DIFS be tween frame transfers, etc. The physical layer then uses MIMO (multiple antennas) to achieve higher bandwidth. Instead of using the traditional 20mhz per channel, they'll have a mode that uses 40mhz of it. I don't know what this means for japan since there are laws against using more than 20mhz at a time (or i think it's 18mhz actually). Additionally, the phy-layer does something called OFDM, something that 802.11a does already. Basically, it just splits up a radio signal into many narrowbands and them recombines them at the source. This coupled with aggressive FECs tries to defeat noise in the environment. see: www.tgnsync.org, www.wwise.org, and www.802wirelessworld.com also, just look up the acronyms on wikipedia if you're interested. paul ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Alford <stephena () sbspros net> Date: Monday, November 21, 2005 7:20 pm Subject: Wireless N To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Good day List members, I have a general query on whether the deployment of Wireless N (vs. b/g) has any add'l security issues and/or is worth the extra expense of the hardware.If anybody has experience with the new Wireless standard, please could you post your feedback. Thanks in advance for your input. Stephen Alford, MCT, MCSE+Security, CCNA, CCDA, ASE Director, Partner Practices & Solutions, SBS Pros Email: stephena () sbspros net
Current thread:
- Outgoing IPSEC Securi Net (Nov 21)
- Wireless N Stephen Alford (Nov 21)
- Re: Wireless N Paul Cychosz (Nov 22)
- RE: Wireless N Stephen Alford (Nov 22)
- Re: Wireless N Paul Cychosz (Nov 22)
- Re: Outgoing IPSEC Jason Thompson (Nov 22)
- Re: Outgoing IPSEC Securi Net (Nov 22)
- Re: Outgoing IPSEC Jason Thompson (Nov 22)
- Re: Outgoing IPSEC Securi Net (Nov 22)
- Re: Outgoing IPSEC Securi Net (Nov 22)
- Wireless N Stephen Alford (Nov 21)
- Re: Outgoing IPSEC Gaddis, Jeremy L. (Nov 22)