A Nevo Networks 1-day

workshop
on
Wireless Network
Technologies and Everyday
Deployment
 Outline
1) Explanation of wireless 2) Everyday uses of wireless
Networks networks
❖ What’s wireless ? ❖ File sharing on a wireless
network (Infrastructure/Ad-hoc)
❖ Why wireless ? ❖ Extending a LAN (point-to-point
❖ Wireless standards links)
❖ Wireless Network Modes ❖ Inter-device communications
(VoIP)
✓ Infrastructure mode
❖ Wireless Internet connection
✓ Ad-hoc mode sharing
❖ Wireless Network Properties
✓ Service set Identifier (SSID)
✓ Channel
▪ Wireless Network Interference
✓ Wireless Security
o Authentication
o Hiding SSID
o MAC address filtering
o Wireless Client Isolation
❖ Point-to-point Networks
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 What is Wireless ?
• Transfer of Information, energy or
power between two or more points
that are not connected by an
electrical conductor

• It may be short range or long range

communications
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 Why Wireless ?
• Mobility

• Convenience

• Can be used in remote areas

• Can be used on very small

medical equipment

• Wireless networks are cheaper

to install and maintain
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 Wireless Standards
Standards Frequency Speed Distance Comment
(GHz) (Mbps) covered

802.11a 5.0 54 10-15m Interference

radius with microwaves

802.11b 2.4 11 10-15m No interference

radius

802.11g 2.4 54 up to 30m No interference

radius
802.11n 5.0 54 (mixed mode) up to 300m No interference
2.4 300 (n-only mode) radius

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 Wireless Network Modes
1) Infrastructure mode:

A device (access point) distributes wireless signals and other wireless

clients connect to it. The access point forms the central hub of the
wireless communications. Once the access point is removed, the
wireless network goes down.
AP

client
client

client
client

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2) Ad-hoc mode:
There’s no central hub. Each device creates wireless
connection to every other device. A wireless client must
initiate the first connection with its parameters and
other clients associate their wireless connection with
the same parameters

client

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 Wireless Network Properties
1)Service Set Identifier: The name of the
wireless network

2)Channel: The frequency of transmission or

frequency-band of wireless signal transmission

Each of the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz band is divided into multiple

frequency ranges for the purpose of preventing
interference between wireless access points

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 The 2.4Ghz Band
Channel gap

20 MHz channel width

The 2.4Ghz band is divided into different channels

Each channel has a range (Upper and lower frequencies) and a center frequency that
identifies it

The upper and lower frequencies for each band are known as sideband frequencies
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Wireless Interference

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• Co-channel interference: Devices
take turns talking. The more devices on
one channel, the longer it takes for a
device to talk since it has to wait for its
turn. It isn’t a major problem until there
are many Wi-Fi devices on the same co-channel
channel congestion

• Adjacent-channel interference on
the other hand is where you run into
problems and channel selection
becomes critical. Luckily, these channel-
related interferences can be reduced or
eliminated by selecting the proper Wi-Fi adjacent channel
channel for your network congestion
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 Using a spectrum
analyzer will allow you to
see your wireless
environment, so you can
either select the right
channel or mitigate WiFi
interference

Fig: Wi-Fi signals as seen by a spectrum analyzer

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Overlapping and non-overlapping
channels

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• The channels used for Wi-Fi overlap with
themselves and it can be seen that it is possible to
find a maximum of three non-overlapping channels.
There are five combinations of available non-
overlapping channels in the 2.4GHz band

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• It can be seen that the Wi-Fi channels 1,6,11
or 2,7,12 or 3,8,13 or 4,9,14 (if allowed) or
5,10 can be used together as sets. Often Wi-
Fi routers are set to channel 6 as the
default, and therefore, the set of channels
1,6 and 11 is possibly the most widely used

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3)Wireless Security
The emergence of 802.11 technologies has
introduced new security concerns, due to the
open-air nature of wireless transmissions. Such
transmissions are easily intercepted, which
necessitates mechanisms to not only
authenticate wireless clients, but also to secure
data transfer (using encryption) and to ensure
data integrity.

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Authentication: This means verifying that
someone is who he says he is

Open Authentication: No authentication

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy ): uses a key

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access): uses a key

WPA 2: uses a key

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Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
Developed as part of the original 802.11 standard. WEP utilizes the
RC4 stream cipher for encryption, which combines a key with a
randomly-generated 24-bit initialization vector (IV) to provide
confidentiality

WEP comes in two common forms:

• 64-bit WEP – employs a 40-bit key with a 24-bit IV
• 128-bit WEP – employs a 104-bit key with a 24-bit IV

WEP is no longer considered a viable security mechanism as it was

developed without academic, public, nor cryptologists review. It has
significant vulnerabilities and design flaws and can easily be broken
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A middleman sniffing air waves can easily decrypt the
key after a while
Property of Nevo Networks Limited 19
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
❖ Developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to address the shortcomings
of WEP

❖ WPA has also been replaced by the newer WPA-2 standard.

WPA-2 includes support for advanced encryption

❖ WPA-2 is the strongest security protocol based on Advanced

Encryption Standard (AES), the U.S. Government’s preferred
choice of encryption. WPA 2 standard may be the default on
some smartphones

❖ It is advised to always use WPA-2 standard with a strong key

that is at least 8 characters in length, using a mixture of
numbers, letters and other symbols
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 Hiding SSID
➢ The SSID is the name of the wireless network

➢ A wireless network has an SSID to distinguish

it from other wireless networks in the vicinity

➢ SSID hiding prevents the network name from

being broadcast, so that clients attempting to
connect must know the network name and
input it manually

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 MAC Address Filtering
• On a typical wireless network, any client can join a Wi-
Fi network if they know the network name (SSID) and
the password

• MAC address filtering adds an extra step, allowing you

to define a list of devices that should be allowed to join
the network

• The 48-bit MAC addresses hard-coded into network

adapters on computers, mobile phones and other
devices is used to permit or deny access to specific
devices through the use of whitelists or blacklists

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 Wireless Client Isolation
• Wireless client isolation is a technique, which
when enabled prevents a wireless client from
communicating with another wireless client
through the access point

• Also known as AP isolation, station isolation,

or client isolation, this feature is ideal for
businesses with public Wi-Fi networks

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 Point-to-point Networks
• A point-to-point wireless network enables users wirelessly
connect two or more locations together

• Users in these remote locations may then share an Internet

connection or share files and other types of data across the
network

• One access points is set in “Access point mode” and the other in
“Station mode”

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Fig: Point-to-point

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Fig: Point-to-multipoint

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 Everyday Uses of Wireless
Networks
✓ Share your files over wireless

✓ Extend your network using point-to-point

wireless links

✓ Do more with Voice over IP – Make calls over a

wireless network

✓ Share your Internet connection with others over

wireless
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