1OX22MC021 WIFI TECHNOLOGY

1.ABSTRACT

Wi-Fi is a Wireless technology that uses the radio frequency to transmit data through
air. With the rise of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) , technology comes the rise of the
hotspot -public access Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) that allow anyone
with a Wi-Fi capable notebook or PDA to connect to the Internet or a corporate
intranet in airports, hotels, coffee shops, or even campgrounds and fast food
restaurants.

This paper contributes an alternative billing architecture using virtual prepaid tokens
(VPTs) and experimentally evaluates its performance. Users buy VPTs at the point
and time of access, using a third-party online payment server. Therefore, such an
account is more flexible than is a conventional pay-per-use account, which can be
used only to purchase access from a specific provider or set of providers.

I have made this report file on the topic Wi-Fi Technology; I have tried my best to
elucidate all the relevant detail to the topic to be included in the report. While in the
beginning I have tried to give a general view about this topic. My efforts and
wholehearted co-corporation of each and everyone has ended on a successful note. I
express my sincere gratitude to …………..who assisting me throughout the
preparation of this topic. I thank him for providing me the reinforcement, confidence
and most importantly the track for the topic whenever I needed it

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2.INTRODUCTION
Wi-Fi is a Wireless technology that uses the radio frequency to transmit data
through air. With the rise of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) , technology comes the rise of
the hotspot -public access Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) that allow
anyone with a Wi-Fi capable notebook or PDA to connect to the Internet or a
corporate intranet in airports, hotels, coffee shops, or even campgrounds and fast
food restaurants.

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History

The concept of Wi-Fi is very old but its implementation is not so old. At first  ALOHA
System is a wireless network system that is used to connect Hawaii island via a network in
the year 1971. Where the protocol is used for this was ALOHA protocol and the network
used packet transfer. Later it’s converted to IEEE 802.11 protocol. 
Then in 1985, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a new network for
general uses which works on 900 Mhz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz bandwidth. This is known as
the ISM band. Also, IBM introduced a Token Ring LAN network for connecting several
computers, it can transfer data at 4 Mb/s speed. Then in 1988, a wireless cashier system was
invented based on the Token Ring LAN network known as waveLAN, it operates at
900MHz or 2.4 GHz band and offers speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps. Then it was converted to  IEEE
802.11LAN/MAN standards in 1989. ?Then in 1990, IEEE 802.11 Working Group for
Wireless LANs is established by Vic Hayes, who was known as the “Father of WiFi”. 
Then in 1994, Dr. Alex Hills introduced a research project on the wireless network, which
provided coverage of the network to 7 buildings wirelessly. 
Then in 1996 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
(CSIRO) introduced a wireless network based on the same protocol 802.11, later it was
known as IEEE 802.11a standards. 
Then after all this in 1997 the first version of Wi-Fi is released officially which is 802.11
and it can support a maximum of 2 Mb/s link speed. Then in 1999, the link speed is
increased to 11 Mb/s over the 2.4 GHz frequency band, this version is known as  802.11b 
Then after a month, the IEEE 802.11a standard is approved officially, which provides up to
54 Mb/s link speed over the 5 GHz band, but the signal range is weaker than the 2.4 GHz
band.  
After this two more versions were introduced that are, 802.11i and 802.11e. In 802.11i, the
security mechanism was increased and in 802.11e, Voice over Wireless LAN and
multimedia streaming are involved. 

Then in 2009, 802.11n is developed, which supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
radiofrequency. And these are used simultaneously by dual-band routers and can reach
maximum speeds of 600 Mbps. 

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Fig1: A typical Hot spot Architecture integrated with WPA security.

Even though subscriptions provide a steady revenue stream and the

convenience of a fixed price and single monthly payment to the user, Users may be
concerned about provider reliability. Instead of a subscription, users may set up a
pay-peruse account with a provider. Payper-use accounts typically draw funds
automatically from one of the user’s bank or credit card accounts, when the user
gains access. Pay-per-use accounts can be less wasteful than subscriptions to
sporadic users. Moreover, a user may occasionally need access in places that are not
served (directly or by agreement) by any of the providers that serve areas more
frequently visited by the user. In the latter cases, users may prefer prepaid tokens
(PPTs). PPTs contain an id and password that are typically revealed by scratching a
card and are activated after first use for a limited time. A user does not need to set up
any account to buy such a token; payment may be, e.g., by cash or credit card.
Prepaid tokens offer little risk to users. In many cases (e.g., at an airport), vendor
location may be inconvenient or not obvious. Moreover, a vendor location may be
closed when a token is needed.

Experiments show that users arriving at a hotspot can buy a VPT and gain full
Internet connectivity in less than 15 seconds, i.e. much less time than it would take to
buy and activate a physical token. VPTs can be used in hotspots that employ a
captive portal or 802.1x to authenticate users. Most current hotspots use a captive
portal, but 802.1x enables much better security. In particular, 802.1x enables mutual
authentication between user and hotspot and encryption keys at the link layer.

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3.Wi-Fi Security Techniques

• Service Set Identifier (SSID)

• Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
• 802.1X Access Control
• Wireless Protected Access (WPA)
• IEEE 802.11i

3.1 Service Set Identifier (SSID)

• SSID is used to identify an 802.11 network

• It can be pre-configured or advertised in beacon broadcast
• It is transmitted in clear text
• Provide very little security

3.2 Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

• Original security solution offered by the IEEE 802.11 standard

• Uses RC4 encryption with pre-shared keys and 24 bit initialization
vectors (IV)
• key schedule is generated by concatenating the shared secret key with a
random generated 24-bit IV

• 32 bit ICV (Integrity check value)

• No. of bits in keyschedule is equal to sum of length of the plaintext and
ICV
• 64 bit preshared key-WEP
• 128 bit preshared key-WEP2
• Encrypt data only between 802.11 stations.once it enters the wired side of
the network (between access point) WEP is no longer valid

3.3 802.1X Access Control

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• Designed as a general purpose network access control mechanism

• Not Wi-Fi specific
• Authenticate each client connected to AP (for WLAN) or switch port
(for Ethernet)
• Authentication is done with the RADIUS server, which ”tells” the
access point whether access to controlled ports should be allowed or
not
• AP forces the user into an unauthorized state
• user send an EAP start message
• AP return an EAP message requesting the user’s identity
• Identity send by user is then forwarded to the authentication server by
AP
• Authentication server authenticate user and return an accept or reject
message back to the AP
• If accept message is return, the AP changes the client’s state to
authorized and normal traffic flows

3.4 Wireless Protected Access (WPA)

• WPA is a specification of standard based, interoperable security
enhancements that strongly increase the level of data protection and access
control for existing and future wireless LAN system.

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• User Authentication
• 802.1x
• EAP
• TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) encryption
• RC4, dynamic encryption keys (session based)
• 48 bit IV
• per packet key mixing function
• Fixes all issues found from WEP
• Uses Message Integrity Code (MIC) Michael
• Ensures data integrity
• Old hardware should be upgradeable to WPA
• WPA comes in two flavors

4.How Wi-Fi Works?

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If you want to understand wireless networking at its simplest level, think about a pair
of walkie-talkies that you might purchase at Market. These are small radios that can
transmit and receive radio signals.

When you talk into a Walkie-Talkie, your voice is picked up by a microphone,

encoded onto a radio frequency and transmitted with the antenna. Another walkie-
talkie can receive the transmission with its antenna, decode your voice from the radio
signal and drive a speaker.

The two basic components of a Wi-Fi network are a computer device outfitted with a
low-power radio and another radio-equipped gadget known as an access point, which
is wired to the Internet or a local network. The two communicate with each other over
a free slice of the radio spectrum reserved for consumer use and inhabited by
microwave ovens and cordless phones.

First of all devices called laptop or home pc or any network which want to access
internet or connected to their network to another office network. They want to insert
wi-fi card which card give facilities to access wireless networking.

They first of all connected to the access point which give the connection Gate to
connect to the internet after that signals go to the computer server which is wired
connected to the access point .and computer server connected to internet server.
Which provide the internet facilities to computer or they also using another office
network through transmitter.

Now the question is that how they converted signal to transmit data? in that In
the small figure you saw that computer data combined with addressing and codes for
security. And this combined signals send to transmitter and in the last antenna convert
them into radio waves.

Our wireless Wi-Fi network gives instant and convenient access to the internet at
cafe’s and meeting room hotspots through out Brindabella Bussiness park as well as
the airport terminal direct internet access is provided by approved internet service

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providers with a variety of global roaming providers supported where approved and
arranged by tenants, IT departments and with layers of security suiting every
requirement, wireless networking is also available directed into tenancies to access
your business applications and emails at even higher speeds

And utilizing tenants own interest gateways. The Wi-Fi infrastructure is operated and
managed by Camberra international airport.

The two basic components of a Wi-Fi network are a computer device outfitted with a
low-power radio and another radio-equipped gadget known as an access point, which
is wired to the Internet or a local network. The two communicate with each other over
a free slice of the radio spectrum reserved for consumer use and inhabited by
microwave ovens and cordless phones.

5.Wi-Fi Network Topologies

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• AP-based topology (Infrastructure Mode)

• Peer-to-peer topology (Ad-hoc Mode)
• Point-to-multipoint bridge topology

5.1 AP-based topology

• The client communicate through Access Point.

• BSA-RF coverage provided by an AP.
• ESA-It consists of 2 or more BSA.
• ESA cell includes 10-15% overlap to allow roaming.

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5.2 Peer-to-peer topology

• AP is not required.
• Client devices within a cell can communicate directly with each other.
• It is useful for setting up of a wireless network quickly and easily.

5.3 Point-to-multipoint bridge topology

This is used to connect a LAN in one building to a LANs in other buildings

even if the buildings are miles apart. These conditions receive a clear line of sight
between buildings. The line-of-sight range varies based on the type of wireless bridge
and antenna used as well as the environmental

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6. Advantages

• Flexible: With a wireless network you and your staff can have uninterrupted
access to people, information and tools as you and they move through the
workplace with your mobile PC.

• Responsive: As you change your business operations your wireless network

can change with you.

• Customized: Your wireless network can be configured the way you want it.-
even combined with your current wired network.

• Fast: From 11 to 54 Mbps throughput and advanced roaming capabilities

provide reliable access to e-mail, the Internet, file sharing and other network
resources away from the desk.

• Cost-effective: Expand and extend your existing network by simply adding

more adapters and access points. Planning is a no brainier as you need to buy
only what you need.

• Secure: Current standards utilize 64- and 128-bit WEP encryption and help
guard the network from intruders and protect data in transit. Add in
technology and you have increased WLAN protection important for mission-
critical data.

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7.Disadvantages and Limitations

7.1Disadvantages
 Spectrum assignments and operational limitations are not consistent
worldwide
 Power consumption is fairly high compared to some other low-bandwidth
standards. Wi-Fi networks have limited range.
 Wi-Fi pollution, or an excessive number of access points in the area,
especially on the same or neighboring channel, can prevent access and
interfere with the use of other access points by others.

7.2Limitations
 It has a limited bandwidth of about 83.5 MHz.
 Frequency spectrum used by IEEE 802.11b is shared by many other systems
like microwave ovens, cordless phones etc. This frequency sharing causes
interference problem. Security techniques are not reliable yet.

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8. Applications of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi has many applications, it is used in all the sectors where a computer or any
digital media is used, also for entertaining Wi-Fi is used. Some of the applications
are mentioned below.

 Accessing Internet: Using Wi-Fi we can access the internet in any Wi-Fi-
capable device wirelessly.

 We can stream or cast audio or video wirelessly on any device using Wi-
Fi for our entertainment.

 We can share files, data, etc between two or more computers or mobile
phones using Wi-Fi, and the speed of the data transfer rate is also very
high. Also, we can print any document using a Wi-Fi printer, this is very
much used nowadays.

 We can use Wi-Fi as HOTSPOTS also, it points Wireless Internet access

for a particular range of area. Using Hotspot the owner of the main
network connection can offer temporary network access to Wi-Fi-capable
devices so that the users can use the network without knowing anything
about the main network connection. Wi-Fi adapters are mainly spreading
radio signals using the owner network connection to provide a hotspot.

 Using Wi-Fi or WLAN we can construct simple wireless connections from

one point to another, known as Point to point networks. This can be useful
to connect two locations that are difficult to reach by wire, such as two
buildings of corporate business.

 One more important application is VoWi-Fi, which is known as voice-

over Wi-Fi. Some years ago telecom companies are introduced VoLTE
(Voice over Long-Term Evolution ). Nowadays they are introduced to
VoWi-Fi, by which we can call anyone by using our home Wi-Fi network,
only one thing is that the mobile needs to connect with the Wi-Fi. Then the
voice is transferred using the Wi-Fi network instead of using the mobile SIM

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network, so the call quality is very good. Many mobile phones are already
getting the support of VoWi-Fi.

 Wi-Fi in offices: In an office, all the computers are interconnected using Wi-Fi.
For Wi-Fi, there are no wiring complexities. Also, the speed of the network is
good. For Wi-Fi, a project can be presented to all the members at a time in the
form of an excel sheet, ppt, etc. For Wi-Fi, there is no network loss as in cable
due to cable break.

 Also using W-Fi a whole city can provide network connectivity by deploying
routers at a specific area to access the internet. Already schools, colleges, and
universities are providing networks using Wi-Fi because of its flexibility.

 Wi-Fi is used as a positioning system also, by which we can detect the positions

of Wi-Fi hotspots to identify a device location.

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9.Conclusion

Wi-Fi provides freedom: freedom to physically move around your home or

business and still stay connected to the Internet or local network; freedom to
grow and move an office or business without having to install new cables and
wires; freedom to be connected while traveling and on the road.

Wireless Hot Spots (airports, hotels, coffee shops, convention centers and any
other place where someone can connect to a wireless network) are being
installed worldwide. All this means Wi-Fi truly does provide unprecedented
freedom. Plus, it is cool, and it is fun as those in the know say, Once you go
wireless, you will never want to use a cable again. There are real and
measurable benefits to using a wireless network versus a standard wired
network.

For a home installation customer, the greatest benefit is that there are no
wites needed:

you don’t need to drill holes in walls and floors; you don’t need to drag
cables hide them under rugs. One Wi-Fi access point can provide network
access for any typically sized home. And if you live in a rental or a historical
building, you may not be allowed to drill holes-that makes wireless your only
solution.

Wi-Fi use is growing fast in homes, public access areas and businesses- both
large and small. The Wi-Fi Alliance is active with many industry
organizations and is working closely with manufacturers to make sure that
existing Wi-Fi gear is compatible with wireless technologies developed in
future.

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20080113.
3. see D. Gelperin and W.C. Hetzel
4. Introduction,Code Coverage Analysis, Steve Cornett
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6. Patton, Ron. Software Testing.
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8. Beizer, Boris (1990). Software Testing Techniques (Second ed.). New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold. pp. 21,430. ISBN0-442-20672-0.
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Computer Glossaries. New York: IEEE. ISBN1559370793.

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