03-01-2011, 02:57 PM
[attachment=7911]
Author:Mayur.M.Patki
GIT College Udyambag,
BELGAUM INDIA
Abstract:
The Wi-Fi Alliance has provided a standards-based interoperable security specification that would greatly increase the level of data protection and access control for Wi-Fi wireless local area networks.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Wi-Fi Alliance, working in conjunction with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), has brought a strong interoperable Wi-Fi security specification to market in the form of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). WPA greatly increases the level of over-the-air data protection and access control on existing and future Wi-Fi networks. It addresses all known weaknesses of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), the original native security mechanism in the 802.11 standard. WPA not only provides strong data encryption to correct WEP’s weaknesses, it adds user authentication which was largely missing in WEP.WPA is designed to secure all versions of 802.11 devices, including 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g, multi-band and multi-mode. As a subset of 802.11i (also known as WPA2), WPA is both forward and backward-compatible and is designed to run on existing Wi-Fi devices as a software download. With WPA, using add-on security mechanisms, such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and other proprietary technologies to bolster security on their Wi-Fi networks will no longer be needed—at least not to secure the wireless segments of the network.
