WiFi Glossary of Common Terminology
Here you will find a list of common terms used throughout the WiFi space. These terms have been defined to inform visitors about and elaborate on the technical side of WiFi.
» 802.1x
» 802.11
» 802.11a
» 802.11b
» 802.11g
» 802.11i
» DHCP, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
» EAP, Extensible Authentication Protocol
» EAP-MD5, EAP using MD5
» EAP-TLS, EAP Transport Layer Security
» EAP-TTLS, EAP Tunneled Transport Layer Security
» firewall
» hotspot
» IP address
» key, static keys, dynamic keys
» LAN, Local Area Network
» MAC Address, Media Access Control Address, MAC level security
» NAT, Network Address Translation, behind a NAT
» NIC, Network Interface Card, NIC card
» PEAP, Protected EAP
» PPP, Point-to-Point Protocol
» RADIUS, AAA RADIUS, RADIUS server
» TCP/IP, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
» VoIP, Voice over IP
» VoW, Voice over Wireless
» VPN, Virtual Private Network
» WAP, Wireless Access Point
» WEP, Wired Eqivalent Privacy
» WiFi, Wireless Fidelity
» WLAN, Wireless LAN, Wireless Local Area Network
» WPA, WiFi Protected Access, WPA-enabled
— As the IEEE standard for access control for wireless and wired LANs, 802.1x provides a means of authenticating and authorizing devices to attach to a LAN port. This standard defines the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), which uses a central authentication server to authenticate each user on the network.
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— The IEEE standard for wireless Local Area Networks. It uses three different physical layers, 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g.
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— Operating in the 5 GHz band, 802.11a supports a maximum theoretical data rate of 54 Mbps, but more realistically it will achieve throughput somewhere between 20 Mbps to 25 Mbps in normal traffic conditions. In a typical office environment, its maximum range is 50 meters (150 feet) at the lowest speed, but at higher speed, the range is less than 25 meters (75 feet). 802.11a has four, eight, or more channels, depending on the country. WLAN products based on 802.11a technology are rapidly coming to market in 2003, making them more affordable and widely available.
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— Most WLANs deployed today use 802.11b technology, which operates in the 2.4 GHz band and supports a maximum theoretical data rate of 11 Mbps, with average throughput falling in the 4 Mbps to 6 Mbps range. In a typical office environment, its maximum range is 75 meters (250 feet) at the lowest speed, but at higher speed its range is about 30 meters (100 feet). Bluetooth devices, 2.4 GHz cordless phones and even microwave ovens are sources of interference (and thus create poor performance) for 802.11b networks. Minimizing interference can be difficult because 802.11b uses only three non-overlapping channels. 802.11b products have been shipping in quantity for several years so you will find that products are plentiful and affordable.
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— The 802.11 task force is still developing 802.11g, and it is expected to be ratified as a standard by mid-2003. 802.11g offers the throughput of 802.11a with the backward compatibility of 802.11b. 802.11g will operate in the 2.4 GHz band but it will deliver data rates from 6 Mbps to 54 Mbps. Like 802.11b, it will have up to three non-overlapping channels. 802.11g uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation as does 802.11a, but, for backward compatibility with 11b, it also supports complementary code keying (CCK) modulation and, as an option for faster link rates, allows packet binary convolutional coding (PBCC) modulation.
Its "backward compatibility" with 802.11b means that when a mobile 802.11b device joins an 802.11g access point, all connections on that access point slow down to 802.11b speeds.
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— This supplemental draft standard is intended to improve WLAN security. It describes the encrypted transmission of data between systems of 802.11a and 802.11b WLANs. It defines new encryption key protocols including the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES will require new hardware when it is completed in 2003.
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DHCP, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
— Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a communications protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network.
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EAP, Extensible Authentication Protocol
— EAP is an 802.1x standard that allows developers to pass security authentication data between RADIUS and the access point (AP) and wireless client. EAP has a number of variants, including: EAP-MD5, EAP-Tunneled TLS (EAP-TTLS), Lightweight EAP (LEAP), and Protected EAP (PEAP).
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— A variant of EAP using MD5 security measures.
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EAP-TLS, EAP Transport Layer Security
— A variant of EAP using TLS security measures.
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EAP-TTLS, EAP Tunneled Transport Layer Security
— A variant of EAP using TTLS security measures.
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— A firewall is a set of related programs, located at a network gateway server, that protects the resources of a private network from users from other networks.
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— An area in which an access point provides public wireless broadband network services to mobile visitors through a wLAN. Hotspots are often located in heavily populated places such as airports, hotels, coffee shops, libraries and conventions centers.
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— In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today, an IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packets across the Internet.
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key, static keys, dynamic keys
— A key is a variable value that is applied using an algorithm to a string or block of unencrypted text to produce encrypted text, or to decrypt encrypted text. The length of the key is a factor in considering how difficult it will be to decrypt the text in a given message.
A static key never changes, is always the same, and is susceptible to hacking. A dynamic key, however, changes often and is a lot less susceptible to hacking.
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— A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and associated devices that share a common communications line or wireless link and typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area (for example, within an office building).
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MAC Address, Media Access Control Address, MAC level security
— In a local area network (LAN) or other network, the MAC (Media Access Control) address is your computer's unique hardware number. (On an Ethernet LAN, it's the same as your Ethernet address.)
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NAT, Network Address Translation, behind a NAT
— NAT (Network Address Translation) is the translation of an Internet Protocol address (IP address) used within one network to a different IP address known within another network. One network is designated the inside network and the other is the outside. Typically, a company maps its local inside network addresses to one or more global outside IP addresses and unmaps the global IP addresses on incoming packets back into local IP addresses. This helps ensure security since each outgoing or incoming request must go through a translation process that also offers the opportunity to qualify or authenticate the request or match it to a previous request.
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NIC, Network Interface Card, NIC card
— A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network. Network interface cards provide a dedicated, full-time connection to a network.
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— Like the competing standard Tunneled Transport Layer Security (TTLS), PEAP makes it possible to authenticate wireless LAN clients without requiring them to have certificates, simplifying the architecture of secure wireless LANs.
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— PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) is a protocol for communication between two computers using a serial interface, typically a personal computer connected by phone line to a server.
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RADIUS, AAA RADIUS, RADIUS server
— Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a client/server protocol and software that enables remote access servers to communicate with a central server to authenticate dial-in users and authorize their access to the requested system or service.
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TCP/IP, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
— TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet.
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— VoIP is a set of technologies that enables voice to be sent over a packet network. While few corporations use VoIP today, its usage for messaging is expected to explode in the coming two years.
Users can communicate using VoIP as easily as they do with today's PBXes and public phone network. By leveraging the existing data network, companies can save significant amounts of money by using VoIP for toll-bypass, which is particularly important for multinational corporations. VoIP will also speed the adoption of unified messaging by transmitting voice, fax and e-mail messages. VoIP is also known as IP telephony.
Over the next several years, companies will deploy VoIP in conjunction with 802.11 wireless LANs, enabling workers to have WLAN-based mobile phones when in the office.
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— Voice over Wireless is a set of technologies that enables VoIP communication to go wireless.
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— A virtual private network (VPN) is a way to use a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization's network. A virtual private network can be contrasted with an expensive system of owned or leased lines that can only be used by one organization. The goal of a VPN is to provide the organization with the same capabilities, but at a much lower cost.
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— In a wireless local area network (WLAN), an access point is a station that transmits and receives data (sometimes referred to as a transceiver). An access point connects users to other users within the network and also can serve as the point of interconnection between the WLAN and a fixed wire network. Each access point can serve multiple users within a defined network area; as people move beyond the range of one access point, they are automatically handed over to the next one. A small WLAN may only require a single access point; the number required increases as a function of the number of network users and the physical size of the network.
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— Now widely recognized as flawed, WEP was a data encryption method used to protect the transmission between 802.11 wireless clients and APs. However, it used the same key among all communicating devices. WEP's problems are well-known, including an insufficient key length and no automated method for distributing the keys. WEP can be easily cracked in a couple of hours with off-the-shelf tools.
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— WiFi (short for "wireless fidelity") is the popular term for a high-frequency wireless local area network (WLAN). The Wi-Fi technology is rapidly gaining acceptance in many companies as an alternative to a wired LAN. It can also be installed for a home network. Wi-Fi is specified in the 802.11b specification from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is part of a series of wireless specifications together with 802.11, 802.11a, and 802.11g.
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WLAN, Wireless LAN, Wireless Local Area Network
— Local area network using wireless transmissions, such as radio or infrared instead of phone lines or fiber-optic cable to connect data devices. 802.11 Wi-Fi is the state of the art WLAN today. 802.11 has two physical layer standards: 802.11b operating at 2.4GHz (and delivering up to 11Mbps at 250 feet max) and 802.11a operating at 5GHz (and delivering up to 54Mbps at 150 feet max). A third standard, 802.11g, which provides the speeds of 802.11a at the distances of 802.11b, should be finalized in late 2003. Although most WLANs today are 802.11b, most enterprises will use 802.11a.
From an application development perspective, 802.11 WLANs are transparent to the applications they run. However, because of the low bandwidth of WLANs, developers of real-time or delay-sensitive applications will need to pay special attention to efficient programming techniques
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WPA, WiFi Protected Access, WPA-enabled
— The Wi-Fi Alliance put together WPA as a data encryption method for 802.11 wireless LANs. WPA is an industry-supported, pre-standard version of 802.11i utilizing the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), which fixes the problems of WEP, including using dynamic keys. WPA will serve until the 802.11i standard is ratified in the third quarter of 2003.
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