Wireless Networks Communication - Research Paper Example

? WIRELESS NETWORKS COMMUNICATION Wireless networking has advanced from a fascinating curiosity to an appealing technology choice for potential corporate users in all sectors of the economy. Successful test projects are helping an increasing number of institutions to make the shift towards major wireless projects. In the recent past, last decade, wireless technology implementations have shifted the focus from the relatively small early adopters to a much larger group of organizations that use the technology to expand and comprehensively cover the networking capabilities and enhance their solicitation to their clientele. Majority of the existing organizations, commercial and non commercial, have in the very least installed wireless networks in their organizations. This comes in the form of simple open wireless technology with a wireless enabled switch, router etc. in a single room to rolling out large campus areas and few metropolitan area networks. Granted the continuing forecasts and advances for wireless technology applications, the era for implementing this technology in an organization is at hand. In order to have a successful wireless network implementation, different functional departments and divisions of a company must come together and support the effort. The already established players, companies with the technology, have IT departments that have planned and designed the process as it would be expected. Beyond the IT personnel, which is by far a critical group, various other participants – customers, management, administrators, finance – are involved directly, with the stakeholders initiating the planning process (Sayre,2008). Whereas the practical requirements of the IT personnel largely influences the decisions in wireless technology implementation, organizations need make sure that the needs of other departments are also considered. The different factors cited as crucial in the decision to roll out wireless infrastructure must reflect the concerns and reservations of different departments and stakeholders in the business process (Rackley, 2008). The factors include, improved and more efficient network access, support for omnipresent network access, easier mobility for IT department and return on investment to the management of the company. Not all organizations may be able to address all stakeholders’ needs, but it is clear that having all stakeholders in the process is aesthetic. It is aesthetic in the sense that the technology will be well received by all users but only a few make the crucial decisions. The quality implementation standards of wireless technology are still developing. Dedicating all resources to a single approach in the early stages of planning for the network implementation can set the stage for untimely obsolescence. Determining the standards prior to moving to the technological implementation has to be moderated in the case of WLANS to allow for almost continued refinements. Currently, the largest share of (WLAN) organizations currently use the 902.11b standard for their networks; over half of those planning to go with the new networks are considering 802.11a. A small percentage of the upcoming are planning to implement Bluetooth, (PAN) Personal Area Network solutions. PCs are by tradition, on the heart of wireless enabled networks today. Considering this fact, it is also worth noting that the notebook PC is the device that is most commonly used in a wireless network connection. A large number of wireless networks, slightly over half, also support desktop workstations. Thinking beyond the PC is crucial in this day and age of wireless infrastructure. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), iPhones, and Wi-Fi enabled phones are most likely to be included in the mix since they support the wireless networks. Cell phones and PDAs aforementioned are far more mobile and portable than the traditional notebook computers. Clearly, WLANs have become far more cosmopolitan in the present technology. Considering this fact, on the handheld devices, thinking beyond the personal computer be it the notebook is the best advice to companies planning a shift to the wireless technology. Wireless networks with a mini/ small form factor allow users to increase the operation and mobility. Majority of wireless networks are grounded on the set IEEE 802.11 standards. A typical wireless network is made up of multiple stations using radios that broadcast in either 5GHz or 2.54 GHz band to communicate . The frequency of communication varies depending on the locale and is also changing to facilitate communication in the 4.9 GHz and 2.3 GHz ranges. 802.11 wireless networks are formed in two ways; Ad hoc mode and infrastructure mode. In the former, infrastructure mode, a single station acts as the master and all other stations associate to it. This kind of network is known as a Basic Service Set (BSS) and the station acting as the master is referred to as the access point (AP). In a typical BSS setting, all communication must pass via the AP, even when a single station wants to communicate with another. The second form of wireless network is the Ad hoc network where there is no master or central station. All stations communicate directly and this is termed as a Independent Basic Service Set. The initial deployment of wireless networks was in the 2.4 GHz frequency band using communication protocols set by the IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11 standard. The rules include MAC layer characteristics, transmission and framing, and the operating frequencies. Later, an additional standard defined the 802.11a standard with 5 GHz band. It included different signaling mechanisms and came with higher transmission rates. Later still, the 802.11g standard was set to enable using the 802.11a transmission and signaling mechanisms in the earlier frequency, 2.4 GHz, in such a way that it would be backward compatible to the earliest networks – 802.11b standard. Apart from the fundamental transmission techniques, 802.11 wireless networks have a variety of integrated security mechanisms. The original standards set a simple security rule referred to as WEP. The WEP protocols uses a fixed pre-shared and a cryptographic cipher for data encoding. All stations must agree about the fixed key for communication to take place. The WEP scheme was shown as easily broken and is currently not in use pervasively, besides discouraging transient users from joining the network (Cache, Wright and Liu, 2010). The current security standard is given by the IEEE 802.11i and it defines additional protocols and new cryptographic ciphers to authenticate wireless stations to APs and key exchange for data communication. In the revised standard, keys are refreshed regularly and it also has mechanisms to detect intrusion attempts and additional ones to counter intrusion attempts. WPA is also a security protocol used in the wireless communication; it preceded the 802.11i and was set by an industry group as a temporary measure while they waited for the ratification of the 802.11i. WPA defines a subset of the 802.11i requirements and it is basically designed for implementation on legacy hardware. WPA typically requires the TKIP cipher derived from the WEP cipher. Besides the aforementioned, original wireless communication standards, it is also good to be aware of the 802.11e standard. It defines communication protocols used in deployment of multi-media applications; video streaming and voIP voice over IP in the 802.11 wireless networks. Similar to 802.11i, 802.11e has a preceding specification referred to as WME later named WMM. WME or WMM was defined by an industry group as a preamble of 802.11e and it can currently be deployed to enable multi-media applications as 802.11e is yet to be ratified. 802.11e and WMM prioritize traffic using wireless networks through QoS protocols and improved media access. Correct and timely implementation enables high speed data bursts and prioritized network traffic flows. Wireless networks using the IEEE 802.11n standard have to upgrade their existing infrastructure or plan for equipment that can well handle the standard’s requirements. IEEE 802.1n comes with more and enhanced capability; supporting data rates of up to 300 Mbps and backward compatibility to earlier standards such as the IEEE 802.11b/g wireless devices that communicate at 11/54 Mbps. The security mechanism also has been beefed up and provides over 64/128 –bi WPA, WEP and WPA2. The additions help construct a high-speed office or home wireless network. Moreover, the IEEE 802.1n supports the 2.4 GHz frequency band which is an open frequency for non commercial installation. The devices supporting this standard of wireless network setup also provide the option of selecting AP mode or Hybrid mode. According to Rackley a published author in wireless technologies, mong other functional points , the device has to have are : Be compatible with IEEE 802.11n draft 2.0, 802.11b/g wireless standards Support the 2.4 GHz frequency band Have high speed transfer TX/RX rate up to 150/300Mbps Support wireless data encryption with 64/128-bit WEP, WPA, and WPA2 Support DHCP server service IEEE 802.11n standard has not been ratified as an official standard and mostly it provides proprietary solutions. Promises, as derived from the perceived specification and features, are long range and as such it is fairly a new technology. The management aspect hence becomes a functional decision point in the implementation of the technology. Deploying a wireless network , generally, has 3 basic methods (Olexa 2004). First, you could have a Thick AP plan where each access point is a complete unit and operating individually. Second, the planning department could have Thin AP design where each access point connects logically or physically to a central controller unit that manages the access points as a group. Lastly, using large gain APs or multi radio AP’s in covering the spaces will provision or the Blanket coverage design. In management of the wireless network, choosing the best deployment method that works in an individual situation is important since each has a set of its own weaknesses and strengths. The size of the network has a lot to do in the management decision and managing an AP individually quickly becomes an administrative hurdle. Many Network Management Solutions (NMS) exist as available software packages to provide easy and efficient management. The performance varies in different areas and the operating environments as well. Conclusion Wireless networks allow us to work and live in means never before by giving us flexibility, mobility and an almost magical link to our environment. Anybody using cellular or cordless phones, TV remote controls ,pagers and in this case notebook PCs will readily agree that the networks are efficient and useful. Traditionally, while computer networks and telecommunications have greatly changed our options on what and how we communicate, they have physically restricted us to the physical wire. In this regard, wireless networks bring us back to a communications form that is integrally natural to us. As human, being physically constrained is not favorable and human mobility and speech is in itself limited in range. References Cache, J., Wright, J., & Liu, V. (2010). Hacking exposed wireless (2nd ed. ). California: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. Geier, J. (2010). Designing and deploying 802.11n wireless networks. Palo Alto: Cisco Press. Gast, M. (2005). Wireless networks: The Definitive guide (2nd ed.). New York: O'Reilly Media. Flickenger, R., & Weeks, R. 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