Two key improvements for the security and performance
quality of Wi-Fi devices are scheduled to reach wireless network
users this year as the adoption of wireless technology continues to
grow within businesses and home users.
The Wi-Fi Alliance will certify products for the new 802.11i and
802.11e standards by September, said Frank Hanzlik, managing
director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. The 802.11i standard is the
complete version of the preliminary security standard WPA (Wi-Fi
Protected Access) introduced last year, while 802.11e is a new
standard that will improve the quality of wireless networks that
transmit voice and video.
Security has been one of the biggest obstacles to the growth of
wireless networking. Last year, WPA replaced the flawed WEP (Wired
Equivalent Privacy) protocol to shore up wireless security before
the full 802.11i standard could be ratified. WPA uses a dynamic
encryption key as opposed to the static key used by WEP, and it
also improves the user authentication process.
The 802.11i standard adds AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
technology, a stronger level of security than used in WPA.
Enterprises and governments, which need the highest level of
security available, may have to replace some of their networking
equipment to support the AES standard.
Newer networking equipment released within the past three months
will probably have enough computational power to handle the
increased performance requirements of AES security, Hanzlik said.
Network managers with older wireless devices should check with
their supplier to see if that equipment will support a software
download of the full 802.11i standard.
Companies with older networking equipment must decide whether
the data traveling over their wireless networks is critical enough
to warrant a significant upgrade, said Aaron Vance, senior analyst
with Synergy Research. In many cases, third-party products are
available that can secure a wireless network when combined with the
WPA standard.
While security tops most lists of wireless networking concerns,
the new 802.11e standard will help home users set up wireless media
networks and allow corporate users to deploy wireless handsets
using voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. This standard
improves the quality of service of wireless connections by
prioritising traffic that must get through without delays or
glitches, such as streaming video or voice transmissions, Hanzlik
said.
It will be available as a software download for just about all
wireless networking devices.
Upgrading to 802.11e will make wireless VoIP networks a
realistic choice for network managers, Vance said. Later this year,
handset makers will start rolling out dual-mode phones that support
wireless Lan technology such as 802.11 as well as wide-area network
standards such as GSM.
In September, the Wi-Fi Alliance will begin certifying products
that use a subset of 802.11e called WME (Wireless Media Extensions)
technology to improve quality of service. WME identifies packets of
voice, video, audio or other types of data and prioritises their
delivery based on traffic conditions. Videos transmitted over
wireless networks suffer greatly if packets are delayed or dropped,
so that type of data is given priority over others travelling on a
network, Hanzlik said.
The full 802.11e standard will include an additional technology
called WSM (Wi-Fi Scheduled Media), but the alliance wanted to make
sure products sold had some form of certification for use in home
media networks, Hanzlik said. WSM allocates slices of bandwidth to
various types of wireless data, and increases that bandwidth as
needed for voice or video applications.
Tom Krazit writes for IDG News
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