WI-FI TECHNOLOGY

UNIVERSAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND

TECHNOLOGY

B.HARITHA D.KIRANMAI
III CSE III CSE
Sumalatha.hari@yahoo.com Doppala.kiran@gmail.com

Abstract:
The medium is the message. This is merely to say
that the personal and social consequences of any
medium...result from the new scale that is introduced
into our affairs by each extension of us or by any
new technology. This paper reviews the form of
wireless communication in which Wi-Fi, short for
wireless fidelity; which is the latest buzzword in
THE IT world. Wi-Fi enabled computer network can
carry data between computers without using any
cables. Wi-Fi functions through a transmitting
antenna which is usually linked to a DSL or high-
speed land-based Internet connection and uses radio
waves to beam signals. Wi-Fi connections can be
made up to 300 feet away from a "hot spot"; An
Access Point is also known as a “hotspot. The
hotspot is build around the network router.
Communicating computers can be as much as 100
feet apart indoors o even 200 feet outdoors. Thus the
distance becomes imaginary and wire connections
become redundant. Wi-Fi provides users with
mobile, broadband Internet access, eliminating the
need to be physically connected to a network. Most
importantly wireless networks are open to easy
access by hackers or other tech savvy peeping toms,
since these networks are till date unencrypted.
INTRODUCTION
Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, is a term that is used
generically to refer to any product or service using
any type of 802.11 technologies. Wi-Fi networks
operate in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bands,
with an 11 Mbps (802.11b) or 54 Mbps (802.11a)
data rate,
respectively.Wi-Fi enabled devices (laptops or
PDAs) can send and receive data wirelessly from
any location equipped with Wi-Fi access. How?
Access points, installed within a Wi-Fi location,
transmit an RF signal to Wi-Fi enabled devices that
are within range of the access point, which is about
300 feet. The speed of the transmission is governed
by the speed of the pipeline fed into the access point.
T-Mobile HotSpot service is unique in that every T-
Mobile HotSpot service location is equipped with a
full T-1 connection running to the access points.
With T-Mobile HotSpot service, a customer, once
associated with the access point, can connect to the
Internet and enjoy near T-1 speeds in the comfort of
American Airlines Admirals Clubs, Starbucks
coffeehouses, Borders Books & Music stores and
numerous airports.Wi-Fi (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. All four standards use the Ethernet protocol
and CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with
collision avoidance) for path sharing. The 802.11b
(Wi-Fi) technology operates in the 2.4 GHz range
offering data speeds up to 11 megabits per second.
The modulation used in 802.11 has historically been
phase-shift keying (PSK). The modulation method
selected for 802.11b is known as complementary
code keying (CCK), which allows higher data speeds
and is less susceptible to multipath-propagation
interference. Unless adequately protected, a Wi-Fi
wireless LAN can be susceptible to access from the
outside by unauthorized users, some of whom have
used the access as a free Internet connection. (The
activity of locating and exploiting security-exposed
wireless LANs is commonly
Known as war driving and an identifying
iconography has developed that is known as
warchalking.) Companies that have a wireless LAN
are urged to add security safeguards
Such as the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
encryption standard, the setup and use of a virtual
private network (VPN) or IPsec, and a firewall or
DMZ.
WiFi network can:
1. Connect to the internet.
2. Connect to multiple computers to each other and
to your printer.
3. Can share high speed broadband cable or DSL
connection.
CASE HISTORY
Wireless networking: Few people have a kind word
to say about telecoms regulators. But the success of
Wi-Fi shows what can be achieved when regulators
and technologists work together it has as perhaps the
networks use either infrared or radio-frequency
transmissions to link these mobile computers to
networks.
Wifi networks use radio technologies called IEEE
802.11b or 802.11a to provide a secure, fast, and
reliable wireless connection. IEEE stands for
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
New York, which is a membership organization that
includes engineers, scientists and students in
electronics and allied fields. It has more than
300,000 members and is involved with setting
standards for computers and communications. The
international standard for wireless networking uses a
signal success of the computer industry in the last
few years, a rare bright spot in a bubble-battered
market: Wi-Fi, the short-range wireless broadband
technology. Among geeks, it has inspired a mania
unseen since the days of the internet boom. Tens of
millions of Wi-Fi devices will be sold this year,
including the majority of laptop computers. Analysts
predict that 100m people will be using Wi-Fi by
2006. Homes, offices, colleges and schools around
the world have installed Wi-Fi equipment to blanket
their premises with wireless access to the internet.
Wi-Fi access is available in a growing number of
coffee-shops, airports and hotels too. Yet merely five
years ago wireless networking was a niche
technology. How did Wi-Fi get started, and become
so successful, in the depths of a downturn?
HOW DOES WI-FI W0RK?
The wide use of notebook and other portable
computers has driven advances in wireless networks.
The most conmen use for a wireless network is to
connect a single notebook computer to a broad band
internet connection. Wireless
frequency of 2.4-2.4835GHz. These frequencies are
common in microwaves, and cord less phones.
Wi-Fi functions through a transmitting antenna which is
usually linked to a DSL or high-speed land-based Internet
connection and uses radio waves to beam signals. Another
antenna, which is in the laptop or PC, catches the signal.
The signal, usually l, has a range of about 300 feet for
most home connections. The farther the user is from the
signal, the slower the connection speed. Wireless LANS
have capacity speeds from less than 1 Mbps to 8 Mbps. Wi-
Fi can easily be expanded in the home or business with the
simple step of plugging in a card or a USB connection to
the new computer or other Wi-Fi certified product. No cords
or cables, or wires are necessary.

WI-FI HOT SPOTS:

The region covered by one or several access

points is called a Hotspot. Hotspots can range from
a single room to many square miles of overlapping
hotspots. Hotspots are locations that allow users to
access networked services, such as the internet,
without a cabled connection. These are increasingly
useful given the popularity of mobile computers
(such as laptops and PDAs). Hotspots are often
found near restaurants, train stations, airports, cafes,
libraries and other public places where users tend to
gather.
The increasing availability of hotspots and
hot zones has made internet access practically
universal. One of the drawbacks to this
development is the chance to have your wireless
access point pirated by an unauthorized user.
Unless adequately protected, a Wi-Fi network can
be highly susceptible to access by unauthorized
users looking for a free Internet connection. The
activity of locating and exploiting security-
exposed wireless LANs is called War Driving
and is an increasing concern among wireless
users. Any entity that has a wireless LAN should
use security safeguards such as the Wired
Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption standard,
the more recent Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA),
Media Access Control (MAC), or a virtual
private network (VPN).
STANDARDS
Early development included industry-specific Wi-Fi devices in home or consumer-type
solutions and proprietary protocols, but at the end of environments can connect via a broadband Internet
the 1990s these were replaced by standards, connection into a single router which can serve both
primarily the various versions of IEEE 802.11 (Wi- wired and wireless clients. They can also use ad-hoc
Fi) and HomeRF (2 Mbit/s, intended for home use). mode for client to client connections, and be built
An alternative ATM-like 5 GHz technology, into non-computer devices to enable wireless
HIPERLAN, appears less likely to succeed, due to connectivity to the Internet.
political and market factors. IEEE 802.11 denotes a
Business and industrial Wi-Fi has become
set of Wireless LAN standards developed by
ubiquitous as of 2007. In business environments,
working group 11 of IEEE 802. The term is also
increasing the number of Wi-Fi access points
used specifically for the original version; to avoid
provides redundancy, support for fast roaming and
confusion that is sometimes called "802.11 legacy".
increase overall network capacity by using more
The 802.11 family currently includes three separate
channels or creating smaller cells. Wi-Fi enables
protocols that focus on encoding (a, b, g); other
wireless voice applications (VoWLAN or WVOIP).
standards in the family (c-f, h-j, n) are service
Over the years, Wi-Fi implementations have moved
enhancement and extensions, or corrections to
toward 'thin' access points, with more of the network
previous specifications. 802.11b was the first widely
intelligence housed in a centralized network
accepted wireless networking standard followed,
appliance, relegating individual Access Points to be
paradoxically, by 802.11a and 802.11g
simply 'dumb' radios. Outdoor applications may
USES OF WI-FI: utilize true mesh topologies. As of 2007, Wi-Fi
installations can provide a proactive, self-managed
A person with a Wi-Fi enabled device such
network that functions as a security gateway,
as a PC, cell phone or PDA can connect to the
firewall, DHCP server, intrusion detection system,
Internet when in proximity of an access point. Wi-Fi
and a myriad of other features not previously
also allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad-
considered relevant to a wireless network.
hoc network) mode, which enables devices to
connect directly with each other. This connectivity
ADVANTAGES OF WI-FI
mode is useful in consumer electronics and gaming
Many reliable and bug-free WiFi products on the
applications. The best example of this is the use of
market. Competition amongst vendors has lowered
Bluetooth.
prices considerably since their inception. While

Home Wi-Fi clients come in many shapes connected on a WiFi network, it is possible to move

and sizes, from stationary PCs to digital cameras. about without breaking the network connection.

The trend as of 2007 is to incorporate wireless into

every electronic device where mobility is desired.
DISADVANTAGES OF WI-FI
The 802.11b and 802.11g flavors of Wi-Fi use the
2.4GHz spectrum, which is crowded with other
devices such as Bluetooth, microwave ovens,
cordless phones, or video sender devices, among
many others. This may cause degradation in
performance. Other devices that use microwave
frequencies can also cause degradation
performance, such as certain types of cell phones.
Power consumption is fairly high compared to other
standards, making battery life and heat a concern.
Not always Configured properly by user. Commonly
APPLICATIONS
There may be metered access or with a pass for, for
example, a day, month or year, valid for one location
or a whole chain. They are e.g. in coffee houses and
airports around the world. T-Mobile provides
hotspots in many Starbucks Coffee houses in the US.
Pacific Century Cyber Works has a similar
arrangement with Pacific Coffee in Hong Kong.
Other large hotspot providers in the US include
Boingo (www.boingo.com), Wayport
(www.wayport.com) and iPass (www.ipass.com). .
Sify (www.sify.com), India's largest Internet service
provider, has set up 120 wireless access points in
Bangalore in hotels, malls and government offices
and many other applications. Compare Internet cafe.
Many airports, hotels, and fast-food facilities now
offer public access to a Wi-Fi network.Wi-fi uses
ethernet protocol.
uses Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol for
protection (WEP is a security protocol, specified in
the IEEE Wi-Fi standard, 802.11b that is designed to
provide a WLAN with a level of security and privacy
comparable to what is usually expected of a wired
LAN), though has been shown to be easily
in breakable. Newer wireless solutions are slowly
providing support for the superior Wi-Fi Protected
Access (WPA) protocol, though many systems still
employ WEP.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Through the use of Wi-Fi, organizations can extend
their Internet access across the enterprise.
From boardrooms to auditoriums, visitors and
employees will be able perform
routine Internet tasks without the need to physically
connect to cumbersome wires and network plugs.
Additionally, Wi-Fi can be applied in the following
free or fee-based methods: Fee based models for
office buildings, high-rises and home developments
Outdoor facilities and campus models Large venue
models for convention and tourist facilities Self
sustaining models for municipal Wi-Fi or
community Wi-Fi Retail, restaurants and shopping
center ‘hot spots’ Transit (mobile) models for public
transportation, RV parks and marinas Setting up a
hotspot in your home is very easy. This can be done
in one of two ways:
1. Purchase a Wireless Access Point and plug it into
the Ethernet network.
2. If you are setting up a network in your home for
the first time, or if you are upgrading, buy a Wireless
Access Point Router. Your hotspot should cover
about 100 feet in all directions. Setting up a wireless
Hotspot is quite simple and there are two ways in
which you can go about doing it:
• If you already have an Ethernet network but want
to add the wireless hotspot capability, you can just
purchase a Wireless Access Point and plug it into the
Ethernet network.
• The second way is if you do not have an Ethernet
Network, you can just buy a Wireless Access Point
Router. This box has the ability to: 1) connect to
your cable modem or DSL modem through a port, 2)
a router which has DHCP capabilities, 3) an Ethernet
hub, 4) a firewall for security purposes and 5) a
wireless access point. With this box you can connect
traditional network cables or you can just go
wireless.
WI-FI SECURITY
Now that we know how to set up a hotspot lets look
at the security vulnerabilities. WiFi hotspots are
either open to all or secure and only a few can access
it. If a hotspot is open, then anyone with a WiFi card
can access the hotspot there is no need for any type
of identification. If it is a secure hotspot, then the
user needs to know a WEP key to connect to the
WiFi network. The term WEP stands for Wired
Equivalent Privacy. WEP is an encryption system for
the data that the 802.11 protocol sends through the
air. There are two types of WEP: 64-bit encryption
(40-bit) and 128-bit encryption (104-bit). The 40-bit
encryption was the original standard and was easily
broken. The 128-bit encryption is the more secure
method of encryption and is what most people use if
they enable WEP. For any hotspot that is using WEP
is inaccessible unless you have the WEP key. If you
setup a hotspot in your home, you should use 128-bit
WEP key to prevent the neighbors from peering into
your network. It is important to recognize that
wireless security is an end-to-end requirement, and
can be sub-divided into various security domains.
• Appliance domain security attempts to ensure that
only authorized entities can use the
appliance, and access or modify the data stored on it.
• Network access domain security ensures that only
authorized devices can connect to a wireless network
or service, and ensures data privacy and integrity
over the wireless link.
• Network domain security addresses security of the
infrastructure (voice and data) networks that support
a wireless network. Infrastructure networks are
typically wired, could include public networks, and
could span networks owned by multiple carriers.
• Application domain security ensures that only safe
and trusted applications can execute on the
appliance, and that transactions between applications
executing on the client and
application servers across the Internet are secure. A
well-known concern with the WAP
security architecture is the existence of a “security
gap” at the wireless gateway, which arises since the
between different transport-layer security protocols
causes data to exist in decrypted form. This problem
can be
somewhat alleviated by maintaining
the WAP gateway within a secure network domain
(e.g., behind the same firewall as the web server).
Alternatively, the use of an end-to-end security
protocol between the wireless handset and wired
FUTURE:
translation
server eliminates this problem. For example, NTT
DoCoMo’s iMode service uses SSL to secure end-to-
end connections, and the recently released WAP
2.0 specifications includes a new mode that uses
standard Internet protocols (HTTP/TLS/TCP/IP)
between the wireless client and a server across the
Internet.
The market is expected to grow as the benefits of WLAN are recognized. Frost and Sullivan (a
market consulting based in New York) estimate the WLAN market to have been 0.3 billion US
dollars in 1998 and 1.6 billion dollars in 2005. So far WLANs have been installed primarily in
warehouses and resellers, but are recently being installed in various kinds of schools. Large
future markets are estimated to be in health care, educational institutes and corporate offices. In
the business environment, meeting places, public areas and side offices would be ideal for
WLAN.
CONCLUSION

WiFi is definitely the technology of tomorrow. As technology and security undergo

advancements, more people are utilizing WiFi’s capabilities. For personal use, families are able
to use this technology so that several computers around the house can be networked together. For
small businesses, money is saved on expensive wiring. Larger businesses do not need to worry
about how to wire large buildings and as mentioned before; employees can have more flexible
work schedules. It is a sound investment because the technology will continue to get better,
especially if security concerns can be curbed, which are paramount. Standards 802.11b and g are
the most up and coming and a drastic increase will be seen in these standards since they are
sensible and efficient for homes and small businesses. Since nearly all new laptops come with
internal wireless cards, or the feature is always an option, we will see a rise in the total number
of wireless LAN’s being set up and hotspots will grow increasingly popular. Businesses utilizing
them, such as Starbucks, have already seen the positive ramifications. Anyone interested in
getting ahead with the latest and greatest technologies should invest in the technology of Wi-Fi,
it is the movement of the future.