Siemens IEEE802.11 Tutorial page 57

IEEE802.11 Privacy and Access Control
n
Goal of 802.11 was to provide
"Wired Equivalent Privacy" (WEP)
– Usable worldwide
n
802.11 provides for an authentication mechanism
– To aid in access control.
– Has provisions for "OPEN", "Shared Key" or proprietary
authentication extensions.
n
Shared key authentication is based on WEP privacy
mechanism
– Limited for station-to-station traffic, so not "end to end".
– Uses RC4 algorithm based on:
• a 40 bit secret key
• and a 24 bit IV that is send with the data.
• includes an ICV to allow integrity check.
WLAN-IEEE802.11 Tutorial (Maximilian Riegel), 021018-wlan-tutorial.ppt Page 57 © Siemens, 2002