Title page for ETD etd-11162007-091108

Type of Document

Thesis

Author

Mkubulo, Donation

URN

etd-11162007-091108

Title

Analysis of Wi-Fi Security Protocols and Authentication Delay

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Bruce Harvey	Committee Chair
Ming Yu	Committee Member
Simon Foo	Committee Member

Keywords

Authentication Delay
Wi-Fi Security

Date of Defense

2007-11-08

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

This thesis examines security threats facing wireless networks and the effectiveness of security protocols deployed to combat these threats. The thesis will base its study on Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) as defined by IEEE standards 802.11a/b/g/n. Features of each WLAN Security protocol, from WEP, WPA and IEEE 802.11i will be analyzed and the effectiveness of each protocol in ensuring data integrity, data confidentiality, and network availability will be presented.

To allow mobility of users while ensuring network services are received at an acceptable quality level, fast handovers of client device from one Access Point (AP) to another are necessary. Mainly probing process, in which a client device looks for a proper AP to associate with, and the authentication process cause Handover delays. This thesis provides an analysis of authentication delay resulting from the use of different security protocols. A mathematical model was developed and used to calculate the authentication delay. The results obtained show that the largest delay is experienced with the 802.11i security protocol. In a network where frequent handovers of a client device are required from one Access point to another; the large latencies may lead to poor Quality of Service (QoS) or even interruption of real-time and interactive network services such as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Files

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