The IEEE 802.

11 Wireless LAN Architecture Components

IEEE 802.11 architecture defines nine services which could be divided into two groups
which are Station (STAs) services and distribution services.

STAs services contain authentication, de-authentication, Privacy, and delivery of the

data whereas distribution services contain association, re-association, disassociation,
distribution and integration.

Stations are device which contain IEEE 802.11 specification with MAC and PHY
interface to wireless network. Station may be work station, laptop, and mobile.

The 802.11 functions are implemented either software or hardware of Network

adapter or network interface card (NIC).

The Access Point is a device which provides the point of interconnection wireless
station to the wired network or wireless network at the same time. The most
important function of Access Points is bridging function . Wireless Medium is used to
move frame from one station to another station (Gast ,2011).
Figure 1: Basic Service Set.

The Figure 1 shows the Basic Service Set with one Access Point and four work station.

A BSS is a collection of Stations that able to communicate with each other within
802.11 wireless local area network then they form a BSS. It is also called a cell.

Sometime, every mobile station may not communicate because of limitation of

coverage area in all mobile stations should be within a range to communicate. While
a BSS includes an access point and one station, the BSS is not an Independent BSS. It
is called an infrastructure BSS or simply as BSS. If there are two stations, and all
stations are in the BSS are mobile stations and there is no any connectivity to wired
LAN network, the BSS called Independent BSS (IBSS) or ad-hoc network. IBSS stations
directly communication one and another (peer to peer) but they are unable to
connect with any BSS (Gast ,2011).
Figure 2: Independent Basic Service Set.

The Figure 2 shows Independent Basic Service Set with three stations in Ad Hoc
mode.

The distribution system (DS) is the fixed wired infrastructure and used to connect a
set of BSSs to create an extended service set (ESS). The IEEE 802.11 distribution
services enable a wireless terminal to roam freely within ESS and also allow an 802.11
WLAN to connect to the wired LAN Infrastructure (Nedeltchev et al., 2001).
Extended service set (ESS) consists of multiple IEEE 802.11 BSSs forming single subnet
work where access point can communicate each other to forward traffic from one
BSS to another and provide facility to move mobile stations from one BSS to other.
The ESS configuration is a collection of multiple BSS cells which can be
connected by either wired LAN or wireless LAN and used the same channel. The
access point performs this communication through the distribution system
(Nedeltchev et al., 2001).
Figure 3: Extended service set

The Figure 3 shows Extended service set for two networks connected through
distributed system.

High-rate WLAN Standard

The 802.11b standard focuses on the bottom two layers of the open system
Interconnect (OSI) model, the physical layer and data link layer.

The 802.11b standard allows for two types of transmissions: FHSS and DSSS. Both
types of spread spectrum use more bandwidth than a typical narrowband
transmission, but enable a strong signal that is easier for the receiver to detect than
the narrowband signal (Garg,2002).
Figure 4: 802.11b and OSI Model .

According to Figure 4, the IEEE 802.11b standard works on data link layer, and
physical layer. The network operating system works on network, transport, session,
presentation, and application layer.

802.11b operating modes

802.11b defines two types of equipment: a wireless station which is usually a PC

equipped with wireless network interface card (NIC) and an AP. The 802.11b standard
defines two modes: infrastructure mode and adhoc mode (Garg,2002).

In the infrastructure mode, the wireless network consists of at least one access point
connected to the wired network infrastructure and a set of wireless end stations. This
configuration is called a basic service sets forming a single sub network.

Since most corporate WLANs require access to the wired LAN for services (file
servers, printers, internet links), they operate in infrastructure mode (Garg,2002).

Adhoc mode (also called peer-to-peer mode or an independent basic service set) is
simply a set of 802.11b wireless stations that communicate directly with one another
without using an access point or any connection to a wired network. This mode is
useful for quickly and easily setting up a wireless network anywhere that a wireless
infrastructure does not exist or is not required for services, such as a hotel room,
convention center, or airport where access to wired network is barred(Garg,2002).

Association, cellular architecture and roaming

The 802.11b MAC layer is responsible for how a client associate with an AP. When an
802.11b client enters the range of one or more APs. It chooses an AP to associate
with (also known as joining a basic service set) based on signal strength and observed
packet error rates. Once accepted by the AP, the client tunes to the radio channel to
which the AP is set. Periodically it surveys all 802.11b channels in order to access
whether a different AP would provide it with better performance characteristics. If it
determines that this is the case, it re-associates with the new AP, tuning to the radio
channel to which that AP is set. Re-association usually occurs because the wireless
station has physically moved away from the original AP, causing the signal to be
weakened, In other cases, re-associating occurs because of changes in radio
characteristics in the building or high network traffic on the original AP. In the latter
case, this function is known as load balancing since its primary function is to
distribute the total WLAN load most efficiency across the available wireless
infrastructure(Garg,2002) .

The process of dynamically associating and re-associating with APs allows network
managers to set up WLANs with very broad coverage by creating a series of
overlapping 802.11b cells throughput a building or across a campus. To be successful,
the information technology (IT) manager ideally will employ channel re-use, taking
care to set up each access point on an 802.11b DSSS channel that does not overlap
with a channel used by neighbouring AP.

(See Figure 5 DSS Channel without overlap with a channel used by neighbouring AP )
Figure 5 DSSS Channel without Overlap with a Channel Used by Neighboring AP

The Figure 5 shows that how direct sequence speed spectrum (DSSS) Channels work
without overlapping by neighboring Access points (Aps).

As noted above, while there are 14 partially overlapping channels specified in

802.11b DSSS, there are only three channels, they may cause some interference for
one another, thus lowering the total available bandwidth in the area of
overlap(Garg,2002)

WiFi as Hotspots

A hotspot often operate WiFi technology via router, offering internet access. Free
hotspot generally offer free access to menu or purchase list also providing payment
systems like paypall, or via credit card, or work public network in which
authentication and verification features are turned off (Wikipedia,2012)[37] .

The term poisoned hotspot or rogue hotspot refers to a malicious individual who sniff
the data sent by user on a free hot spot including decipher passwords, and login
names.

The "User-fairness model" is a billing model can be implemented with the help of
EDCF (IEEE 802.11e, which makes revision to MAC layer of the current IEEE 802.11 to
expand support for LAN applications that have Qos requirements(Labiod et al., 2007)
.
There are some safety tips for using publicWiFi in secure way includes, using firewall,
turning off wireless network when not in use, hiding important files, and not typing
credit card numbers, passwords or sensitive data without proper safety
mechanism on browsers (Wikipedia,2012).

While using Wi-Fi hotspot you should be sure that sent information should be
fully encrypted, and always logout after finishing your work. Always
remember that you are not permanently signed into accounts. Pay attention
to browser alerts and warnings. HTTP and TLS does not fully protect browsing.
If possible, use VPN (virtual private network) (Onguardonline, 2012).

IEEE 802.11

The world has become increasingly mobile and wireless networks allows users
to work and move freely, therefore wireless technologies, nowadays, are
more popular that wired or fixed networks. The word “Wi-Fi” stands for
wireless fidelity, which means that the device having Wi-Fi can access a
Wireless Local Area Network [2]. Wireless LAN is seen as the technology that
will enable the most convenient link between existing wired networks and
portable computing and communication equipment, such as laptop
computers and personnel digital assistants (PDAs), at the office, hotel,
company, or campus level. An obvious advantage of the WLAN is that it
reduces the need for wiring among several buildings. In general, the
applications of the WLAN systems can be simply between two computers or
between a computer and a wired network, all the way up to the complete
network with many users and a great numbers of data paths(Gu,2004) .

Historically, Wi-Fi has its roots at Xerox PARC - Xerox Corporation’s research
organization located in Palo Alto, California. Xerox PARC invented Ethernet
protocol as well as the PARC Universal Packet architecture that can be seen as
an early development of todays network protocols and architectures [38]. In
1985, US Federal Communications Commission released the ISM radio band
for unlicensed use [38] which is the radio band for 802.11. In 1988, NRC
Corporation wanted to use an unlicensed spectrum for wireless cash registers.
These efforts resulted in the formation of a committee by Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) called 802.11. In 1991, NCR
Corporation in collaboration with AT&T invented the precursor IEEE 802.11 for
use with cashier systems.
In mid-1997, the IEEE finalized the initial standard for WLAN, IEEE 802.11. This
standard specifies a license free (ISM band) 2.4 GHz operating frequency with
data rates of 1 and 2 Mbps using a direct sequence or a frequency hopping
spread spectrum. The 802.11 is not a single but a family of standards
addressing WLAN. The IEEE 802.11a standard defines a WLAN system based
on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology that
splits an information signal across 52 separate subcarriers to provide a
transmission-of-data rate up to 54 Mbps and throughput over 24.3 Mbps. The
operating frequency of the system is in the license-free (uni band) 5.15 to 5.35
GHz and 5.725 to 5.875 GHz bands.

The 802.11a devices, as the other 802.11 based devices, share the channel on
time division multiple-access (TDMA) basis. The 802.11b specifies a WLAN
system using direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) to achieve the
maximum 11 Mbps

transmission-of-data rate in 2.4 GHz band. To benefit from the high data rates
in 2.4 GHz band, a new standard, 802.11g that is based on the OFDM and fully
backward compatible with the 802.11b standard was developed in early 2000.
The high data rate WLANs like 802.11a and 802.11g systems satisfy
requirements of multimedia applications including streaming HDTV-quality
video in the home, high speed internet, and file transfer (Gu,2004).

The supplement standards 802.11e, 802.11f, 802.11h, and 802.11i are defined
to enhance the capability of 802.11-based WLANs. The 802.11e is for
enhancements of the quality of service (QOS). The 802.11f provides a
recommended practice for an inter access-point protocol. The 802.11h
extends the spectrum and transmit power management at 5 GHz for
European operation. The 802.11i enhances MAC layer security (Gu,2004).