1

ETH Informatikdienste

Wireless LAN (IEEE802.11b)

@ ETH Zürich

Armin Brunner
Informatikdienste ETHZ

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 Agenda 2
ETH Informatikdienste

u The Project “Wireless LAN”

u Why are WLANs useless
u Why WLANs make sense
u The WLAN concept of ETHZ
u The future of WLAN at ETHZ

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The project „Wireless LAN“ 1/2 3
ETH Informatikdienste

u Better use of existing physical space:

Development of „public“ areas like:
• Cafeterias and refectories
• popular areas for learning and studying
• Libraries
• Meeting rooms

u Enabling of new forms of teaching:

• Development of lecture halls with WLANs

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The Project „Wireless LAN“ 2/2 4
ETH Informatikdienste

u Project-start: summer 2000

u Project-end: spring 2002
u Proposed volume:
• 60 WLAN access-points
• 600 WLAN client cards
u Budget: 480kFr
u Installed volume (spring 02):
• 90 WLAN access-points
• 1000 WLAN client cards
u The client-cards are sold for 100Fr to students
and employees. (1 card per person)

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 Why are WLANs useless 5
ETH Informatikdienste

Wireless LANs have four huge weaknesses:

u The useable bandwidth is very limited.

u The connection to the network is not visible.

u Wireless LAN is a shared media.

u The built in security mechanisms are useless.

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The problems of bandwidth 1/2 6
ETH Informatikdienste

u year 2002
• Wire-based standard-access is 100MBit/s dedicated.
• WLAN: for each Access-Point ~5MBit/s shared for 10-20 users.

• a difference of factor 200-500 in bandwith today.

u year 2004
• Wire-based standard-access is 1‘000MBit/s dedicated.
• WLAN: for each Access-Point ~20MBit/s shared for 10-20 users.

• a difference of factor 500-1000 in bandwith 2004.

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The problems of bandwidth 2/2 7
ETH Informatikdienste

The bandwidth in a „room“ is not scalable .

License free ISM Band

2.40 2.41 2.42 2.43 2.44 2.45 2.46 2.47 2.48 GHz

Channel 1
Channel 2
Channel 3
Channel 4
Channel 5
Channel 6
Channel 7
Channel 8
Channel 9
Channel 10
Channel 11
Channel 12
Channel 13

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The problems of the unvisible connection 8
ETH Informatikdienste

u The area of a WLAN cell is not definable.

The coverage depends on:
• Building structure
• Transmit power of access-point and client-card
• Antenna-quality of access-point and/or client-card

u Misconfigurations of the access-points show no immediate

effect.

u The usergroup is controlable only with additional mechanisms.

u The connection is sensitve.

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The problems of sharded medias 9
ETH Informatikdienste

u Performance depends on the number of clients and access-

points and on the fairness of the driver implementation.

u Wiretapping of WLANs is very easy.

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The problems of security 10
ETH Informatikdienste

There are three built in security mechanisms in the

IEEE802.11b standard. All of them are virtually useless:

u Radio Service Set Identification (SSID)

• SSID is included in every beacon-packet
• With unconfigered SSID the client will accept every AP

u Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)

• Not solvable problems with Keymanagement/-distribution

u Control of the allowed MAC-addresses

• Useable only for very small number of clients

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 Why WLANs make sense 11
ETH Informatikdienste

Wireless LANs can make sense if all the problems

are addressed. Therefore we recommend:

u WLANs are never a replacement of a good wire

infrastructure. It‘s only a supplement.
u High bandwidth demanding application are not suitable for
WLANs.
u There must be an experienced coordination for AP
positions and frequencies.
u User-validation is essential.
u There must be a secure and practicable encryption of the
wireless connection.

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The WLAN concept of ETHZ 1/2 12
ETH Informatikdienste

u http://www.id.ethz.ch/Publikationen/WLAN-Konzept/WLAN-
Konzept_2002.pdf

u There is no unprotected access-points.

• WEP or MAC-list with small working groups or autonomous computers
• Else User-validation with the central validation service

u Every access-points must have a configuration with a

correct SSID.
• SSID=„public“ in installationen based on user-validation
• SSID based on subnet name in installationen with WEP/MAC list

u The configuration and position of all access-points are

coordinated by the Informatikdienste

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The WLAN Concept of ETHZ 2/2 13
ETH Informatikdienste

User validation in the „public“ area:

Radius
request

VPN-server Radius-server

Radius
ETH-Campus-Netz request

IOS-router dynamic
IPSec access-liste
tunnel
Public docking subnet
SSH
session
for
AP AP AP validation

WLAN Docking WLAN

client client client

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 The future of WLAN at ETHZ 14
ETH Informatikdienste

u 50% job dedicated for installation and management of the

„public“ WLAN

u Today ca. 90 Access-Points installed und

ca. 1000 client-cards sold.
u Until end of 2002 about 150 access-points in the public
area.

u Future plans for the installation of access-points in all

lecture halls, seminar rooms and „public“ meeting rooms.

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002

 15
ETH Informatikdienste

Thank you

Armin Brunner 14.6.2002