Synopses & Reviews
As a network administrator, architect, or security professional, you need to understand the capabilities, limitations, and risks associated with integrating wireless LAN technology into your current infrastructure. 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide provides all the information necessary to analyze and deploy wireless networks with confidence.
Over the past five years, the world has become increasingly mobile. Traditional ways of networking have altered to accommodate new lifestyles and ways of working. Wireless networks offer several advantages over fixed (or wired) networks, with mobility, flexibility, ease and speed of deployment, and low-cost at the top of the list. Large productivity gains are possible when developers, students, and professionals are able to access data on the move. Ad-hoc meetings in the lunch room, library, or across the street in the café allow you to develop ideas collaboratively and act on them right away. Wireless networks are typically very flexible, which can translate into rapid deployment. Once the infrastructure is in place, adding new users is just a matter of authorization.
After a general introduction to wireless networks, this practical book moves quickly into the gory details of the 802.11 standard. If you ever need to debug a wireless network that isnt working properly, youd better understand this material. 802.11 MAC (Media Access Control), detailed 802.11 framing, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol), 802.1x, management operations, and the PCF (point coordination function) are all covered in detail. Author Matthew Gast also supplies impressive detail on the physical layers.
As for getting a wireless network up and running.,. Gast offers clear, no-nonsense guide for using 802.11 on Windows and Linux, using and selecting access points, making deployment considerations, and seeing to 802.11 network monitoring and performance tuning. In the final section of the book, he summarizes the standardization work pending in the 802.11 working group.
If youre looking for one book that provides a full spectrum view of 802.11, from the minute details of the specification, to deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting, 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide is worth its weight in gold.
Synopsis
As a network administrator, architect, or security professional, you need to understand the capabilities, limitations, and risks associated with integrating wireless LAN technology into your current infrastructure."802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide provides all the information necessary to analyze and deploy wireless networks with confidence. After a general introduction to wireless networks, this practical book moves quickly into the gory details of the 802.11 standard. Author Matthew Gast offers a clear, no-nonsense guide for using 802.11 on Windows and Linux, using and selecting access points, making deployment considerations, and seeing to 802.11 network monitoring and performance tuning.The final section of the book summarizes the standardization work pending in the 802.11 working group.If you're looking for one source that provides a full spectrum view of 802.11, from the minute details of the specification, to deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting, this impressive book is worth its weight in gold.
Synopsis
This guide provides administrators with the information they need to set up and debug an 802.11 wireless network. The book explores the 802.11 protocol in depth, covers Linux networking issues, and introduces wide area networking using 802.11. This is a true RDefinitive GuideS that will cover everything readers need in order to use this hot new technology.
About the Author
Matthew Gast works in the Office of the CTO at Trapeze Networks, where he leads the development of open wireless network standards and their application to the Trapeze architecture. He is a member of the IEEE 802.11 working group, and serves as chair of 802.11 Task Group M. As chair of the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wireless Network Management marketing task group, he is leading the investigation of certification requirements for power saving, performance optimization, and location and timing services. Matthew also chairs the Security Technical task group, which is extending Wi-Fi protected Access (WPA) certification to incorporate newly-developed security mechanisms so that it remains the strongest form of protection available for Wi-Fi networking. In 2007, Matthew was a founder of the OpenSEA Alliance, a group organized to support the development of open-source network security solutions. He currently serves on the engineering steering committee, the organization's board of directors, and as its corporate secretary. Matthew's most recent book, 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly Media), now in its second edition, is the top selling reference work in the field and has been translated into six languages.
Table of Contents
Preface; Prometheus Untethered: The Possibilities of Wireless LANs; Audience; Overture for Book in Black and White, Opus 2; Conventions Used in This Book; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Introduction to Wireless Networks; 1.1 Why Wireless?; 1.2 A Network by Any Other Name...; Chapter 2: Overview of 802.11 Networks; 2.1 IEEE 802 Network Technology Family Tree; 2.2 802.11 Nomenclature and Design; 2.3 802.11 Network Operations; 2.4 Mobility Support; Chapter 3: The 802.11 MAC; 3.1 Challenges for the MAC; 3.2 MAC Access Modes and Timing; 3.3 Contention-Based Access Using the DCF; 3.4 Fragmentation and Reassembly; 3.5 Frame Format; 3.6 Encapsulation of Higher-Layer Protocols Within 802.11; 3.7 Contention-Based Data Service; Chapter 4: 802.11 Framing in Detail; 4.1 Data Frames; 4.2 Control Frames; 4.3 Management Frames; 4.4 Frame Transmission and Association and Authentication States; Chapter 5: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP); 5.1 Cryptographic Background to WEP; 5.2 WEP Cryptographic Operations; 5.3 Problems with WEP; 5.4 Conclusions and Recommendations; Chapter 6: Security, Take 2: 802.1x; 6.1 The Extensible Authentication Protocol; 6.2 802.1x: Network Port Authentication; 6.3 802.1x on Wireless LANs; Chapter 7: Management Operations; 7.1 Management Architecture; 7.2 Scanning; 7.3 Authentication; 7.4 Association; 7.5 Power Conservation; 7.6 Timer Synchronization; Chapter 8: Contention-Free Service with the PCF; 8.1 Contention-Free Access Using the PCF; 8.2 Detailed PCF Framing; 8.3 Power Management and the PCF; Chapter 9: Physical Layer Overview; 9.1 Physical-Layer Architecture; 9.2 The Radio Link; 9.3 RF and 802.11; Chapter 10: The ISM PHYs: FH, DS, and HR/DS; 10.1 802.11 FH PHY; 10.2 802.11 DS PHY; 10.3 802.11b: HR/DSSS PHY; Chapter 11: 802.11a: 5-GHz OFDM PHY; 11.1 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM); 11.2 OFDM as Applied by 802.11a; 11.3 OFDM PLCP; 11.4 OFDM PMD; 11.5 Characteristics of the OFDM PHY; Chapter 12: Using 802.11 on Windows; 12.1 Nokia C110/C111; 12.2 Lucent ORiNOCO; Chapter 13: Using 802.11 on Linux; 13.1 A Few Words on 802.11 Hardware; 13.2 PCMCIA Support on Linux; 13.3 linux-wlan-ng for Intersil-Based Cards; 13.4 Agere (Lucent) Orinoco; Chapter 14: Using 802.11 Access Points; 14.1 General Functions of an Access Point; 14.2 ORiNOCO (Lucent) AP-1000 Access Point; 14.3 Nokia A032 Access Point; Chapter 15: 802.11 Network Deployment; 15.1 The Topology Archetype; 15.2 Project Planning; 15.3 The Site Survey; 15.4 Installation and the Final Rollout; Chapter 16: 802.11 Network Analysis; 16.1 Why Use a Network Analyzer?; 16.2 802.11 Network Analyzers; 16.3 Commercial Network Analyzers; 16.4 Ethereal; 16.5 802.11 Network Analysis Examples; 16.6 AirSnort; Chapter 17: 802.11 Performance Tuning; 17.1 Tuning Radio Management; 17.2 Tuning Power Management; 17.3 Timing Operations; 17.4 Physical Operations; 17.5 Summary of Tunable Parameters; Chapter 18: The Future, at Least for 802.11; 18.1 Current Standards Work; 18.2 The Longer Term; 18.3 The End; 802.11 MIB; The Root of the Matter; Station Management; MAC Management; Physical-Layer Management; 802.11 on the Macintosh; The AirPort Card; The AirPort Base Station; Links to More Information; Glossary; Colophon;