AWU254
54M Wireless USB Adapter User Guide
- 17 -
integrity, and security. In other words, more bandwidth is consumed than in the case
of narrowband transmission, but the trade off produces a signal that is, in effect,
louder and thus easier to detect, provided that the receiver knows the parameters of
the spread-spectrum signal being broadcast. If a receiver is not tuned to the right
frequency, a spread-spectrum signal looks like background noise. There are two main
alternatives, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency Hopping
Spread Spectrum (FHSS).
¾
SSID - A Service Set Identification is a thirty-two character (maximum)
alphanumeric key identifying a wireless local area network. For the wireless devices in
a network to communicate with each other, all devices must be configured with the
same SSID. This is typically the configuration parameter for a wireless PC card. It
corresponds to the ESSID in the wireless Access Point and to the wireless network
name.
¾
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) - A data privacy mechanism based on a 64-bit or
128-bit or 152-bit shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802.11 standard.
¾
Wi-Fi - A trade name for the 802.11b wireless networking standard, given by the
Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA, see http://www.wi-fi.net), an
industry standards group promoting interoperability among 802.11b devices.
¾
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) - A group of computers and associated devices
communicate with each other wirelessly, which network serving users are limited in a
local area.
¾
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) - A wireless security protocol use TKIP (Temporal Key
Integrity Protocol) encryption, which can be used in conjunction with a RADIUS
server.
