Glossary
167
W
WAN
A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a communications
network that spans a relatively large geographical
area, extending over distances greater than one
kilometer. A WAN is often connected through public
networks, such as the telephone system. It can also be
connected through leased lines or satellites.
The Internet is essentially a very large WAN.
WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a data encryption
protocol for
802.11
wireless networks. All wireless
stations and access points on the network are
configured with a static 64-bit (40-bit secret key +
24-bit initialization vector (IV)) or 128-bit (104-bit
secret key + 24-bit IV)
Shared Key
for data
encryption. It uses a
RC4
stream cipher to encrypt
the frame body and CRC of each
802.11
frame before
transmission.
Wi-Fi
A test and certification of interoperability for
WLAN
products based on the
IEEE
802.11
standard
promoted by the
Wi-Fi Alliance
, a non-profit trade
organization.
WINS
The Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) is a
server process for resolving Windows-based
computer names to IP addresses. It provides
information that allows these systems to browse
remote networks using the Network Neighborhood.
Wireless Networking Framework
There are two ways of organizing a wireless network:
•
Stations communicate directly with one another
in an
Ad hoc Mode
network, also known as an
independent basic service set (
IBSS
).
•
Stations communicate through an
Access Point
in an
Infrastructure Mode
network. A single
access point creates an infrastructure basic
service set (
BSS
) whereas multiple access points
are organized in an extended service set (
ESS
).
WLAN
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is a
LAN
that
uses high-frequency radio waves rather than wires to
communicate between its nodes.
WMM
Wireless Multimedia (WMM) is a
IEEE
technology
standard designed to improve the quality of audio,
video and multimedia applications on a wireless
network. Both access points and wireless clients
(laptops, consumer electronics products) can be
WMM-enabled. WMM features are based on is a
subset of the
WLAN
IEEE
802.11e
draft
specification. Wireless products that are built to the
standard and pass a set of quality tests can carry the
“Wi-Fi certified for WMM” label to ensure
interoperability with other such products. For more
information, see the WMM page on the Wi-Fi
Alliance Web site:
http://www.wi-fi.org/
OpenSection/wmm.asp
.
WPA
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a
Wi-Fi
Alliance
version of the draft
IEEE
802.11i
standard. It
provides more sophisticated data encryption than
WEP
and also provides user authentication. WPA
includes
TKIP
and
802.1X
mechanisms.
WPA2
WiFi Protected Access (WPA2) is an enhanced
security standard, described in
IEEE
802.11i
, that
uses Advanced Encryption Standard (
AES
) for data
encryption.
The original
WPA
uses Temporal Key Integrity
Protocol (
TKIP
) for data encryption. WPA2 is
backwards-compatible with products that support the
original
WPA
.
WPA2, like the original
WPA
, supports an Enterprise
and Personal version. The Enterprise version
requires use of IEEE
802.1X
security features and
Extensible Authentication Protocol (
EAP
)
authentication with a
RADIUS
server.
