MDS 05-6302A01, Rev. B
MDS Mercury 16E Technical Manual
11
the Subscriber to join the network, then the data encryption keying
material is sent to the Base Station. The Base Station then continues the
PKM protocol to further derive keying material that is used to secure
transmissions between the Base Station and the Subscriber.
The Subscriber must be configured with X.509 certificates that are
appropriate for the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in which they are
deployed. These certificates are used to identify and authenticate the
Subscriber to the RADIUS sever.
Test Auth Mode (for Bench Test/Evaluation)
The Device Auth Mode can be set to
Test Auth
to enable encryption on
the WiMAX link without requiring an AAA server. To use this mode,
both the Base Station and the Subscriber(s) must be set to
Test Auth
. In
this arrangement, the Base Station acts as a simple AAA server and
authenticates the subscriber without actually evaluating its identity
certificate. This is convenient when doing bench testing in which the
performance with encryption enabled is to be measured but without the
complexity of setting up a AAA server and identity certificates.
X.509 Certificates
A digital certificate, also known as an X.509 certificate, is a file that
contains identification data and asymmetric key material. Each
certificate contains a Common Name that identifies the user or device
that owns the certificate. The primary information in the certificate is the
public key for the user or device and a digital signature proving the
authenticity of the certificate's contents.
The Mercury transceiver uses X.509 certificates in the EAP-TLS
handshake during device authentication as described in the PKMv2
section above.
NOTE:
Certificates must start with the serial number of the radio to
work.
3.2 Multiple In / Multiple Out (MIMO) Operation
MIMO stands for Multiple In / Multiple Out. The Mercury transceiver
features 2x2 MIMO on all models. This means that there are two full
transmit and receive channels on each device. The use of 2x2 MIMO
causes the Mercury transceiver to have higher throughput and greater
range and coverage than single channel devices in the same
environment.
