Linux Unwired [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

4.2 The Future Is 802.11i

The future solution from the IEEE to provide real wireless security
and a strong cryptographic system is the proposed
802.11i
standard. The IEEE Task Group responsible for this standard maintains
a web page at http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/tgi_update.
As of December 2003, draft 7 of this proposal has been sent to a
"sponsor ballot," and the results
are not yet available. The word on the street is that 802.11i will
become a ratified standard sometime in mid-2004.

The final standard of 802.11i will likely address the following:

Use of 802.1x for authentication

802.1x is a specification framework for mutual authentication between
a client and an access point. 802.1x may also use a backend
authentication server such as RADIUS and take advantage of one of the
Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) variations. 802.1x uses a
new key for each session, so it resolves the issue of a single static
WEP key.

Use of the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)

TKIP uses 128-bit dynamic keys that are changed at random times.
Because of the constantly changing keys, intruders would be hard
pressed to collect enough radio frames to compromise the keys.

Use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

The full implementation of 802.11i will utilize AES encryption to
make a very strong cryptographic system. However, using AES requires
significant computational horsepower. Current models of access points
will not be able to handle AES due to limited processors. Expect new
models that are "802.11i ready" to
arrive on the market in 2004.