IEEE 802.11w

IEEE 802.11w is a proposed amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard to increase the security of its management frames.

802.11 is a set of IEEE standards that govern wireless networking transmission methods. They are commonly used today in their 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g versions to provide wireless connectivity in the home, office and some commercial establishments.

Protected Management Frames

IEEE 802.11w is the Protected Management Frames standard for the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. TGw is working on improving the IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control layer to increase the security of management frames.

Wireless LANs send system management information in unprotected frames, which makes them vulnerable. This standard will protect against network disruption caused by malicious systems that forge disassociation requests that appear to be sent by valid equipment.

It is expected that 802.11w would extend IEEE 802.11i to apply to 802.11 management frames as well as data frames. These extensions will have interactions with IEEE 802.11r and IEEE 802.11u [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:xxpIIlf9q5sJ:www.ieee802.org/21/sept05_meeting_docs/21-05-0381-00-0000-802-11-liaison-September05.ppt+802.11w&hl=en&client=firefox-a]

tatus

The 802.11w standard is in its early proposal stages. The target for ratification is March 2008Fact|date=June 2008.

ee also

*IEEE 802.11i Enhanced Security
*IEEE 802.11r Fast BSS Transition
*IEEE 802.11u Interworking with non-802.11 networks

External references

* [http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/tgw_update.htm Status of the project 802.11w] IEEE Task Group TGw