User's Manual

hwc_glossary.fm
Glossary
Networking terms and abbreviations
A31003-W1050-U100-2-7619,
March 2008
HiPath Wireless Controller, Access Points and Convergence Software V5 R1 , C20/C2400 User Guide 367
VSA Vendor Specific Attribute, an attribute for a RADIUS server defined by the
manufacturer.(compared to the RADIUS attributes defined in the original RADIUS protocol
RFC2865). A VSA attribute is defined in order that it can be returned from the RADIUS server
in the Access Granted packet to the Radius Client.
Walled Garden A restricted subset of network content that wireless devices can access.
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy. A security protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs)
defined in the 802.11b standard. WEP aims to provide security by encrypting data over radio
waves so that it is protected as it is transmitted from one end point to another.
Wi-Fi Wireless fidelity. A term referring to any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11a,
dual-band, etc. Used in reference to the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit international association
formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of wireless Local Area Network products based on
IEEE 802.11 specification.
WINS Windows Internet Naming Service. A system that determines the IP address associated with
a particular network computer, called name resolution. WINS supports network client and
server computers running Windows and can provide name resolution for other computers with
special arrangements. WINS supports dynamic addressing (DHCP) by maintaining a
distributed database that is automatically updated with the names of computers currently
available and the IP address assigned to each one.
DNS is an alternative system for name resolution suitable for network computers with fixed IP
addresses.
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network.
WMM Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), a Wi-Fi Alliance certified standard that provides multimedia
enhancements for Wi-Fi networks that improve the user experience for audio, video, and voice
applications. This standard is compliant with the IEEE 802.11e Quality of Service (QoS)
extensions for 802.11 networks. WMM provides prioritized media access by shortening the
time between transmitting packets for higher priority traffic. WMM is based on the Enhanced
Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) method.
WPA Wireless Protected Access, or Wi-Fi Protected Access is a security solution adopted by the
Wi-Fi Alliance that adds authentication to WEPs’ basic encryption. For authentication, WPA
specifies IEEE 802.1x authentication with Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). For
encryption, WPA uses the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) mechanism, which shares
a starting key between devices, and then changes their encryption key for every packet.
Certificate Authentication (CA) can also be used. Also part of the encryption mechanism are
802.1X for dynamic key distribution and Message Integrity Check (MIC) a.k.a. Michael.
WPA requires that all computers and devices have WPA software.
WPA-PSK Wi-Fi Protected Access with Pre-Shared Key, a special mode of WPA for users without an
enterprise authentication server. Instead, for authentication, a Pre-Shared Key is used. The
PSK is a shared secret (passphrase) that must be entered in both the Wireless AP or router
and the WPA clients.
This preshared key should be a random sequence of characters at least 20 characters long
or hexadecimal digits (numbers 0-9 and letters A-F) at least 24 hexadecimal digits long. After
the initial shared secret, the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) handles the encryption
and automatic rekeying.
Term Explanation
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