Comparison Between Different Wireless Standards, Research Paper Example

802.11a

The 802.11a standard supports speed up to 54 Mbps. In addition, it utilizes the 5 GHz band. For transmission, the 802.11a standard uses the OFDM transmission technique. There are several different types of data rates that can be used by 802.11a standard such as 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48 Mbps.

802.11b

The 802.11b standard supports speed up to 11 Mbps. Moreover, another data rate for this standard is 5.5 Mbps. For the transmission of data, 02.11b utilizes the DSSS transmission techniques. The 2.4 GHz band is used for the 802.11b standard.

802.11g

The 54 Mbps speed is supported by the 802.11g WLAN. The 802.11g supports data rate similar to 802.11a. For instance, 6,9,12,18,24,36 and 48 Mbps. Moreover, the 802.11g supports 2.4 GHz band that enables to offer backwards compatibility to 802.11b devices. Both OFDM and the DSSS transmission techniques can be used by the 802.11g standard.

802.11n

The 802.11n WLAN standard supports a wide range of variety of speeds. Depending upon its deployment, the 802.11n WLAN standard network can increase its speed till 300 Mbps if used with channel bonding. The 802.11n devices that are available in the market contain speed ranging between 130-150 Mbps. In fact, the 802.11n standard can operate in 2.4 GHz band and the 5-GHZ band or both at the same time. The OFDM transmission techniques are utilized by the 802.11n standard. The 802.11n standard receives greater throughput via the use of the latest technology known as “multiple input, multiple output” (MIMO). Multiple antennas are used for transferring or receiving data by MIMO. However, these antennas do not interrupt each other. This can be done by utilizing multiplexing technique that encodes data based on antenna from where the data is being transferred. The concurrent use of multiple antennas by the MIMO, the reliability and throughout can be improved.

Multiple Input Multiple Output

For the standard 802.11n, the MIMO is considered as the huge development. The MIMO provides a wide range of speed in order to transfer data as fast as possible. Moreover, multiplexing is used to increase the range as, well as the speed related to wireless networking. Over a single line or medium, multiple signals are used for transferring data in multiplexing technique. In addition, the transmission of multiple data streams on different antennas with the help of MIMO for the similar channels. The receiver that contains multiple antennas rebuilds the stream. The MIMO offers a particular capacity over a conventional single-antenna system that supports consistent communication.

Channel bonding

The 802.11n allows channel bonding that helps to dual the data rate. The channel bonding is defined as the carrier to send or receive data. In standard 802.11b and 802.11g, the wireless standards utilize a single channel to receive or transfer data. The channel bonding enables users to utilize two channels at the same time. Thus it increases the performance of data transferring by utilizing two channels at the same time. It is accepted that bonding enhances the wireless transmission rate from 54 Mbps to 600 Mbps. Moreover, Channel bonding is deployed by 802.11n standards. With the help of channel bonding, the two wireless bands could bind together in order to form a band that contains double bandwidth from a single band. Channels bond is sometimes referred as 40 MHz mode this means the bonding of two neighboring 20 MHz bands into 40 MHZ band.

Speed Spectrum Technology

This technology involves data transmission via radio frequency, as the speeded spectrum do not transmits in a straight line via a single radio frequency band. This type of transmission is called as the narrowband transmission. On the other hand, the spread spectrum needs a data signal, however, the spread spectrum is developed to trade off bandwidth in an effective, efficient and reliable way.

Securing Threats and Future Challenges via Advanced Tools

We can use following tools for detecting anomalies to and from the wireless computer network. In order to deploy Snort, network administrator will inject a tracing mechanism that will collect raw data packets from the network interfaces. As per the current scenario, protocols related to wireless access will be considered i.e. WAN, SLIP, PPP, VPN by deploying kernel named as ‘Libpcap’, in order to get prepared for preprocessing mechanism in the packet decoder . Likewise, the preprocessor modifies data packets prior to their way to the detection engine, in order to analyze them and generate alerts for anomalies related to wireless attacks associated with headers of the packets. Likewise, (Cox & Gerg, 2009) the core function of a preprocessor is to prepare or shape the network traffic for applying rules that are applicable at the next stage that is detection engine. This is usually called as packet defragmentation (Cox & Gerg, 2009). Moreover, Snort will decode HTTP and will also re construct TCP streams that are currently being used by hackers. The detection engine is based on time and operates in an extensive evidence collection mechanism. It is time- based because, if many rules are applied, the packet processing will consume time. The detection engine of Snort, stops’ processing, whenever, a rule is matched. Network administrator will only apply rules on protocols that are currently been utilized by attackers. According to the defined parameters of a specific rule, the detection engine will log the packet or else generate an alert. Consequently, before Snort generates an alert, it makes sure that all rules are matched. The next component of Snort known as the collection engine will gather evidence from the hosts and networks that is an input for a forensic investigation team.

Moreover, Windump will detect for any unknown malware installation on each workstation including servers on the network (Ec-Council, 2009). The primary focus is to analyze and report any file that is installed on any workstation providing remote access to the hacker. The tool is specifically developed for supporting functions related to digital forensics investigation. The tool can specifically analyze traffic broadcasting from the workstation that has a malware installed in it. Likewise, it extracts the source information from the packet header in terms of IP addresses (Ec-Council, 2009). Moreover, the tool can also facilitate the investigation team to filter the required information. For instance, investigation team is currently analyzing SSL packets because of an online crime. Consequently, the tool will only provide information related to SSL packets only and ignore the rest.

References

Cox, K. J., & Gerg, C. (2009). Managing security with snort & IDS tools O’Reilly Media.

Ec-Council. (2009). Computer forensics: Investigating network intrusions and cybercrime [with access code] Course Technology Ptr.