Subject: [NEXTEL-1] The four 'S'es of Wi-Fi: Security, service quality, support, scalability

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 14:28:34 -0500

The four 'S'es of Wi-Fi: Security, service quality, support, scalability
Source: Boardwatch
Publication date: 2003-01-01
Arrival time: 2003-01-17

Consultant's corner

The newest way for companies to extend their reach to employees, remote
locations, vendors and even just conference rooms is by leveraging WiFi
(see "The State of the Wireless Internet," starting page 26 for more on Wi-Fi
and broadband wireless). Wi-Fi is poised to be the "next big thing" in
wireless, providing an open-standard technology that enables wireless
connectivity at speeds of up to 11 Mbps - up to 100 times faster than other
wireless solutions and about seven times faster than a typical Ti connection.

Wi-Fi appears to have some pretty relevant applications and cost savings.
Not having to spend hard dollars on wiring, cabling, tearing down walls, and
construction appears to be a natural win. So, where are the gotchas? The
two biggest, that are of course, getting the most press are security and
quality of service (QOS).

From the security perspective, there are folks (literally) driving around
searching for wireless networks. It's called "war driving" or "stumbling."
People who war drive are typically hackers, or even security firms looking to
inform a company of a security risk on their wireless network. War Driving
has taken its name from the popular movie "War Games" in which hackers
would do something called "war dialing." Instead, they drive around
neighborhoods and business parks looking for insecure wireless LANs
(WLANs).

Clearly, the goal of anyone implementing a WLAN is to make it the security
equivalent of a wired LAN. To do this, one must consider issues such as
per-packet keying (TKJP), message integrity checking (TKIP-MIC), mutual
authentication, policy-based key rotation using RADIUS technology, and
more. A solidly protected WLAN has integrated the wireless LAN into an IP
Sec-based VPN and has continually updated security policies.

Oh... so now it's not sounding so easy, is it? The rub here is in the
implementation and management. The planning of who needs access,
whether it's concurrent, working habits, QOS issues, etc. must be clearly
defined. Site surveys are critical to identify radio coverage, signal strength,
rate of packet loss, etc. Then, of course, providers must architect the design
and define the security and QOS policies. But, let's not forget our friend the
operational support systems (OSS). While planning and surveying and
architecting for this newfangled WLAN,a truly prepared organization is doing
the exact same thing to your OSS. Knowing the impact to your systems will
be the key to overall success. How will a provider know if it has been
hacked? Its OSS. How will a provider know if users are receiving the QOS
levels set? Its OSS. How will a provider know if it needs to deliver more
bandwidth to a certain site? Its OSS. And so on.

If time was abundant, capital dollars were freely flowing, and providers had
the resources to throw at it, they would look across all the functions of their
systems to understand the impact of the WLAN. The reality of today's
business environment, though, dictates a more frugal approach. So,
prioritize:

* Security. Tie fault monitoring systems into wireless routers. Establish
mechanisms to track IDS in a consolidated manner through OSS.Take
Security management as a mandate, not a "nice to have." Enforce it,
enforce it, and enforce it.

* Service Quality.QOS drives policies,which drive capacity planning, which
drives traffic engineering, which drives strong inventory management, which
drives strong provisioning processes. By linking them together and
establishing systems and procedures, providers can finally climb this
mountain.

* Support. Users are dubious at first, but then come to expect the speed
and ease of WLAN-type services. But, when a problem arises, frustration
can rapidly shoot through the roof.Tightly integrated systems will reduce
anxiety, increase responsiveness and allow for more successful remote
implementations.

* Scalability. Plan the inventory, bandwidth, policies and applications to
scale. Know that if it's easier for users to get to their applications, they're
going to want them more often and faster.

Nicole Gillen is client partner with New York-based IT/ telecommunications
consult ing and engineering firm Greenwich Technology Partners Inc.
(www.greenwichtech.com). She has more than eight years
telecommunications experience with advanced systems architecture and
design, Internet/IP product development, and lifecycle system development

Copyright Penton Media, Inc. Jan 2003

Publication date: 2003-01-01

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=35952621&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

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