Key Terms

• 802.11— A set of protocols for wireless communication. The 802.11 protocols occupy the Network Access layer of the TCP/IP stack, which is equivalent to the OSI Data Link and Physical layers.

• access point— A device that serves as a connecting point from a wireless network to a conventional network. An access point typically acts as a network bridge, forwarding frames to and from a wireless network to a conventional Ethernet network.

• associate— A procedure in which a wireless device registers its affiliation with a nearby access point.

• Bluetooth— A protocol architecture for wireless appliances and devices in very close proximity.

• Independent Basic Service Set— A wireless network consisting of two or more devices communicating with each other directly.

• Infrastructure Basic Service Set— A wireless network in which the wireless devices communicate through one or more access points connected to a conventional network.

• open authentication— An authentication technique in which the device must supply a preconfigured string known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID) to access the network.

• RC4— A stream encryption algorithm commonly used for network transmissions. RC4 is the encryption algorithm used in WEP.

• reassociate— The procedure in which a wireless device changes its affiliation from one access point to another.

• shared key authentication— An authentication technique in which the device must prove its knowledge of a secret key.

• Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)— A standard for security on 802.11 wireless networks.

• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)— An upper-layer protocol stack for wireless devices.

• Wireless Markup Language (WML)— A scaled-down form of XML used in conjunction with the WAP protocols.

• WAP Session Protocol (WSP)— The WAP equivalent of HTTP. WSP provides a system for exchanging data between applications.

• WAP Transaction Protocol (WTP)— A WAP protocol that provides handshake and acknowledgement services to initiate and confirm WAP transactions.

• WAP Transaction Layer Security (WTLS)— A WAP security protocol modeled on SSL (see Hour 20).

• WAP Datagram Transport Protocol (WDP)— A WAP connectionless Transport layer protocol modeled on UDP (see Hour 6).