Protection of Control Frames in Wireless Network.

Abstract

In the present communication scenario of 802.11 wireless local access network there is virtually no way to control frames and due to this a range of network allocation vector based denial of service attacks are possible. The convenience of 802.11-based wireless access networks has led to widespread deployment in the consumer, industrial and military sectors. However, this use is predicated on an implicit assumption of confidentiality and availability. While the security flaws in 802.11’s basic confidentially mechanisms have been widely publicized, the threats to network availability are far less widely appreciated. In fact, it has been suggested that 802.11 is highly susceptible to malicious denial-of-service (DoS)attacks targeting its management.A novel approach for protecting control frames by generating a unique message authentication code using inter access point protocol for key distribution and key management is proposed.