802.

11 Wireless LANs

Abhishek Karnik,
Dr. Ratan Guha

University Of Central Florida

 OVERVIEW

• Introduction
• 802.11 Basics
• 802.11e for QoS
• WEP
 INTRODUCTION
• In 1997 the IEEE adopted IEEE Std. 802.11-1997

• Defines MAC and PHY layers for LAN and wireless connectivity.

• Facilitate ubiquitous communication and location independent

computing

• 802.11b operates at 11Mbps in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band (‘99)

• 802.11a operates at 54Mbps in the 5 GHz Band (’99)

• 802.11g operates at 54Mbps in the 2.4 GHz Band (’02)

• Increased deployment and popularity lead to introduction of QoS

• 802.11e for QoS – Draft Supplement – Nov 2002

 802.11 BASICS

• Wireless LAN Station

The station (STA) is any device that contains the functionality of the 802.11
protocol, that being MAC, PHY, and a connection to the wireless media. Typically the
802.11 functions are implemented in the hardware and software of a network interface
card (NIC).
Ex : PC , Handheld , AP (Access Point)

• Basic Service Set (BSS)

802.11 defines the Basic Service Set (BSS) as the basic building block of an
802.11 wireless LAN. The BSS consists of a group of any number of stations.
IBSS (Independent Basic Service Set – Ad-hoc Mode)

STA

STA
peer-peer connections

STA

STA
Infrastructure Basic Service Set

Wired Backbone

AP
ESS (Extended Service Set)

Wired Backbone

AP AP

BSS1 BSS2
Beacon TBTT

PCF DCF

Super Frame

DCF - Distributed Coordinated Function

(Contention Period - Ad-hoc Mode)

PCF - Point Coordinated Function

(Contention Free Period – Infrastructure BSS)

Beacon - Management Frame

Synchronization of Local timers
Delivers protocol related parameters
TBTT - Target Beacon Transition Time
 Distributed Coordinated Function (DCF)

• Also known as the Contention Period

• STAs form peer-peer connections. No central authority
• First listen and then speak
• Uses CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance)
• ACK indicates successful delivery
• Each node has one output buffer
Inter-Frame Spacing :
DIFS - 34 µsec
PIFS - 25 µsec ( Used in PCF )
SIFS - 16 µsec
Slot Time - 9 µsec

DIFS = SIFS + (2 * Slot Time)

SIFS required for turn around of Tx to Rx and vice versa

Data Transmission from Node A to B

CWA
DIFS

ACK DATAA ACKB

DIFS SIFS

• CW – Contention Window. Starts only after DIFS.

• Random number ‘r’ picked form range ( 0-CW )
• CWmin minimum value of CW
• CWmax maximum value the CW can grow to after collisions
• ‘r’ can be decremented only in CW
• CW doubles after every collision
 CWA
DIFS

ACK DATAA ACKB

DIFS SIFS

• What if some node C wanted to send data while A was transmitting

data to B ?
• What about during SIFS ?
• What if after ACK, more than one say B,C,D,E nodes are waiting
to transmit data ?
Example :
rA = 4 and rC = 6

DIFS

ACK DATAA ACKB DATAC

DIFS SIFS

• What if rA and rC had both been picked as 4 ?

• What if rA and rC has collided and DATAA length was 10 while
DATAC length were 15 ?
A Collision between nodes A and C

DATAC
ACK DATAA

DIFS SIFS
DIFS

• Length (DATAA) = 10 Slot times

• Length (DATAC) = 15 Slot times
• CW after Collision 1  0 – 7
• CW after Collision 2  0 – 15
• CW after Collision 3  0 – 31
• CW after Collision 4  0 – 63
 NAV – Network Allocation Vector

STAA DATA

STAB ACK

STAC ACK

DIFS SIFS
DIFS

NAVB and C
Hidden Node Problem and Exposed Node Problem

STAC

STAB

STAA
RTS/CTS :

• RTS (Request To Send) - (Approx 20 bytes)

• CTS (Clear To Send) - (Approx 16 bytes)
• Use of RTS/CTS is optional
• Solves two problems :
1. Hidden Node Problem
2. Wastage of time due to collisions
• Maximum MSDU is 2304 bytes
Preventing a collision at STAB

RTS CTS

B C
A

CTS
CTS

D
 DIFS CW SIFS SIFS SIFS DIFS

STAA RTS DATA

STAB CTS ACK

STAC ACK NAV

STAD NAV

New NAV
Node
 Point Coordinated Function (PCF)

• Also known as the CFP (Contention Free Period)

• Operation in an Infrastructure BSS
• STAs communicate using central authority known as PC
(Point Coordinator) or AP (Access Point)
• No Collisions take place
• AP takes over medium after waiting a period of PIFS
• Starts with issue of a Beacon
 Beacon
• Management Frame
• Synchronization of Local timers
• Delivers protocol related parameters
• TBTT - Target Beacon Transition Time

Beacon TBTT

PCF DCF

Super Frame
AP taking over the Wireless medium using PIFS

PIFS
DATA A B

DIFS SIFS DIFS

DIFS - 34 µsec
PIFS - 25 µsec
SIFS - 16 µsec
Slot Time - 9 µsec
B - Beacon
Operation in CFP

CFP CP

B D1 + Poll D2 + ACK + Poll CF_End

U1 + ACK U1 + ACK

SIFS
• Admission Control
• Purpose of having separate DCF and PCF
• Different 802.11 Working groups
• 802.11a (54Mpbs in 5GHz Band)
• 802.11b (11 Mbps in 2.4 GHz Band)
• 802.11c Wireless AP Bridge Operations
• 802.11d Internationalization
• 802.11e (QoS)
• 802.11f Inter-vendor AP hand-offs
• 802.11h Power control for 5Ghz region
• 802.11g (54Mbps in 2.4 GHz Band)
• 802.11i (Security)
 802.11e for QoS

• QoS (Quality of Service)

• 802.11e for QoS – Draft Supplement – Nov 2002

• Introduction of new QoS mechanism for WLANs

 HC
PC

( Enhanced Station )

BSS QBSS
(Basic Service Set) (Basic Service Set
for QoS)

PCF DCF HCCA EDCA

QoS Support Mechanisms of 802.11e :
EDCA :
• Introduction of 4 Access Categories ( AC ) with 8 Traffic
Classes ( TC )
• MSDU are delivered through multiple back offs
within one station using AC specific parameters.
• Each AC independently starts a back off after
detecting the channel being idle for AIFS
• After waiting AIFS , each back off sets counter from
number drawn from interval [1,CW+1]
• newCW [AC] >= ((oldCW[TC] + 1 ) * PF ) - 1
 AC_VO [0] AC_VI [1] AC_BE [2] AC_BK [3]

AIFSN 2 2 3 7

CWmin 3 7 15 15

CWmax 7 15 1023 1023

Prioritized Channel Access is realized with the QoS

parameters per TC, which include :
• AIFS[AC]
• CWmin[AC]
• PF[AC]
 EDCA

TC AC1 AC2 AC3 AC4

Virtual Collision
Access Category based Back-offs

AIFS[AC3]

AIFS[AC2]

AIFS[AC1]

AIFS[AC0]

BackOff[AC3] + Frame
BackOff[AC2] + Frame
BackOff[AC1] + Frame
ACK BackOff[AC0] + Frame
 QoS Parameter Set Element Format

CWmin[AC] CWmax[AC]
Element ID
CWmin[0]….CWmin[3] CWmax[0]….CWmax[3]

AIFSN[AC] TxOPLimit[AC]
AIFSN[0]….AIFSN[3] TxOP[0]….TxOP[3]

AIFS [AC] = AIFSN [AC] * aSlotTime + SIFS

HCCA ( Hybrid Coordination Function
Controlled Channel Access )

Extends the EDCA access rules.

CP : TxOP
• After AIFS + Back off
• QoS Poll ; After PIFS
CFP : TxOP
• Starting and duration specified by HC using
QoS Poll .
 Hybrid Coordinator

HC

PIFS

HCCA EDCA

PIFS
DATA A DATA

AIFS SIFS AIFS

 802.11e Operation in the CFP

• Guaranteed channel access on successful registration

• Each node will receive a TxOP by means of polls granted
to them by the HC
• TxOP based on negotiated Traffic specification (TSPEC) and
observed node activity

• TxOP is at least the size of one Maximum sized MSDU at the

PHY rate.
• Access Point advertises polling list
 Traffic Specification (TSPEC)

Maximum
Element ID Length TS info Nominal size
MSDU size
(1) (1) (2) MSDU (2)
(2)

Minimum Maximum Inactivity

Minimum Mean Data
Service Service Interval
Data Rate (4) Rate (4)
Interval (4) Interval (4) (4)

Maximum Minimum Surplus

Peak Data Delay Bound
Burst Size PHY Rate Bandwidth
Rate (2) (2)
(4) (4) Allowed (2)
Example :

AC[0] AC[1] AC[2]

AIFSN 2 4 7

CWmin 7 10 15

CWmax 7 31 255

PF 1 2 2
 AIFS[AC] = AIFSN[AC] * aSlotTime + SIFS

PIFS - 25 µsec ( Used in HCCA)

SIFS - 16 µsec
Slot Time - 9 µsec

AIFS[0] = (2 * 9) + 16 = 34 µsec = DIFS

AIFS[1] = (4 * 9) + 16 = 52 µsec  (52 – 34) / 9 = 18/9 = 2 Slots
AIFS[2] = (7 * 9) + 16 = 79 µsec  (79 – 34) / 9 = 45/9 = 5 Slots
Back-off Algorithm :

802.11 : CWRANGE = [ 0 , 2 2+i – 1 ]

802.11e : newCW[AC] = [(oldCW[AC] + 1) * PF] - 1

Collision1 Collision2 Collision3

AC[0] [(7+1)*1]-1 = 7 ( 0-7 ) ( 0-7 )

(0-7)

AC[1] [(10+1)*2]-1 = 21 [(21+1)*2]-1 = 43 ( 0 – 31 )

( 0 - 21 ) ( 0 – 31 )
AC[2] [(15+1)*2]-1 = 31 [(31+1)*2]-1 = 63 [(63+1)*2]-1 = 127
( 0 – 31 ) ( 0 – 63 ) ( 0 – 127 )
 WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

• Optional in WLANS
• Uses the RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4) Stream Cipher generated with a
64bit/128 bit Key
• Key composed of 24 bit IV (Initialization Vector)
• Key = (24 Bit IV, 40 Bit WEP Key) = 64 Bits
• Key = (24 Bit IV, 104 Bit WEP Key) = 128 Bits
• Goal to provide authentication, confidentiality and data integrity
• Secret Key is shared between communicators
• The encrypted packet is generated with a bitwise exclusive OR
(XOR) of the original packet and the RC4 stream.
• 4-byte Integrity Check Value (ICV) is computed on the original
packet and appended to the end which is also encrypted with the
RC4 cipher stream.
• Encryption done only between 802.11 stations.
 Encrypted WEP Frame

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/security/library/s-wep/
Encryption / Decryption :

• M – Original Data Frame

• CRC-32 (c) applied to M to obtain c (M)
• c (M) and M are concatenated to get Plain Text P = (M, c (M))
• WEP produces a Key-stream as a function 24 bit IV and 40-bit WEP Key
using RC4; equal to the length of P.
• Key Stream and the Plaintext are XORed to produce the Cipher Text
• The IV is transmitted in the clear (unencrypted)
• The receiver uses the IV and the shared key to decrypt the message
Draw Backs of WEP:
• A number of attacks can be used against WEP
• Passive Attacks based on statistical analysis
• Active Attacks based on known plain text

• WEP relies on a Shared Key to ensure that packets are not

modified in transit.
• There is no discussion on how these keys are distributed and
hence usually a single key is used which is shared amongst
all STA’s and the AP
All in a days work :

• Shared Key is long lived – May last a week, month,

even a year or more
• Consider a busy AP which constantly sends packets
of length 1500 bytes at 11Mbps
• Since IV on 24 bits in length and Shared key is
unchanged, IV gets exhausted after
2^24 * (1500 * 8) / (11 * 10^6)
= 18000 secs = 5 hours
• Lucent wireless cards
 PT  Key  CT CT  Key  PT

XOR :
0 0  0
0 1  1
1 0  1
1 1  0

• XORing a Bit with itself gives 0

PASSIVE ATTACK

Sender Receiver
PT K CT CT K PT
0 0  0 0 0  0
0 1  1 1 1  0
1 0  1 1 0  1
1 1  0 0 1  1
• IV repeats generating K
• Identical K used to encrypt MSG1 and MSG2

MSG1  K  C ( MSG1 )

MSG2  K  C ( MSG2 )

• Obtain C( MSG1) and C( MSG2) and XOR them

• XORing causes Key Stream to cancel which yields
the XOR of MSG1 and MSG2 i.e. XOR of Plain Text packets
• This XOR can now be used to apply Statistical Analysis
Example :
MSG1  0 0 1 1
MSG2  1 0 1 1

MSG1 MSG2
PT1 K CT1 PT2 K CT2
0 0  0 1 0  1
0 1  1 0 1  1
1 0  1 1 0  1
1 1  0 1 1  0
 CT1 XOR CT2 MSG1 XOR MSG2
CT1 CT2 MSG1 MSG2
0 1  1 0 1  1
1 1  0 0 0  0
1 1  0 1 1  0
0 0  0 1 1  0

Apply Statistical analysis on last three bits and educated

guess on the rest
 AP Wired Network

xx
Hi

Attacker
Active Attack :
• Attacker knows exact plain text for one encrypted packet
• Use this knowledge to construct correct encrypted packet
• Construct a new message , calculate CRC-32 and perform
bit flips on original encrypted packet to change the plaintext
to the new message.