Research on Key Authentication Mechanisms of Wireless Local Area Network

Access control based on authentication and authorization is essential to design a good wireless local area network (WLAN). This paper introduces several key authentication technologies of WLAN, including open system authentication and shared key authentication used in IEEE 802.11b standard, EAP used in IEEE802.1x and WAI used in WAPI. Different superiorities and deficiencies have been presented in details. Based on WAPI, an improved method is proposed in order to enhance the security of WLAN. In the end, the paper concludes that a multi-layered security system combined with various methods and technologies still require further studies.