Understanding Wi-Fi Networking

Discuss about the Wi-Fi Networking Solution to a Medium Sized Organization.

The research of recent years has shown the great market acceptance of Wi-Fi technology and the advancement in the technology has been a great factor (Kellogg et al., 2014). The increment in the shipment of hardware (used for Wi-Fi networking) has been by approximately seventy percent. The technology is capable of supporting mobile computing within a campus or building. In terms of ad-hoc settings and LANs (Local Area Networks) the extension of network is the prime purpose of the Wi-Fi network (Chen et al., 2017). The speed in the Wi-Fi network is little slow than wired connection.

The study is consisting of various aspects of Wi-Fi network implementation in a midsized organization. The study is consisting of definition of Wi-Fi network along with the relevant details. Understanding the pros and cons of the Wi-Fi network is essential to identify the impact of the network in the organization’s infrastructure. Providing few recommendations is a good approach to justify the report in term of what has been discussed.

In order to provide network connectivity to the devices to the network, the Wi-Fi network uses radio waves. Various kinds of wireless adapters, are manufactured by various organizations, can be used for creating a Wi-Fi network. These wireless adapters are called as hotspot after they initiate working. The network capacity is the key of determining the frequencies of the Wi-Fi network. The frequency can be from 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (Zhang et al., 2015). The devices are connected to the hotspot for connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Thus Wi-Fi networking can be considered as the process in which various devices are connected to a wireless network that transmit and receive radio waves for connectivity and uses various wireless adapters to act as the communicator between device and Wi-Fi network.

Contemporary smartphones are consisted with the feature called Wi-Fi networking. Wi-Fi networks can be established in small or big geographical region based on the complexity and range of network (Sagari et al., 2015). The coverage area of hotspots (Wi-Fi network adapters) determines the network strength and quality. The Wi-Fi network is the wireless adoption of conventional networking. The Wi-Fi networking has been used in the medium sized organization not for a very long period. The Wi-Fi network is referred to as one of the process of providing business mobility in the medium sized organizations mainly (Polkowski et al., 2016).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Wi-Fi Network

Wi-Fi is referred to the IEEE 802.11x. IEEE 802.11 is referred as the IEEE 802.11x generic term. IEEE 802.11 is used for defining the communication that occurs over the Wi-Fi network. It provides an over the air interface between base station or hotspot and connected device (wireless client) (Nitsche et al., 2014). Through the IEEE 802.11x is consisted of 2.4, 3,6 and 5 GHz frequency bands,  most of the Wi-Fi network uses the 2.4 GHz frequency bands.

Service Set Identifier Supporting: In terms of a business grade access point, scores of Wi-Fi network can be created. This setup is known as the service set identifier supporting that is completely different from the supporting of one wireless network through the consumer access point (Vanhoef et al., 2016). Configuration of different SSID can be done differently for making the Wi-Fi network more convenient. This configurations can be done with distinct encryption or authentication method.

Simple Access Point Management: Managing multiple access point at one time must be easy so that the capability of business access point can be increased. The access point configurations can be altered from center of the Wi-Fi network and broadcasted immediately to the entire Wi-Fi network cluster. If the Wi-Fi access point is congested then the system may even migrate Wi-Fi network client to a less congested access point (Chen et al., 2017). In case a Wi-Fi client is running a latency-sensitive process in the device such as video calling, the possibility of being disconnected from the Wi-Fi network is much lesser. Using the standards such as 802.11k or 802.11r can be the solution to prevent disconnection issue while roaming around the office (Nitsche et al., 2014). This method is also known as the controller handling technique.

Power over Ethernet: The midsize organization often suffer from running separate cables. Power over Ethernet is the solution to these issues. The organizations can use power cables to distinct access points and clumsy power bricks. The medium sized organization can increase the reliability of Wi-Fi network through the use of the power cables (Sivaraman et al., 2015). The external power adapters are much tougher to replace than the compliant power over network switches.

The Wi-Fi network is used by the organization to have better work place environment where collaboration among the employees. The medium sized organization does not have any stable workplace environment thus experimenting various strategy is a usual approach to find a satisfying environment. The Wi-Fi network is appropriate for those environment where the organizations want to allow the employees to work remotely, moving from one location to another within the work place (Vanhoef et al., 2016). Taken as an example, the organization wants the staff of the inventory to work while doing their work. The head of inventory will roam around the office to gather information on inventory management and provide live information back to management.

Recommendations for Wi-Fi Network Implementation in Midsized Organizations

If the organizations want to have multiple access points within the network, the Wi-Fi network is the best solution within budget. The organization can save cost if the work area huge and avoiding LAN wires through out the office is a great way of managing space in the work place.

The advantages of using the wireless networking are as flowing.

1. Increase in the Mobility: The increased mobility is the biggest advantage that Wi-Fi network can provide to the medium sized organization. The end users of the Wi-Fi network are considered as the Wi-Fi clients. These Wi-Fi clients can be connected to the Wi-Fi network within coverage area independent of their movement form one location to another (Wang. and Haas, 2015). Taken as an example, a staff is making video call to the head office through mobile, he/she is moves from cabin to other room. In this case the connection will remain on.
2. BYOD Enabling: Increase in the productivity of medium sized organization is another advantage apart from enhanced mobility. This allows the organization staff to collaborate as per their need (Sivaraman et al., 2015). The freedom that is taken from this event eventually increase the operation output quality and rate.

• Scalability: The Wi-Fi network can be expanded and decreased with the need of medium sized organization need. Adding nodes virtually is much easier than physical approach for the same task (Sagari et al., 2015). The organization can change its Wi-Fi network configuration as per the organization need and cut cost.

1. Telephone Calling: Apart from all the above advantages, the VOIP or voice over internet protocol is the way of making telephonic calls over internet. The medium sized organization provide free services but not always as it depends upon the country.
2. Cost Effective: The Wi-Fi network is much more cost effective rather than hard wired network. In order to implement the large network, the Wi-Fi network provides more scalability and provide better area coverage in small budget. Managing wires are much easier (Talla et al., 2015). In terms of installing the network, most of the tasks are done virtually through the laptop or desktop.
3. Easy Deployment: The Wi-Fi network can be initially configured through a single point access. On the other hand, the hard wired network needs to install with a lot more effort and needs more cost. Managing the physical cables while implementing the hard wired network is very frustrating and prone to error (Wang. and Haas, 2015).

• Better Access to Data: The Wi-Fi network is depended on much less hardware and wires thus the chance of getting disconnected from the network is lesser. As the device will be connected to the Wi-Fi network for a longer time, the access to the information get better.

The disadvantages of Wi-Fi network are as following.

1. Reduced Management Control: The medium sized organization will experience less control over business in two distinct ways. The primary and most harmful way is that the employees will be able to connect their personal (not sanctioned) device to the Wi-Fi network. This will result into various issues like accessing harmful website resulting into possibility of affecting Wi-Fi network with unwanted threats, extra usage of internet resulting into additional internet charge from provider. The second is that the staff can work from wherever they want. This may seem like an advantage at first. However, if the staff wants they can use this feature for their own benefit (Nitsche et al., 2014). This will result into damage of working atmosphere throughout the whole organization.
2. Evil Twins: The access points which have same Extended Service Set ID and acts as legitimate access point are named as evil twins. This results into vulnerability of rough access point of Wi-Fi network. The hackers can easily exploit this situation in the Wi-Fi network by obtaining application needed to turn a simple laptop into an evil twin. This laptop tricks a user device (unsuspecting) with the intention of hacking it (Burns et al., 2017). Most Wi-Fi devices gets connected to the known Wi-Fi network if it is already configured within the device. The evil twin access point is capable of duplicating the MAC ESSID and various data used for identifying a network for spoofing packets from the legitimate access points.
3. Easy to Hack: The encryption technology in WAP2 Wi-Fi used to be secure when it was first launch but it has become very vulnerable as the cybercrime practice has increased (Cheung and Huang, 2015). As the medium sized organization has limited employees working on implementing Wi-Fi network as major task force is required to implement a properly working VPNs that runs on Radius Servers and execute deep packet tracing sniffing.

Conclusion:

From the above study it can be concluded that the Wi-Fi network can be established for the greater good of the business instead of the issues that can arise. The organization should create some work policies so that the employees cannot utilize the benefits for their personal purposes. The Wi-Fi network will be established through virtual paths so getting into the system being within the Wi-Fi range is easy. Proper security planning must be done by the organization so that most of the common cyber-attacks can be handled easily. Insider threats are also a big concern of Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi network will be running on 2.4 GHz frequencies as the organization does not need to have better bandwidth than it. The medium sized organization will employ an administrator for maintaining the Wi-Fi network.

The study also concludes that after implementing the Wi-Fi network, the medium sized organization will face various issues regarding connectivity and cyber-attack. The organization must use properly protected Wi-Fi network so that it be protected from DoS or DDoS attack.

Getting Access Point Related to Business-Grade: The difference of cost between the business centric access point and consumer centric access point is huge. The medium sized organization may get confused by the similar features of both the access points. In reality, some of the features are so similar that understanding the difference between them often gets difficult. The major drawback of the consumer access point is that it is not capable of handling more than few dozens of Wi-Fi clients. The business access points typically is better in terms of manageability, remote deployment and security. The business access points can function 24*7 and provide quality service to the organization.

Weighing Frequency Bands Smartly: The 802.11 Wi-Fi networks can be established using two frequency bands 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.  The business access point is capable of running Wi-Fi network on both the bands and few high quality Wi-Fi network can support both the frequency band simultaneously. The 5GHz is mostly preferred by big organizations but 2.4 GHz is suitable for getting better range. If the medium sized organization is looking forward to deploy a large amount of access points then the 5GHz shorter range is perfect.

Factors to Consider for Wi-Fi Network Deployment

Considering the Density Access Point: The interference in the Wi-Fi network is manipulated by the number of access point deployment. This results into reduction in the throughput and responsiveness. The organization must plan the deployment of access points so that these access points can achieve its full potential of function. The access points must be properly configured and it must be carefully positioned so that huge amount of Wi-Fi clients can be supported by the Wi-Fi network.       

Implementing Proper Security: Using the 20+ character paraphrase along with WPA2. This will be done while the Wi-Fi connection is necessary. WPA2 is not that secure at present situation so it is a great idea to limit the usage of Wi-Fi. It is mandatory that the connecting devices like laptop and mobile devices must have antivirus installed. All the mobile devices that are connected to the network must be password protected.  If the Wi-Fi network is password protected then it will be hard for unauthorized users to get access to the network. The Wi-Fi network must be able to erase data from the devices that are lost or stolen. Various antiviruses are equipped with the feature of erasing data from the devices and tracking stolen devices. In case the security is a high concern for medium sized organization, then it is suggested that they buy iPhone devices so that additional security features can be utilized for securing communication.

References:

Burns, A., Wu, L., Du, X., & Ge, T. (2017). A Novel Traceroute-based Detection Scheme for Wi-Fi Evil Twin Attacks. In IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM).

Chen, Q., Yu, G., Elmaghraby, H. M., Hamalainen, J., & Ding, Z. (2017). Embedding lte-u within wi-fi bands for spectrum efficiency improvement. IEEE Network, 31(2), 72-79.

Cheung, M. H., & Huang, J. (2015). DAWN: Delay-aware Wi-Fi offloading and network selection. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 33(6), 1214-1223.

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Sivaraman, V., Matthews, J., Russell, C., Ali, S. T., & Vishwanath, A. (2015). Greening residential Wi-Fi networks under centralized control. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 14(3), 552-564.

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