| ACK |
Acknowledgment. |
| Ad-Hoc Mode |
A client setting that provides independent peer-to-peer connectivity in
a wireless LAN. Also see Infrastructure Mode. |
| AH |
Authentication Header. A field that follows the IP header in an IP
datagram and provides authentication and integrity checking for the
datagram. |
| AP |
Access Point. A hub for wireless clients. |
| ARP |
Address Resolution Protocol. |
| ASIM |
Automated Security Incident Measurement. Monitoring of network traffic
and collection of information on networks by detecting unauthorized
network activity. |
| BER |
Bit Error Rate. |
| BPS |
Bits Per Second. |
| CCP |
Compression Control Protocol. Used to negotiate compression methods
over PPP links. |
| CGI |
Common Gateway Interface. A method used by web servers to allow
interaction between servers and programs. |
| CSMA/CA |
Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance. CSMA/CA is the
medium access method used by IEEE 802.11 WLANs. |
| DARPA |
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. |
| DES |
Data Encryption Standard. A cryptographic algorithm for protecting
data. |
| DSSS |
Direct-Sequencing Spread-Spectrum. |
| EAP |
Extensible Authentication Protocol. EAP is a PPP
extension that provides support for additional authentication methods
within PPP. |
| ECP |
Encryption Control Protocol. Used to negotiate data encryption over PPP
links. |
| ESA |
Encapsulating Security Payload. A mechanism which provides
confidentiality and integrity protection to IP datagrams. |
| FHSS |
Frequency-Hopping Spread-Spectrum |
| IAS |
Internet Authentication Service server, a RADIUS
Server which performs connection authentication and accounting for
dial-up and VPN remote access. |
| IDEA |
International Data Encryption Algorithm. A private key
encryption-decryption algorithm. |
| IEEE |
Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. |
| Infrastructure Mode |
A client setting providing connectivity to an Access
Point (AP). As compared to Ad-Hoc Mode where
PCs communicate directly with each other, clients set in Infrastructure
Mode all pass data through a central AP. |
| IDS |
Intrusion Detection System. Hardware and/or software which detects
unauthorised access. |
| IP Address |
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a 32-bit number that identifies
each sender or receiver of information that is sent across the Internet. |
| IP Spoofing |
An attack whereby a system attempts to impersonate another system by
using its IP network address. |
| ISO |
The International Standards Organization |
| LAN |
Local Area Network. |
| LCP |
Link Control Protocol. |
| MAC |
Medium Access Control. In a WLAN network card, the MAC is radio
controller protocol. |
| MAC Spoofing |
An attack whereby a system attempts to impersonate another system by
using its MAC address. |
| NAK |
Negative Acknowledgment. |
| NAT |
Network Address Translation. The translation of an IP address used
within one network to a different IP address known within another network. |
| NCSC |
National Computer Security Center. |
| NDIS |
Network Driver Interface Specification. |
| NIST |
National Institute of Standards and Technology. |
| OFDM |
Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing. |
| OSI |
Open Systems Interconnection. A set of international standards for
networking. |
| PHY |
Physical Layer. The PHY is the lowest layer within the OSI Network
Model. |
| PKI |
Public Key Infrastructure. |
| PPP |
Point-to-Point Protocol. PPP Provides a standard method for
transporting multi-protocol datagrams over point-to-point links. |
| RADIUS |
Remote Authentication Dial In User Service. |
| RSA Algorithm |
Rivest-Shamir-Aldeman. A public-key cryptographic algorithm based on
the assumption that the factoring of the product of two large primes is
difficult. |
| Sniffer |
A program to capture data from a computer network. |
| SNMP |
Simple Network Management Protocol (also see TCP/IP). |
| SSID |
Service Set Identifier - wireless network name. |
| SSL |
Secure Sockets Layer. A session layer protocol that provides
authentication and confidentiality to applications. |
| TCP/IP |
Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. |
| Topology |
Describes how a network is structured. |
| TLS |
Transport Level Security. TLS provides for mutual authentication,
integrity-protected negotiation and key exchange between two endpoints. |
| VPN |
Virtual Private Network. |
| WAN |
Wide Area Network. |
| WECA |
The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility
Alliance. |
| WEP |
Wired Equivalent Privacy. Encryption-based security using a pre-shared
key. |
| WiFi (Wi-Fi) |
Wireless Fidelity. Wireless Local Area Networking standard based on
IEEE 802.11. |
| WLAN, W-LAN |
Wireless Local Area Network (LAN). |
| WLL |
Wireless Local Loop. |
Welcome to our glossary of IEEE 802.11 and WLAN buzzwords, acronyms and
terminology.