Abstract

As Wireless Local Area Networks #WLANs# are rapidly deployed to expand the #eld of wireless products, the provision of authentication and privacy of the information transfer will be mandatory. These functions need to takeinto account the inherent limitations of the WLAN medium such as limited bandwidth, noisy wireless channel and limited computational power. Moreover, some of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN characteristics such as the use of a point coordinator and the polling based Point Coordination Function #PCF# have also to be considered in this design. In this paper, weintroduce a security protocol for the IEEE 802.11 PCF that provides privacy and authentication, and is designed to reduce securityoverheads while taking into account the WLAN characteristics. We prove this protocol using the original and modi#ed BAN logic. 1 Introduction In the near future, Wireless Local Area Networks #WLANs# are expected to constitute one of the largest segments in the market for wireless product...