Cisco and Microsoft Add Security to Aironet 350 Series

By Veronica Hendricks

(04/23/01, 09:02:25 AM EDT)

Cisco and Microsoft have implemented the 802.1x draft security standard shipping on Cisco's Aironet 350 Series of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) compliant wireless local area networking (WLAN) products. This enterprise authentication and security architecture is based on the IEEE 802.1x draft standard for port-based network access control and the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) standard.

Using EAP and RADIUS security protocols provides user identification, authentication, dynamic key management, and accounting. With this, companies can scale wireless deployments with a standard, centralized security management framework, while streamlining network management and administration.

Central to 802.1x is the EAP, an IETF standard proposed by Cisco, Microsoft, and other organizations to the IEEE 802.1x committee. It enables wireless client adapter manufacturers and RADIUS server vendors to independently develop interoperable client side and server side security software.

This wireless networking security architecture used in the Cisco Aironet wireless LAN products delivers scalable, centralized security management and supports dynamic single-session, single-user encryption keys integrated with network logon. It simplifies the administration and management of the network by eliminating the deficiencies of static Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) key management, so IT managers can deploy a secure enterprise-wide wireless solution for their users.