A Survey on Wireless Security (original) (raw)

A Wireless Network is a wireless communication system that allows mobile computers and workstations to communicate and exchange data with each other using radio waves as the transmission medium. Nowadays wireless networks are used in many areas such as universities, healthcare-centers, hospitals, police department, military, airports, etc. WLAN (Wireless LAN) is commonly referred to as " Wi-Fi " (wireless fidelity) that gives freedom to move mobile nodes like laptops, PDA, etc. from one place to another within their offices and organizations without the need of wires and without losing network connectivity. Most of the businesses, research, day to day activity, etc. are shifting from wired to wireless. At present the wireless system is not very secured and needs various hardware and software techniques to protect the data/information from unauthorized access. Therefore, it is essential to enhance the network security in order to protect the information in the wireless network. This survey paper deals with various security protocol standards, attacks, threats, etc. in WPAN, WMAN and WWAN.