Wireless Communication Data Eencryption Methods of WiMax

Question: Discuss about the Wireless Communication for Data Eencryption Methods of WiMax. Answer: Introduction The report has shown the data encryption methods of WiMax and compared them for forming an overview about their system. The report has a second part where the security issues of the WPAN have been analyzed. The overall report has shown the importance of the wireless communication and networking for daily activities. Compare and Contrast Data Encryption Standard of WiMax WiMax (Wireless Interoperability Multiple Access) is a standard for wireless access (802.16) and it is used for developing a network of wireless access among two end points (Desai, 2013). The security protocols of WiMax are PKMv2, EAP, and AES. These above stated protocols of WiMax have helped in forming data security and encryption. Explaining the PKMv2 security protocol PKMv2 or privacy key management protocol version 2 is used for encryption and authorization exchange of crypto keys (Sridevi Rajaram, 2012). The crypto keys help in the process of multicasting and broadcasting of the data traffic. It has been created for overcoming the short comings of the first version of PKM and it uses the standard of both RSA and EAP for security and encryption of data. Figure 1: PKMv2 Protocols (Source: Sridevi Rajaram, 2012, pp-71) The key generated for authentication of the operation is more precise as two standard principles have been used for forming the key (Desai, 2013). The mobile station can be authenticated for the wireless activities and operations by the base station using the crypto keys of mutual authorization. Replay attacks are being dealt by using Nonce. Explaining the EAP security protocol EAP is acronym for Extensible Authentication Protocol and it has primary function of user authentication and device security (Pawlowski, Jara Ogorzalek, 2014). It is used for point to point protocol formation and the process of multiple authentications has been enabled for use by the EAP protocol. Smart cards, password or passphrases, certificates, and authentication using public key are all being used sue to the implementation of EAP. EAP can be mixed with new security features easily and according to the new security feature mixed with EAP, the protocol has been named as EAP-TTLS, EAP-MD5, and EAP-TLS (Kalra Kiran, 2015). The pre-negotiation for the authentication is not needed and the identity request can be sent initially with other queries and request. Figure 2: EAP protocol authentication process (Source: Pawlowski, Jara Ogorzalek, 2014, pp-344) Explaining the AES security protocol AES or Advanced Encryption Standard is the most advanced form of network security and the data is transmitted over the cloud network (Wadi Zainal, 2013). The security protocol has helped in securing the air traffic by data encryption. The keys for the security encryption can be of various sizes and block such as 128, 192 or 256. The AES process has been based on the process of permutation and substitution. AES uses bytes for operations and specific outputs (Kalra Kiran, 2015). Encryption is done in AES by following four processes in sequence and decryption is done by doing the same processes in reverse sequence. Figure 3: AES algorithm overall structure (Source: Wadi Zainal, 2013, pp-414) Security challenges of WPAN technologies WPAN (wireless personal area network) is limited for communicating and data exchange among portable devices like PCs, PDAs, printers, pagers, and mobile phones (Amiri et al., 2013). The devices are inbuilt with two radio surfaces among which one is utilized for cellular network and the other for PAN connection. Bluetooth and ZigBee are the two WPAN technologies whose security challenges are discussed below. Security Challenges of Bluetooth (802.15.1) The security challenges of the Bluetooth WPAN are Inferior Security protocols and Denial of Service attack. Inferior Security protocols: The Bluetooth radio control can be easily misused, as it has higher vulnerabilities for impersonating and eavesdropping (Minar Tarique, 2012). The person in the middle attack can be used for attacking the devices and extracting the information from the device. It would be easily possible as the security of the Bluetooth device is less secured. The attacker of man in the middle sets up two point to point connections for negotiation of the radio frequencies of Bluetooth radio. The inferior security protocols would result in easy damaging and performing of the illicit queries. Denial of Service: The Bluetooth devices are prone to the denial of service attack. The DoS attack would be highly possible for the Bluetooth radio frequency due to the ease of accessing the device facility (Minar Tarique, 2012). DoS occur when the device is sent multiple queries for processing using fake server. It would cease the processing of user generated queries for the devices. The infiltration of the security measures would result in data theft and impersonation of the authentic users. Security challenges of ZigBee (802.15.4) The security challenges of ZigBee WPAN are Key Attacks and Injection and replay attacks. Physical attacks: The devices can be disrupted by the gaining physical access to the devices. The security of the Zigbee devices can be easily bypassed manually. Altering with the hardware and software appliances of ZigBee is easy with the gain of physical access to the device. Hence physical access is the main reason behind the attack on the security of ZigBee devices. Injection and replay attacks: The key based attacks on the ZigBee after mixing with the replay packet attack and injection attack have affect on the activities of the radio devices (Vidgren, 2013). It would result in unauthorized and unauthenticated actions of the devices. The light designs of the ZigBee would result in the interception of the data packets for the targeted networks. The ZigBee devices could be tampered without contacting the physical access to the system. Key Attacks: The keys used for connecting the two devices can be easily decrypted because of low security structure (Vidgren, 2013). The combination of hardware and software applications would result in doing the illicit operations from the devices. The device would not be required to be in physical access for performing the key attacks. The pre shared keys and OTA processes are used for connecting the devices using systematic methodologies. Conclusion The report has covered the impact of the wireless technologies for the development of the communication system. The WiMax technologies protocols (PKMv2, EAP, and AES) have been compared in the above report. The security challenges of WPAN technologies are Inferior Security protocol, Denial of Service, Injection and replay attacks, and Key Attacks. References Amiri, I. S., Alavi, S. E., Idrus, S. M., Nikoukar, A., Ali, J. (2013). IEEE 802.15. 3c WPAN standard using millimeter optical soliton pulse generated by a panda ring resonator.IEEE Photonics Journal,5(5), 7901912-7901912. Desai, P. (2013).U.S. Patent No. 8,526,348. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Kalra, M. S., Kiran, M. V. (2015). Research and Analysis of WiMax Communication.traffic,4(9). Minar, N. B. N. I., Tarique, M. (2012). Bluetooth security threats and solutions: a survey.International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems,3(1), 127 Pawlowski, M. P., Jara, A. J., Ogorzalek, M. J. (2014, July) Extending Extensible Authentication Protocol over IEEE 802.15. 4 Networks InIMIS(pp. 340-345). Sridevi, B., Rajaram, S. (2012). PKMv2EAP authentication cost reduction of mobile WiMAX network entry process by the proposed key caching mechanisms.International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation,4(2), 65-75. Vidgren, N., Haataja, K., Patino-Andres, J. L., Ramirez-Sanchis, J. J., Toivanen, P. (2013, January). 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