Title: Modified WEP key management for enhancing WLAN security

Authors: S. Chandramathi, K.V. Arunkumar, S. Deivarayan, P. Sendhil Kumar, K. Vaithiyanathan

Addresses: Networking LAB, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry-605 014, India. ' Networking LAB, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry-605 014, India. ' Networking LAB, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry-605 014, India. ' Networking LAB, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry-605 014, India. ' Networking LAB, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry-605 014, India

Abstract: The 802.11 standard defines the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) prhttps://www.inderscience.com/admin/articles/index.php?action=editEntry&subAction=nextArticleotocol and encapsulation of data frames for the purpose of security in WLAN systems. WEP suffers security pitfalls due to weak key management and Initialization Vector (IV) repetitions. To overcome these problems, in this work, the existing WEP protocol is modified to enhance the security of WLAN systems by dynamically changing the WEP key based on the network traffic intensity and frequent updating based on the number of frames transmitted. Security is further strengthened by implementing IV collision avoidance algorithm, also known as IV repetition avoidance algorithm, which ensures message privacy as the encryption is not breached.

Keywords: WLAN; wireless LANs; local area networks; security; WEP protocol; initialisation vector; WEP key management; wireless networks; IEEE 802.11; Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol; collision avoidance; repetition avoidance; message privacy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICT.2008.024014

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 2008 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.437 - 452

Published online: 23 Mar 2009 *

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