Wireless Lan Security- Role of Smartcards

The Role of Smartcards in Ensuring Wireless LAN Security

Abstract

Wireless LANs based on the IEEE 802.11bhave emerged as a new standard but still a lot of security issues remain. Oneof them issues is the authentication of a terminal to an access point (AP). TheIEEE is currently finalizing a framework for security in IEEE 802 networks:IEEE 802.1x that is an approved draft, based on the extensible authenticationprotocol (EAP). On another hand, among token technologies, smartcards currentlyoffer the best combination of flexibility, security, and cost among token technologies.They have been chosen by the DoD to be widely deployed. Therefore it becomesdifficult to speak about security without evoking smartcards. We have focusedour work on the integration of smartcards for authentication in wirelessnetworks. In this paper, we will present a smartcard embedding EAP and willshow that smartcards could constitute the de-facto device for authentication inWireless LAN as they have been for GSM and will be for UMTS.