IEEE 802.11w-2009

IEEE 802.11w-2009 is an approved amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard to increase the security of its management frames.

Protected Management Frames

Current 802.11 standard defines "frame" types for use in management and control of wireless links. IEEE 802.11w is the Protected Management Frames standard for the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. TGw is working on improving the IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control layer. The objective of this is to increase the security by providing data confidentiality of management frames, mechanisms that enable data integrity, data origin authenticity, and replay protection. These extensions will have interactions with IEEE 802.11r and IEEE 802.11u

Wireless LANs send system management information in unprotected frames, which makes them vulnerable. This standard will protect against network disruption caused by malicious systems that forge disassociation requests that appear to be sent by valid equipment.

See also

• IEEE 802.11i Enhanced Security
• IEEE 802.11r Fast BSS Transition
• IEEE 802.11u Interworking with non-802.11 networks

External links

• Status of the project 802.11w IEEE Task Group w (TGw)
• Tutorial on 802.11w