Designing Secure Wireless Networks For Shopping Malls Essay.

The purpose of this assignment is to exercise and develop skills required  to design secure wireless networks, addressing the need of clients.

• Analyse practical alternatives for how to build, protect and manage WLAN. 
• Design a secure WLAN and utilise techniques to mitigate possible attacks. 
• Solve complex problems in secure wireless network designs. 
• Help enterprises to maintain and implement a secure wireless network. 
• Contribute and cooperate with teams for implementing a secure wireless  network. 

Factors influencing performance in mall wireless network

shopEz is shopping mall which is having many clients however the top management decided to install a wireless network in order to ensure all people inside the mall will be able to access the wireless hotspot .

However there are two standard modules to be used for this wireless network which will be either 802.11b or 802.11g  wide local area network ,this network will be having access points which will be providing a coverage of about 1Mps ,there will be many factors to be considered while setting up this network which includes the number of device ,the distances of the devices and the height in which devices are located.

However the network performance will be tested using a software called iperf which will be fully testing the efficiency of the transmitted signals between the different computers ,however for the implementation of this network the mesh network is the next option that could be used since it is associated with quite many  advantages .

The wireless network to be setup in the mall will be of use to the entire facility where there will be access to internet,sharing of files and facilities, however there are some factors that limits the performance which includes the following:

1. Latency: This is an instance when there is minimized speed of access ,this is due to some challenges like the climatic condition, high networks traffics ,however this is only solved by means of eliminating the abnormalities.
2. Throughputs:This is the amount of signals transmitted through this wireless network at a time ,therefore for this network to be effective it requires more network lines  hence the rate of transmitting bits is increased hence the throughputs is higher.
3. Losing of packets:This is cases that the network experiences the overloading of the networks and it result to losing of some packets, this is possible when some devices like routers and switch relieve the traffics in a network by reducing the amount of the packet signals transmitted through the wireless network, however this is controlled by means of monitoring of the entire networks system.
4. Retransmissions:This is when the packets which are lost in the network get sent again to the desired destination , however the resending of the signal causes the delay until the network receives the packets that is resent.

To get the performance of the wireless network one requires to come up with a plan of testing the performance of the network, however the test plan will use a certain software called ipref and below are some of the steps to be followed.

This test plan will involve various steps which entails the objective, criteria’s for acceptance ,schedules, responsibility, resources and some procedure. Below are the discussed steps of the test plan.

Objectives

For the testing of the network in the mall the following are the objectives to be meet and they will show how each is achieved.

Tests of the network Volumes:

 This is meant to ensure all networks transactions are smooth and the level of production is high for a certain period of time.

Stress Tests.

This is ensuring the operation of the network where the load is maximized at all times and ensuring that there is good performance during a certain period of time.

Recovery Tests.

This is ensuring that there is data backups and the network can be recovered easily incase of failure.

Security Tests:

This is to ensure that the networks has attained the securities need of the standard network.

Wireless network test plans to evaluate throughput

Performance Tests

This is verifying of  the level of  performance like the time taken for the network to respond to a request.

In all the above objectives the below are the criteria for their acceptance.

1. The objective will be accepted only if the output results are attained at the first time the test is done.
2. Objective is achieved if the extreme and high faults are rectified and the test run are successful.
3. This is where the plan’s documents are set in place to state ways of solving the any arising faults.

The experiments will entail various activities and they will have the set time and period ,some of the  activities will be as follows:

1. Testing the functionality of the hardware used like the routers.
2. Testing the rates of sending the data packets.
3. Testing the chances of losing of the data signals .
4. Testing of the set security measure put in place to control network.
5. Testing the backup set in the network data and facilities performance.

During the testing period there will be various individuals who will be allocated various tasks ,these includes:

1. Network administrators-he will troubleshoot the entire network.
2. Database administrator-he will test the performance of the network data backup of the network data.
3. The network security manager-He will be checking on any security threat to the network performance.

During the test plan there will be requirements for the various facilities which will include the staff members, some hardware or software .where the network plan will have incorporated all below is a table of the resources required.

Staffs	Hardware	Software
Network administrators Database administrator The network security manager	Computers Servers External backup hard disks Network clipping tools	Antivirus. Windows operating systems. wireshark . Ipref.

During the testing process there will be requirement of some resources ,these resource will be associated with some cost and they are summarised as below:

Network devices	Units	Cost
Computers	10	$20000
Clipping tools	2	$200
Wireless routers	2	$2000
Antennae	2	$100
Firewall	2	$300
Ipref	1	$100
Wireshark	1	$150

The performance study is carried out in this mall wireless network to ensure that the network facility is carried out perfectly ,below are some reasons to conduct the performance studies.

The poor designs in the wireless local area network makes the the network to meet al the network need and services required.

The mall will have various sections ,therefore the plan will allow one ensure that each section is fully accessing the internet and enable one know the visibilities of the WLAN.

This network will require a large set of  devices and this study will show how all these will be put in place and ensure the authorized users have adequate network access. However one will be able to plan for the expected devices to access the network.

1. Testing the network Coverage

This is increasing the level of efficient and production the mall network will be having and this will allow the network performance to remain high and this is enabled to use of access points which are perfect.

The mall wireless network will need much security in order to eliminate and control intruders from the system ,this will be effected by fixing a real time network securities and this will enable all the clients of the network access it by ease.

While installing the mall wireless network various factors were used to install the most appropriate network ,however the were various criteria used which included the following:

Data rate: The two module were different in the way of sending the data ,however the 802.11g was having hire rates in data transmission than the 802.11b or c thus it was more recommended.

Motivation for the performance studies

Range of the data: The 802.11g uses less power and also its signals are of high frequency and thus able to move long distance than the 802.11b modules.

Power requirement: The network  module which is 802.11g was more preference since the network transmission module consumed less power than the 802.11b module.

Therefore the best module to be used in this process is the 802.11c where they it has many advantages including high strength in the signals, less power consumptions among others.

The experiment will require the designing of the target network ,where there will be many devices like the computers and they will be allocated their respective ip addresses as below.However testing will be done using the iperf software as below.

1. Run the  iPerf

When the application is run a TCP session is created where a port number 5001 is used to listen to the server .However to run the iperf application the following command is used iperf --s which is run using the commands prompts and the iperf opens as below. However this application will mainly enable one to get the throughput of the network [1].

1. Measures for  TCP throughputs

The iperf is also used to test the maximum output this is by sending of the data packets originating from the clients to the server ,where 8kb are buffered as a window data is being sent over the network .Below is the codes for testing the TCP outputs .

1. Measures for UDP losses and delays.

The iPerf measures the throughputs in the UDP where it detects the loss and any delay, however sends the traffics at a low speed compared with the TCP .In this case the iperf sends 1Mb per second in traffics which is in a package of about 1470 bytes which is equivalent to single Ethernet frames .However the rate increases while targeted bandwidths which is in Kb per second and Mb per second. Below is an example:

The iperf in the client transmits the signals and below are the results that are obtained in the server’s sides showing the outputs by the UDP.

The iPerf software has the graphical interfaces where it uses the Jperf and it make it easy to do the construction of the parameters which are complex to be done by the use of the command lines and below is example of the real time graphical tests

The below is the output obtained as a result of using the airmagnet to run the iperf.

The two types of the wireless network authentication has different characteristic as shown below in the table.

open access authentication	shared keys case authentication
Is supported by 802.11b standard	Is supported by 802.11b standard
It send the correct SSIDS	IT send the client’s devices the challenge texts to clients which is encrypted with appropriate WEP and resent back to the AP.
It is very secure and can’t be accessed by hackers.	It is insecure since hackers can detect the texts and can use them to hack the network.
The WEP disables  the sending and reception of signals by the clients.	The clients are able to send and receive data over the network any time.

The wireless network will be set up ,however there is possibilities of using the mesh network topology where there will be some implications ,below is the diagram indicating the design of mesh network topology.

[3]

The mesh network topology is in this mall network will ensure that all computers or the devices which acts as the nodes of the computers are linked to each other however the data packet will be sent to the desired node where it moves round the network checking on the node after node till it reach the desired node.

However  this network is easy to troubleshoot since the technicians checks only on the connection media to the desired nodes.

If the mesh network topology is used the following will be some of the implications to the entire mall  network system.

1. If node break down the data transmission will not be interfered with .This is because every node gets connected to all other nodes in the mall network.
2. There will be no interference of the network devices in case an extra device is connected to the network  [4].
3. The mesh network will be able to accommodate large network traffics since every device is a unique node .Therefore the devices which are linked will transmit data in smooth way in a simple network connectivity.

During the implementation of the wireless network there are various tests that were conducted ,this is to ensure that the network was well structured and the data is well transmitted over the whole mall network .

However there were various aspects that were put in place and all the devices were placed in a strategic place and there was enough number of gadgets that were used .The following is the summary of how the room set up.

1. The height and orientation of devices: The mall was only one story building with multiple rooms , there were routers which were fitted on the wall of the selected server room and it was about four meters from the ground ,however the computers used were placed on the tables in the respective departments  [5].
2. Antenna types: The routers were connected to Loops Antennae where they were erected slightly above the mall roof to be able to receive sufficient network.
3. Floors plan distance: The floor of the mall was tilled and it was separated by the partitioned walls of the mall to each department.
4. show any obstructions: The mall network had no identified barrier of the network therefore the network signals were perfectly transmitted  [6].
5. Walls: The mall was concrete building which had some portioning walls which were separating the different rooms of the entire mall.
6. Distances between devices: The entire mall was covering an area of 50 meters by 50 meters wide ,therefore there were two routers which were used to transmit the signals and both were 25 meters apart while the computers were about 2 to 3 meters apart for the entire network since each room had one computer.

References

[1]B. Klaus, Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.

[2] P.Kaufman, Network Security: Private Communications in a Public World, second edition ,Ed. New York:Wiley, 1994, pp. 55-70.

[3] G.Tamassia, Introduction to Computer Security. San Francisco, CA: Academic, 1977, pp. 47-160.

[4] S.Kaashoek, Principles of Computer System Design. Washington, DC: NBS, 1964, pp. 32-33.

 [5] C. Bellovin, Firewalls and Internet Security. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970.

 [6] S.Brown, Computer Security: Principles and Practice,,2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964, pp. 15-64