CatalystTech

DEFCON 16 and Black Hat are security centric conferences recently held in Las Vegas where Aruba Networks provided the wireless infrastructure.  In a self descriptive FAQ of the environment to be expected (quoting from the FAQ site)

Q: Is there a free network at DEFCON?
A: Yes. It would be fair to describe the network as ‘hostile’. It has been described as ‘the worlds most hostile network’, but such descriptions are just attempts at flattery. It is recommended that if you want to connect to the DEFCON network pretend that you are sharing out your entire hard drive to 5,000 hackers. You may want to bring a ‘clean’ computer that you don’t mind being infected/hacked/etc…

In light of the environment Aruba reported some statistics:

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This morning Aruba issued a press release announcing that it is the first wireless LAN supplier to be awarded a Common Criteria certificate for its Wi-Fi solutions.  Common Criteria - also known as ISO standard 15408 - addresses the protection of assets from unauthorized disclosure, modification, or loss of use arising from both intentional and unintentional causes.  High security users typically require a combination of Common Criteria certification, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 validation for cryptographic security, and compliance with Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 8100.2 security policies for wireless technologies. Aruba now satisfies all three criteria, allowing the company to meet a wide range of new domestic and international government, financial, and commercial applications.

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The Aruba Remote Access Point solution has gotten the attention of the kudos club.  The idea is simple, take a single device and plug it in to any Ethernet connection with access to the public Internet.  The Remote Access Point or RAP will find it’s way back to it’s controller, and create a secure VPN tunnel between the main site and the RAP.  The policies from the controller can also be pushed to the RAP.  This extends the corporate wireless to a very mobile, yet secure solution.

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802.11 WiFi based phones remove the range limits from traditional wireless handsets.  These small handsets can operate anywhere the wireless network extends, even into a campus environment.  Polycom carries a great line of proven handsets to meet the need of business class portable handsets.  Handsets connect to an approved traditional WiFi network.  Several Gateway options can allow these phones to connect to a variety of IP, Digital, or Analog interfaces on the PBX.  Detailed setup guides (http://www.spectralink.com/resources/wifi_compatibility.jsp) can even help in configuring the WiFi network to carry the VoIP traffic efficiently.

802.11n is the new high throughput standard for wireless local area networks (WLAN).  While almost every vendor in the wireless space has released an 802.11n access point, the IEEE specification has still not been ratified.  Current timetables show that this current draft of 802.11n (currently rev 5.0) should pass all approvals and become a IEEE standard sometime this year.  The 802.11 Wireless Group has yet to place their stamp of approval on the draft, which should happen in July 08.  So why even consider 802.11n at this point?

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