802.11r - R is for Rapid

Discussion in 'News' started by Kitkatninja, Aug 31, 2008.

  1. Kitkatninja
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    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    802.11r - R is for Rapid



    802.11r ratification is the most important standard to hit the Wi-Fi industry in a long time - yes, even more important than 802.11n. 802.11i was sorely lacking - giving us only fast roam-back (to an AP to which your client was previously associated) and preauthentication, which is slow and rarely supported by WLAN infrastructure providers. In the absence of a standard, many WLAN infrastructure vendors (Motorola, Colubris, Aruba, Cisco, Meru, etc.) have been using Opportunistic Key Caching (OKC) - also called Opportunistic PMK Caching. Both the client device and the WLAN infrastructure have to support this for it to work, and on laptop computers, that gives us only Microsoft's WZC client and Juniper's Odyssey client. While both are popular, they don't represent the entire industry - not even half when you consider how many appliances like VoWiFi phones there are in the market.

    Now that 802.11r is upon us, I predict (read: guarantee) that all WLAN infrastructure providers will adopt it into their WLAN infrastructure code as fast as they possibly can. Further, we will see client software support for 802.11r protocols little-by-little over the next 12 months until pretty much all client software and appliances (Wi-Fi badges, handsets, handhelds, scanners, etc.) all support it. As an industry, how can we not? Fast, secure roaming - called Fast BSS Transition (FT) by the 802.11r amendment - is a must to asure applications don't break while on the move. And since mobile applications have reached critical mass over the last 6 months, getting 802.11r protocol support into everything Wi-Fi related should be priority #1 for vendors.


    Read the whole article here.

    -Ken
     
    Certifications: MSc, PGDip, PGCert, BSc, HNC, LCGI, MBCS CITP, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCE, A+, N+, S+, Server+
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Comments

    1. UCHEEKYMONKEY
      UCHEEKYMONKEY
      Is this another standard like 802.11n was. where it was released on Belkin routers and didn't have full support let alone wirless cards to use the full potential of 802.11n??
      :rolleyes:
    2. NightWalker
      NightWalker
      Has 802.11n been declared a full standard by IEEE yet or is it still a draft?
    3. hbroomhall
      hbroomhall
      Not yet! See here for some details.

      Harry.
    4. NightWalker
      NightWalker
      Be a real bummer if IEEE decide to make some changes to the draft. There is a lot of kit that has been sold as 802.11n 'compatible' (or not compatible if the draft standards are changed). Probably best to wait a while before buying 802.11r...

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