Deployment Issues And Security Concerns With Wireless Local Area Networks: The Deployment Experience At A University

Abstract

&lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"&gt;This paper presents and discusses various issues pertaining to the deployment of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). &lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;The popularity of WLANs has steadily increased in the last two years and has led to their deployment in a variety of organizations.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Yet, making a business case for WLANs is an important step in their deployment.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;In addition to highlighting the need for a business case for WLAN deployment, the paper outlines the reasons for, benefits of, and security problems associated with, their deployment.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The latter part of this paper presents a case study about the deployment of a WLAN at the University of Akron.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Therein, it discusses the context for the deployment, the process that was used to justify the deployment, and the efforts made to protect users&amp;rsquo; information from security deficiencies of wireless networks.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</jats:p