Question

Compare and contrast wired and wireless LANs. What unique concerns must be addressed by the designer of a WLAN network?

Answer 1

Differences between Wired and Wireless LAN
SL. No	Difference	Wired LAN	Wireless LAN
1	Meaning	Wired LAN stands for Wired Local Area Network which uses hard-wired network cables to connect multiple devices to the network.	Wireless LAN stands for Wireless Local Area Network which uses radio-frequencies to transfer the information among multiple devices connected to the internet instead of physical cables.
2	Connectivity	The devices can communicate with each other which are physically connected using wires. It is not possible for any device to communicate which are not physically connected due to some issues.	All the devices which are within the specified range can be communicated each other. The devices can communicate with each other in wireless using some frequencies.
3	Usage	Wired LAN is often used in the places where network devices are placed in constant places.	Wireless LAN is often used when the network devices are moved quite often.
4	Convienience	Wired LAN is not much convenient to the end users since it is fixed in a particular location and the users must use the system in that location.	Wireless LAN is much convenient to the end users since the users can use the system in any location (Location should be within the range as applicable)
5	Costs	Cables are too expensive and the number of cables might grow exponentially if the network grows.	Only a root device is configured and it is less costly compared to Wired LAN.
6	Maintainence	Wired LAN is difficult to maintain since it involves physical cables. Identifying breakage in the cables, troubleshooting becomes difficult.	Wireless LAN is easy to maintain. Troubleshooting becomes very easy if there are any network issues.
7	Speed	Wired LAN offers much bandwidth and speed of connectivity when compared to Wireless LAN.	Wireless LAN offers less bandwidth and speed when compared to Wired LAN.
8	Security	Wired LAN is much secure since the user must connect to the switch or a router for data transfer. Access control is more secure in Wired LAN. The hacker should first break the physical security mechanism of a Wired medium to proceed further.	Wireless LAN is susceptible to various security attacks as the hacker with strong transceiver can detect the signals and using various encryption breaking techniques can break the encryption used in software level.
9	Applications Level	It employs the LAN using Ethernet and uses MAN (Metropolitan Network)	It employs the WLAN, Infrared, GSM, LTE, CDMA
10	Transmission Mediums Employed	It uses Fiber Optic cables, Copper Wires, High-Speed Ethernet cables for connectivity.	It uses Infrared frequencies, Radio Waves or EM Waves for wireless connectivity.
11	Channel Interference Issue	It is less as the wired devices do not much interference other connected devices.	It is more due to obstacles between sender and receiver. Ex. A wall between the sender and receiver will have much interference.
12	Quality of Service	The QoS is much reliable in Wired LAN.	The QoS is satisfactory but not much reliable and better like Wired LAN.

What unique concerns must be addressed by the designer of a WLAN network?

1. Security
Security is one of the major issues in WLAN. As a WLAN designer, you must incorporate multiple security mechanisms to protect your wireless network. The most common security threats in WLAN network are Denial of Service (Overusing the network resources and causing channel of interference), Spoofing (Pretending to be a valid user and misusing the access granted), Eavesdropping (Attacking against confidential data transferred in the network) etc.,

2. Mechanisms
There are different security mechanisms used in WLAN like WEP, WPA, WPA2 etc., these are the different wireless encryption protocols which are used to protect the information communicated or transferred over the WLAN network. It has been proven that WEP is no longer protected and it can be easily breakable. Care must be taken while choosing encryption protocols.

3. Implementation Issues
WLANs don't incorporate network management tools or security management tools as those used with WLAN. Tools that address Access Control, Airwave Security mechanisms, Authentication Control, and user rights are absent from WLAN. Therefore, care must be taken on those areas.

4. Risk Analysis and Mitigation
As a WLAN designer, you must ensure various risks involved in WLAN and discover risks involved in transferring confidential data of your company before setting up the network. It is necessary to analyze and mitigate risks and incorporate all the risk prevention security mechanisms in WLAN network.

5. Tools or Firewalls
Defense of Depth is one of the important areas in Information Security. It specifies the tools or firewalls to use while data transfer.