Abbreviations used

802.1X – IEEE standard that describes authentication and authorisation in LAN/WLAN networks. The following components are involved in communication according to the 802.1X standard: the 802.1X supplicant (802.1X end device), the network device (switch or WLAN access point) and the authentication server. The standard itself recommends the EAP protocol as the authentication protocol.

802.11 – Original IEEE standard for wireless networks, uses the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

802.11a – Extension of the 802.11 standard for the 5 GHz frequency band. 802.11a uses the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) method and allows gross data rates of up to 54 Mbit/s.

802.11b – Extension of the 802.11 standard, uses the 2.4 GHz frequency band and uses the CCK (Complementary Code Keying) modulation method. 802.11b allows gross data rates of up to 11 Mbit/s.

802.11g – Extension of the 802.11 standard, uses the 2.4 GHz frequency band and employs the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) method. 802.11g allows gross data rates of up to 54 Mbit/s.

802.11n – Extension of the 802.11 standard, can use both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands and uses MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) method. The maximum gross data rate depends on the number of antennas used and can be up to 600 Mbit/s.

802.11i – Extension of the 802.11 standard to include the TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) security protocols.

AES – Advanced Encryption Standard

Authorisation – is the assignment of access rights.

Authentication – is the verification of the identity of a communication participant.

DHCP – (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol for the dynamic assignment of IP configuration settings for computers or devices in a network.

EAP - (Extensible Authentication Protocol) is a modular authentication protocol. It is used to verify the identity of a user before establishing a connection to a network. Different methods can be used in the EAP protocol (e.g. EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, PEAP and others). The EAP protocol was developed by the IETF and is defined in RFC 3748.

EAP-TLS – is an EAP method that uses the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol. The identity of the authentication server and the user is verified using SSL certificates.

EAP-TTLS – is an EAP method that uses the TTLS (Tunnelled Transport Layer Security) protocol. The identity of the authentication server is verified using its SSL certificate, for which the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol is used. The identity of the user (user name/password) is transmitted to the authentication server in the secure TTLS tunnel.

IEEE – (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a standardisation body.

IETF – (Internet Engineering Task Force) is an organisation that is primarily concerned with standardising the communication protocols used on the Internet.

PAP – Password Authentication Protocol

PEAP – (Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol) is a manufacturer-specific EAP procedure. The identity of the authentication server is verified using its SSL certificate; the TLS protocol (Transport Layer Security) is used for this purpose. The identity of the user (user name/password) is verified using MSCHAPv2 (MicroSoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol Version 2).

SSID – (Service Set Identifier) is the name of a wireless network that is transmitted, for example, by an infrastructure (access points). To establish a connection to a wireless network, the corresponding SSID must be configured on the user's PC.

SSL – (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol for the secure transmission of data.

TLS – (Transport Layer Security) is an extension of SSL.

WPA2 – (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) is a security standard for wireless networks.