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Physical security and information technology are maintaining a very high rate of convergence. Communications networking technology is an obvious partner in this rapid convergence. Numerous networks of physical security have made the switch from proprietary protocols to TCP/IP and open standard Ethernet. However this convergence has not yet occurred in the territory of wireless technology.
On the other hand, the convergence process to the (WiFi) wireless open standard has already been adopted worldwide by the IT industry, and is currently taking place.
Technology products and solutions are evolving to meet changing user requirements due to the rapidly changing role of the security professional. It is obviously clear that the future of physical security is wireless for users from all sectors of the industry.
Long wire runs are not required for wireless installations. Due to that fact, they usually cost as little as one-third the cost of comparable wired products. Most wireless networks can cover more geographical locations therefore more doors for the same cost of wired networks, thanks to the remarkable savings on installations and labor. Furthermore, many of the access management and video monitoring products, conventionally administered from a back office, can now be mobile and put in the hands of experts in these operations. Generally speaking, it is not a troublesome task to persuade security experts that wireless products deliver mobility and significant cost benefits. On the other hand, for experts who have an experience with wireless solutions, the technology that is recently available is fraught with installations and technical assistance hurdles.
Wireless security deployments offer a revolutionary security solution especially due to the ever shrinking budgets and the ever increasing security tasks that are deployed to operations directors are who are in charge of a small team of staff members. Although the wireless security solutions have been available to the security market for a decent amount of time, the outcomes are not exactly easy to analyze. Discussions at ISC West facility were filled with stories of undependable networks, technical support woes and false product guarantees.
On the other hand, it is significant to point out that until recently, the irritation, concern and doubt has been acceptable. The security solutions of Voice and multimedia as well as IP-addressable CCTV systems, have always been more advanced than what they should be, as bandwidth and infrastructure technology has only recently caught up to the high-end necessities of wireless surveillance solutions.
Two things will be discovered by security directors, integrators and manufacturers as they continue to educate themselves about the role of wireless in the security industry. One of which is that there is a significant difference between open standard wireless and proprietary wireless; and the second is that the IT communities and global businesses have fully endorsed and installed a single open standard for enterprise wireless communication networks. Wi-Fi, is the name of this standard.
Wireless Physical Security, Potentials and Expectations
Security solutions and Proprietary wireless networks depend on individual companies to provide the research, development, software tools and technical support that ensure an accurate installation process. Adding on The producer who constructs the wireless security products also responsible for ensuring it is encrypted, technically supported and incorporated with current access management and video supervision products. Incidents of malfunction have revolved around problems related to the proprietary nature of the wireless networking technology. For the past couple of years, the main concern in the industry was that security professionals were not conscious that there is a practical, proven alternative to proprietary wireless, and manufacturers have not offered surveillance solutions that are operative with the WiFi technology.
More than a decade ago Experts in IT technology realized that adopting an open standard for wireless communication would drive down prices by encouraging vendor competition for their business, would increase the number and quality of products available in the marketplace, as well as allow customers to mix and match these products as needed. In order to define the protocols that are now known as WiFi today, The 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standard was developed by the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards body. These days, producers construct solutions based on the same standards and guidelines. Also, the patrons are not obliged to use technologies from a specified supplier. every producer is still able to add his or her own benefits and advantages to address specific needs within the wireless supply chain, and an open standard shared and endorsed by all, ensures software and hardware solutions are interoperable and compatible.
WLANs offer network connectivity over an area of a hundred meters between network station and an access point (such as a computer or hub) in most security-related installations. The wide assortments of 802.11 standards, (including 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g) are assumed to be open standards due to the fact that the set of rules they are based upon are publicly available to producers, incorporators and security experts.
Wireless technology products and services have grown spectacularly within the business and IT communities due to the global installation of the standard., Wi-Fi based network deployments use off-the-shelf products, and technical support and software tools are available from dozens of vendors this is certainly a drastic improvement comparing with the high-cost and high-stress proprietary deployments that were carried out in the recent past. At the moment, a PDA or Dell laptop operates flawlessly with a Linksys access points and Cisco router to cover acres of a university campus and provides accommodation for thousands of patrons. Adding on, the network administrators can receive immediate on-site or remote technical support from their choice of hundreds of vendors if for some reason the network goes down.
The technology of Wi-Fi was regarded by an industry trade group as an important element of its attempts to promote wireless integration. The trade group was eventually renamed as the WiFi Alliance due to its acquired popularity. To fully grasp the importance of this, you must realize that Wireless interoperability is what makes your laptop work on any public WiFi (often called "hotspots”) rather than only on networks offered by the producers of your notebook. The WiFi Alliance was established more than six years ago as a not-for-profit industry trade association with the mission of testing and certifying products as compatible with the 802.11 global wireless standard in order to ensure technology hardware and software applications conform to the WiFi protocol.
The WiFi Alliance has demonstrated its value to Fortune 2000, transportation, healthcare and military, government institutions especially with its more than 250 manufacturing members and 2,500 products certified worldwide. The procedure of certification for prospective WiFi solutions takes place at 10 ISO-credited labs all around the globe. For instance, just last year, well over 120 million WiFi-certified solutions were distributed internationally. The amount of WiFi solutions is predicted to remarkably increase to more than 400 million in the near future, according to, the managing director for the WiFi Alliance.
The 802.11 WiFi standard is a secure, reliable protocol that incorporates a variety of applications, including information and physical security solutions, this technology comes very handy especially in the world of IT network architecture. The professionals of IT are aware of the fact that proprietary networks only use vendor-specific software and hardware, which increases the cost and decreases the network’s security and flexibility.
Establishing a Protected Wireless Network
More and more, IT sectors are creating the standards and guidelines for all information communications within the industry. A proprietary system represents a security risk to the data network from the perspective of an IT professional.
The best way to protect a system is to hide the details of how the security of the system works, this belief is often referred to as "Security through obscurity”. However, the enterprise of IT security takes the reverse methodology. For instance, the security protocols in WiFi are not concealed, but rather they are publicized on purpose so that the entire scientific community can assess the security of the systems. If after careful, lengthy observation and analysis the protocols cannot be compromised, they are assumed to be secure. Today’s WiFi encryption standards have not been broken and have proven themselves to be very reliable even after years of intensive review.
Encryption or the ability to secure voice, data and video information traveling over the WiFi network constitutes one of the most important features of the WiFi security protocol. The protocol is WPA, and more recently WPA2, which stands for WiFi protected access. The manufacturers' products can be tested by WiFi certification laboratories to ensure compliance with WiFi security protocols this is enabled due to the fact that WiFi is an open standard. This procedure offers an objective assessment of the security of the solution. In addition, there is no objective measure of the security of these networks since certification for proprietary networks is not possible.
Moreover, the WiFi Alliance advises that security directors utilize the WPA encryption standards since they are acquiescent with the FIPS 140-2 (DOD) and the Sarbanes-Oxley (SEC) standards for information security and network reliability.
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is recognized as one of the biggest advantages of WiFi according to the vice president and general manager of Symbol Technologies' Wireless Infrastructure Division, which is a worldwide leader in WiFi infrastructure sales. Thousands of publicly-traded companies in the last few years have migrated over to the WiFi standard to ensure their information is fully encrypted and their networks are fully sustained if their systems ever collapse, which constitutes the two major requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley’s protocols.
Moving on, network intrusion detection is a standard customer requirement in the security industry. A technology only available today for WiFi networks is Wireless network intrusion detection. The same way as encryption protects information being transmitted over the airwaves, a wireless intrusion detection system guards the network from a potential intrusion. As an example, IT professionals know that jamming a wireless network is the easiest way to disable it. But a wireless intrusion detection system quickly directs security personnel to the physical location of the attackers after successfully detecting the attack.
The WiFi standard helped hundreds of companies and thousands of scientists around the world to solve the initial problems of wireless security. In order to provide the next generation of security for WiFi an entire industry of vendors has now been successfully established. A solitary seller will never have the capability to offer the same level of protection for a proprietary network.
Producing Wi-Fi Technology
The producers of security who desire to sell into the wireless security space must be able to ensure both security directors and IT administrators that their product can be examined, maintained and securely incorporated into the already established network structure. Using the same networking technologies already adopted by IT represents the simplest, most direct solution.
In order to guarantee long-term success, manufacturers must utilize this huge deployed base of WiFi systems. Manufacturers can enter the wireless market by developing products and features that address their customers' specific needs without having to reinvent the wireless wheel, this is enabled by the open wireless protocol from which they can build on. This has many positive results such as shortening the development cycle and lowering the price point for potential patrons.
Wi-Fi Technology IT Electronics WLAN Wireless router access hardware and software applications network Security protocol WPA encryption.
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