Chapter 10. Design Guidelines for Secure WLAN

Previous chapters in this book discussed the underlying technologies that are necessary to start designing secure WLANs. New WLAN installations are occurring and existing WLANs are being changed as WLAN access is identified as a technical or business requirement, like mobility, for more users.

Many differing technologies can be brought to bear to design secure WLANs, but it is the network designer's responsibility to select the most appropriate security technology. The selection of appropriate security technology must adhere to the WLAN security policy that a corporation has decided on and must also support the technical and business requirements, such as bedside check-in of patients in an emergency room, that are driving the WLAN deployment. This chapter discusses possible WLAN security designs that are based on answering fundamental questions about the services, devices, and policy that the WLAN must support.

Many network designers must consider how to simultaneously support legacy WLAN technologies and requirements along with the new security technologies that are available for securing WLANs. With this in mind, this chapter discusses basic design guidelines for two environments: new WLAN deployments and WLAN deployments that must integrate legacy devices and infrastructure. The primary emphasis will be on new WLAN deployments, and then you will learn how to integrate legacy WLAN deployments. Finally, the chapter closes with a review of how to utilize new security technologies to secure the WLAN.