Investigation into building large scale wireless networks with ubiquitous access

Abstract

This thesis presents a design and implementation of a novel method of device authentication in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 Wi-Fi networks and a method of access point configuration and management. The novel method of authentication provides a mix of properties from both Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) - Personal and WPA-Enterprise. It allows for per user authentication and allows for device ownership to be tracked like WPA-Enterprise while providing the ease of use of and ubiquitous support of WPA-Personal. It also allows for a network covering a wide area to use a single Service Set Identifier (SSID) and for seamless authentication and roaming between access points. This project also provides a highly scalable method of centralised access point configuration and management based upon the OpenSync access point management software and a custom OpenSync controller. The access point configuration and management and Wi-Fi authentication methods provided are designed so that it supports this project being extended to provide user based network segmentation such that each user appears to have their own virtual layer 2 network as they roam between access points.