Data communications over wireless networks

Wireless networks technology is the widely used for public and private environments such as internet at home and offices. These type of communication networks are installed to avoid the cable usages and are implemented with help of radio communication at the physical layer of the OSI model, examples include Cellular phones, WLANs, Satellite communication and terrestrial microwave networks. With the wide use of LANs in all environments, the main concern is security and attacks which can be due to numerous reasons but one of them is insufficient knowledge. Wireless networks utilize WAP (wireless application protocol) to send or receive information/data, the data being sent or receive is not properly secured. The common wireless network applications are internet browsing, emails, messaging, educational purpose such as eBooks, downloading and uploading. Recently trend change in technology has increased use of smartphones, laptops and tablet devices for anything to everywhere. The concerns that should be understood about data communications are as follows-

1. Unauthorized access points in the range of existing wireless LANs.

2. Limiting access of service such as Denial of Service (DoS)

3. Configuration Issues

4. Breaching security settings and capturing data.

The pros and cons of method of transmission such as Wireless Application Protocol are follows –

1. More accessibility, flexibility and availability — With wireless networks it has provided feasibility for all users to user internet on the go, communicate from anywhere in the world and provides user to work from any location besides offices.

2. Improved communication and efficiency — It provide faster communication for private or public use as well as transfer of data for organization and research purposes.

3. The cost of setting up wireless networks is cheaper as well as easier. It has provided internet providers with new opportunities for business and applications.

4. The main con of this is security, as its easily exposed to unauthorized attacks.

5. We can sometimes experience loss of communication due to interference from electromagnetic sources.

6. Coverage to some areas called as black spots is an issue, which can lead to inconsistent accessibility. It can sometimes be slower that wired network, in some situations it can be inefficient and wired or fiber networks are preferred.

Conclusion

The concern for security and the information that needs to be secured should be acknowledged by people using wireless networks as it is compared to wired. The concerns that need to be understood mainly is while sharing personal important information that id exposed can be harmful to individuals. Offices should also be careful while sharing client related information and follow security protocols to be safe from any unauthorized attacks. While transmission of information in wireless networks it’s easy to eavesdrop on audio/video calls, or attack over packets and then change the information packets. Any individual with access to public network and a personal community can potentially do an act of privacy invasion and compromise the reliability of the web applications. Hence, we should make it a protocol for internet service providers to focus on providing on authentication, maintaining integrity and confidentiality of users.