A Framework for Wireless LAN Monitoring and Its Applications

Abstract

Numerous studies on measurement and characterization of remote i.e. wireless LAN’s (WLANs) have been
performed recently. The majority of these measurements have been conducted from the wired part of the system in based on wired
monitoring (e.g. sniffer at some wired point) or SNMP measurements. Then, wireless monitoring, the traffic measurement from a
wireless vantage point, is additionally generally received in both wireless research and business WLAN management product
development. Wireless monitoring technique can give detailed PHY/MAC information on wireless medium. For the network analysis
reason (e.g. abnormality detection and security monitoring) such point by point wireless information is more helpful than the data gave
by SNMP or wired monitoring. In this paper we have investigated different issues in implementing the wireless monitoring system for
an IEEE 802.11 based wireless network. We distinguish the pitfalls that such system needs to be aware of, and after that give feasible
solutions to avoid those pitfalls. We implement a genuine wireless monitoring system and show its effectiveness to characterizing
typical computer science WLAN traffic. Our characterization uncovers rich information about the PHY/MAC layers of the IEEE
802.11 protocol, for example, the typical traffic mix of distinctive frame types, their temporal characterization and relationship with
the client exercises. Additionally, we distinguish different anomalies in protocol and security of the IEEE 802.11 MAC. With respect
to security, we identify malicious utilization of WLAN, for example, email worm and system checking. Our outcomes likewise
demonstrate excessive re-transmissions of some management frame types reducing the helpful throughput of the wireless network.