Designed with enterprise-class security requirements in mind, the Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g Wireless CardBus Adapter uses the 802.1X standard for port-based network access. A full array of Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) types for user-based authentication, together with enterprise-caliber Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption, provide full 802.11i support. The adapter supports WPA2, the Wi-Fi Alliance certification for interoperable, standards-based wireless LAN security.
Support for Management Frame Protection (MFP) is now available on the Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g Wireless CardBus Adapter. MFP adds security to the MAC management layer of 802.11 connectivity by cryptographically hashing the management frames and generating a Message Integrity Check (MIC) during network connection.
The Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g Wireless CardBus Adapter supports the most common 802.1X authentication types, including EAP-Flexible Authentication via Secure Tunneling (EAP-FAST), Cisco LEAP, EAP-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS), Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol-Generic Token Card (PEAP-GTC), and PEAP-Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol version 2 (PEAP-MSCHAPv2). A wide selection of RADIUS servers, such as the Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) and Cisco Access Registrar server, can be used for enterprise-class centralized user management that includes:
• Strong, mutual authentication to help ensure that only legitimate clients associate with legitimate and authorized network RADIUS servers via authorized access points
• Dynamic per-user, per-session encryption keys that automatically change on a configurable basis to protect the privacy of transmitted data
• Stronger encryption keys provided by Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) enhancements such as message integrity check (MIC), per-packet keys via initialization vector hashing, and broadcast key rotation
• RADIUS accounting records for all authentication attempts
• IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 AES support