[STDS-802-11-TGAI] Concerns with the draft 11ai security text

Thread Links	Date Links
Thread Prev	Thread Next	Thread Index	Date Prev	Date Next	Date Index

I had an action item to provide my issues with the draft security text (assume baseline as 1045/r4). There were two general issues:

1. What functionality or advantages do we lose when we lose the EAPOL key frames?

A specific example is that the multi-band operations introduced in 11ad require use of fields which were added to EAPOL key frames 1-4. If we don’t have the EAPOL key frames in the 11ai mechanism, and we want the multi-band operation, then we need to do some extra specification work. This should be do-able but there may be an ongoing requirement to maintain this part of the multi-band functionality in more than one place in the 802.11 specification.

I need to review further to see if there any other similar issues.

2. Will 11ai fast initial link setup be fast for low power, CPU-challenged 802.11 devices?

An example is a mobile battery powered 802.11 RFID sensor tag with perhaps a 50 MHz 32 bit CPU. I gather that the current non-TTP proposal will take perhaps 10 ms on a smart phone with a 1 GHz processor so it does not appear suitable for low power devices. Rene Struik has indicated that this issue can be addressed with a different selection of elliptic curve and various processing techniques.

I have discussed the above with the authors and expect to communicate further via email when new drafts are available.

Thanks,

Dave

IF YOU WISH to be Removed from this reflector, PLEASE DO NOT send your request to this CLOSED reflector. We use this valuable tool to communicate on the issues at hand.