Securing IEEE 802.11G WLAN Using OpenVPN and Its Impact Analysis

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of OpenVPN to enhance security in IEEE 802.11g WLANs and analyzes its impact on network performance, addressing critical security vulnerabilities in wireless communications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to secure WLANs with OpenVPN and evaluates its effects on network performance, an area still under active development.

Findings

OpenVPN effectively secures IEEE 802.11g WLANs against eavesdropping and attacks.

Security improvements come with measurable impacts on network throughput and latency.

The approach provides a viable security enhancement for wireless networks using VPN technology.

Abstract

Like most advances, wireless LAN poses both opportunities and risks. The evolution of wireless networking in recent years has raised many serious security issues. These security issues are of great concern for this technology as it is being subjected to numerous attacks. Because of the free-space radio transmission in wireless networks, eavesdropping becomes easy and consequently a security breach may result in unauthorized access, information theft, interference and service degradation. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have emerged as an important solution to security threats surrounding the use of public networks for private communications. While VPNs for wired line networks have matured in both research and commercial environments, the design and deployment of VPNs for WLAN is still an evolving field. This paper presents an approach to secure IEEE 802.11g WLAN using OpenVPN, a transport layer VPN solution and its impact on performance of IEEE 802.11g WLAN.