moon1234
@charter.com
| reply to Camelot One
Re: Did they ever finish N?
This is just the industry bodies answer to Cisco's CCKM mothod of caching and reusing the PMK negotiated when you first authenticate to an access point.
These technologies have actually been around several years and are already in use. You may have heard of pre-authentication and pair-wise master key caching already. These allow fast roaming by having the client pre-authenticate to a new access point before dis-associating with the current one. The PMK is then cached and allows the client to quickly move to another access point. without having interruptions in the wireless link.
With Cisco, this process is done by the access points or wireless lan controller on behalf of the clients. The downside is that all access points must be Cisco access points. Other vendors have similar implementations.
All this standard is looking to do is open fast roaming between different vendors equipment. Mush of the work is done and already in use in Windows XP, Windows Vista and most newer access points and home routers. Current access points without this support will require a firmware upgrade. This will be up to the vendor to supply to thier customers. Many consumer vendors may use this as a way to push customers to new equipment. Corporate suppliers, Cisco and company, will offer firmware upgrades for currently shipping models when the standard is ratified. |
