There are three encryption options available for WLANs
. WLANs can be
installed with no encryption, 40-bit WEP encryption, or 128-bit WEP encryption.
Cisco has hardware-based encryption processing, so there is only a very small
effect on performance when encryption is enabled on the product. Other WLAN
vendors have software-based encryption, which significantly decreases the
throughput of the LAN.
WEP encryption is known to be weak. The IEEE is
enhancing WEP with TKIP and providing robust authentication options with 802.1x
to make 802.11-based WLANs secure. At the same time, the IEEE is researching
stronger encryption mechanisms. The IEEE has adopted the use of the Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES) in the data-privacy section of the proposed 802.11i
standard.