NETGEAR WFS709TP-100NAS manual WFS709TP ProSafe Switches, RF Monitoring

WFS709TP ProSafe Smart Wireless Switch Software Administration Manual

You can also enable WFS709TPs to detect coverage holes, or areas where a good RF signal is not adequately reaching wireless clients.

RF Monitoring

An AP can function as either a dedicated or shared Air Monitor (AM) to monitor the RF spectrum to detect intrusions, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and other vulnerabilities. A dedicated AM performs monitoring functions exclusively and does not service wireless clients or advertise SSIDs. A shared AM performs monitoring functions in addition to servicing wireless clients.

Every AP automatically monitors the channel on which it services wireless clients. You can configure the AP to perform off-channel scanning, where the AP spends brief time intervals scanning other channels. However, the more clients an AP services, the less time it has to perform off-channel scanning. If air monitoring functions are critical to your network, designate a few APs as dedicated AMs.

You can configure dedicated AMs to perform the following functions:

•Detect, locate, and disable rogue APs (APs that are not authorized or sanctioned by network administrators)

•Detect and disable ad-hoc networks

•Detect and disable honeypot APs

•Detect wireless bridges

•Capture remote packets

If you only need air monitoring functions periodically, you can configure APs to operate temporarily as AMs. You can also configure dedicated AMs to automatically convert into APs if an AP failure occurs or when there is a high level of traffic on the network.

WFS709TP ProSafe Switches

All APs are connected either directly or remotely through an IP network to the WFS709TP ProSafe Smart Wireless Switch. The WFS709TP is an enterprise-class switch that bridges wireless client traffic to and from traditional wired networks and performs high-speed Layer 2 or Layer 3 packet forwarding between Ethernet ports. While APs provide radio services only, the WFS709TP performs upper-layer media access control (MAC) processing, such as encryption and authentication, as well as centralized configuration and management of SSIDs and RF characteristics for the APs. This allows you to deploy APs with little or no physical change to an existing wired infrastructure.

Overview of the WFS709TP 1-5

v1.0, June 2007