Frequency Hopper

Security and reliability overview

Security and reliability of data are as a wireless network as for a wired network. But what we mean when we talk about the security and reliability. It means that our product and application must be protected from hackers, vendors, or competitors. About wireless networks it is essential to analyze that how many networks can be connected to our deployed protocol standard. Reliability is that the data or information transferred through radio waves must reach the destination without loss. So what is the solution?

Security Solution for Wireless Networks

For wireless networks security becomes more critical. Because if your network is working in 2.4 GHz band any nearby signal for the same frequency either access the data breaching security or interfere with the information to hurt the data reliability. IEEE 802.11 standard specifications include the security as well as reliability solution as FHSS and DSSS. Both the techniques for wireless data transmission operate in 2.4 GHz frequency band. So let us find out that

What are the FHSS and DSSS

FHSS stands for frequency hopping spread spectrum. DSS stands for direct sequencing spread spectrum. Years back it was military who introduced and used both FHSS and DSSS in the applications. FHSS is considered more secure in jamming or intercepting the signals. DSSS technology follows IEEE 802.11b standards specifications. Therefore these operate in 22 MHz wide bands. Working in three 22 MHz non-overlapping channels between 2.4 and 2.483 Giga Hz. FHSS operate in 1 MHz band hopping from one frequency to other in regular time intervals.

Security advantages offered by FHSS

FHSS rejects the interference

As I mentioned above the FHSS uses narrow bands of 1 MHz to hop the frequency. This allows the use of narrow filters. Narrower the filter lesser will be the interference. So FHSS offers less interference.

FHSS offers automatic retransmission

Each hop of frequency band carries one data packet. Now if any band in the hoping frequencies loses data, the same data packet is retransmitted in the next hop. So this relives the tension of data loss.

FHSS is a headache for the eavesdropper

An eavesdropper or intruder finds the FHSS as a rapidly changing frequency band in a random manner. For the intruder it is almost impossible to find out the frequency sequence. And there is no other way to obtain data from FHSS without frequency sequence.

FHSS eliminates multipath interference offering network Robustness

In a normal wireless network without FHSS, radio signals can collide with the walls, floors, tanks, cable paths, etc. As a result they deviate from direct line to other lines. And the signal reaches the destination with delay. This is known as multipath interference. The delay in various frequencies is caused by various frequencies. But the gap between various frequency bands of FHSS is quite low. So as result FHSS offer very low multipath interference or noise offering network robustness.