Austin, TX, September 1, 2004 - The Wi-Fi Alliance announced today the first round of products that are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ for theWPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) capability. WPA2 builds on its predecessor, WPA, and is specifically designed to meet the most demanding enterprise security needs. The first WPA2 products are expected to be available from vendors later this month.
WPA2 is based upon the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11i amendment to the 802.11 standard, which was ratified on July 29, 2004. The primary difference between WPA and WPA2 is that WPA2 uses a more advanced encryption technique called AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), allowing for compliance with FIPS140-2 government security requirements.
Products that are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ for WPA remain technically sound and secure. However, many enterprise organizations have been seeking an interoperable, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ technology based on the full IEEE 802.11i standard. Others require AES encryption for internal or regulatory reasons. WPA2 meets these needs. Furthermore, because WPA2 is backwards- compatible with WPA, organizations that have already implemented the WPA standard can migrate to WPA2 at their own pace.
Enterprise security needs are not a stationary target, and the Wi-Fi Alliance is committed to certification programs that meet evolving security requirements, said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director, Frank Hanzlik. WPA2 is ideally suited for enterprises in both the public and private sectors. Products thatare CERTIFIED for WPA2 give IT managers the assurance that the technology meets interoperability standards and in turn, helps them manage support and deployment costs, Hanzlik added.
Products obtaining WPA2 certification on September 1, 2004 include:
AtherosCommunications Inc.Atheros AR5002AP-2XConcurrent 802.11a and 802.11b/g Dual-band Access Point Atheros AR5002X Universal802.11a/b/g Wireless Network Adapter
Broadcom CorporationBroadcom AirForce802.11a/g CardBus Reference Design, BCM94309CBBroadcom AirForce802.11a/g Access Point Reference Design, BCM94704-AGR
Cisco SystemsCisco Aironet 1200 SeriesAccess Point with integrated 802.11a and 802.11g radios
Instant802 NetworksGateway 7001 Access Point
IntelIntelPro/Wireless 2915 Network Connection
RealtekRealtek RTL8185&8255802.11a/g 54M WLAN NIC / RTL8185&8255-NIC
About the Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance(formerly WECA) is the global Wi-Fi organization that created the Wi-Fi brand.A nonprofit organization, the Alliance was formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products and to promote them as the global,wireless LAN standard across all market segments.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has instituted a test suite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they are interoperable with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. These tests are conducted at independent laboratories.
Membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance is open to all companies that support the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance now comprises over 200 members from the worlds leading companies. These companies offer over 1,500 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org.
Press and analyst contact:
C. Brian Grimm
Wave Communications for Wi-Fi Alliance 910.686.0870briang@wavecoms.com
