A CLOSE ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC WIFI Abdul Rauf Khan 1 , Aurang Zeb Khan 2 , Imran Ahmad 3 , Shahid Ullah 4 , Najeeb Ullah 5 , Sajid Ullah Khan 6 1 University of Science & Technology, Bannu, Pakistan 2 University of Science & Technology, Bannu, Pakistan Center of Excellence in Information Technology, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan 4 Sarhad University, KPK, Paksitan 5 CECOS University, Peshawar, Pakistan 6 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia Correspondent email: khansajidmalik.com ABSTRACT: Wireless technologies (Wi-Fi) permit all networking devices and computers to communicating over a wireless signal. Wi-Fi becomes so prominent because of installation simplicity and the increased number of Wi-Fi radio equipped laptops. Companies that like to enter this market needs intelligence in this area to make appropriate business decisions based on the properties of present and future technologies. Knowledge of the technologies in terms of security issues, performance and installation and maintenance cost are of interest. The goal of this paper is to investigate and compare total cost, focus on availability, number of nodes, end user-cost, range, vendor cost, reliability, and security among different wireless network. The aim is to match LAN Wi-Fi technology (IEEE 802.11 a/g) with mobile wireless technology e.g. 3G, 4G and LTE. The objective of this research work is to match different technologies with WiFi in terms of bandwidth, cost factor and performance factor, and technology implementation factor. KEYWORDS: LAN Wi-Fi technology (IEEE 802.11 a/g), 3G, 4G, LTE. 1. INTRODUCTION Wireless technologies (Wi-Fi) permit all networking devices and computers to communicating over a wireless signal [1]. A usual Wi-Fi network has three parts: a computer connected by wired and wireless connections, an access point, and a wired connection to a broadband provider [2]. It offers different broadband speeds and functions in Scientific and Medical band [3]. The communication among computers is done through Access Points (APs). The access point also works as a wireless ethernet adapter. Wi-Fi becomes so prominent because of installation simplicity and the increased number of Wi-Fi radio equipped laptops. Now days numerous businesses like hotel, airports, cafés, restaurants, and shopping areas offering wireless internet-services to customers. Wireless technology getting more significance in business and everyday-life, as population is getting denser by closely spaced buildings. Wireless networks have easy placement in markets, offices, airports, and other locations providing advantages like flexibility, mobility, ease of use, and low cost. Companies that like to enter this market needs intelligence in this area to make appropriate business decisions based on the properties of present and future technologies. Knowledge of the technologies in terms of security issues, performance and installation and maintenance cost are of interest. The study does not analyze or contain technologies like Near Field Communication, Bluetooth and Radio frequency identification (RFID). The rest of the paper consists of the following sections. Section 2 represents the background study. Section 3 shows the research approach. Section 4 depicts results and section 5 and section 6 represents discussion and conclusion. 2. BACKGROUND STUDY 2.1. The IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Architecture Structure IEEE 802.11 architecture/structure has nine services are divided into two groups i.e. Station (STAs) services and distribution services. STAs services comprise of authentication, de- authentication, delivery and privacy of the information while distribution amenities consists of distribution, integration, association, re-association and disassociation. 2.2 802.11b High-rate WLAN Standard The 802.11b emphases on the lowest two layers of the open system Interconnect model. i.e. the physical layer and data link layer. The 802.11b standard permits for two forms of transmissions: FHSS and DSSS. Both of spread spectrums use more bandwidth than a usual narrowband transmission, but empower a strong signal that is easier for the receiver to detect than the narrowband signal [4]. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security (IJCSIS), Vol. 14, No. 9, September 2016 165 https://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500