IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.12 No.6, June 2012 18 Manuscript received June 5, 2012 Manuscript revised June 20, 2012 Quantification of the Different Security Algorithms in Wireless Network Abdalla Gheryani † and Mladen Veinović †† Singidunum University, Beograd - Serbia Summary This paper studies and measures the effect of different security algorithms on the performance of a wireless LAN. Real experiments were performed on a wireless LAN and the data obtained was analyzed for throughput, jitter and delay under different security scenarios. Both TCP and UDP traffic streams were analyzed at three different data rates. The effect of congestion is also measured. The results tell that no important degradation in performance occurs by enabling security algorithms in a wireless LAN. In low bit rate, it shows there is no important degradation, but in case of high rate more than channel rate, it shows there is influence. Key words: Wireless LAN, TCP, UDP, WPA, WEP. 1. Introduction Wireless networks have extended marvelous acceptance in marketable, military, educational and research in last few years. Mobility support is another salient feature of wireless networks which grants the users not only “anytime, anywhere” network access, but also the freedom of roaming while networking. The main contributors to this acceptance are flexibility and mobility offered by these networks. The significant dependence on wireless networks in all walks of life has created a tremendous need for increasing the reliability and security of these networks. The security risks in wireless networks are more than those of wired networks due to open access of the shared wireless medium [2]. Besides security, performance is another major issue in wireless networks. These issues have been exclusively studied in an extensive manner. However, little work exists in the area of understanding the relationship between these two issues. The aim of our study is to understand and quantify the relationship between security and performance in wireless LANs (Local Area Networks). To carry out this study, we performed experiments on a wireless LAN by enabling security protocols like WEP and WPA for TCP and UDP traffic at data rates of 1 Mbps, 5Mbps and 14 Mbps. To see the impact of these security protocols, experiments were performed in unencrypted case as well. The data obtained from these experiments is compared for performance metrics like throughput, jitter and delay. 2. Network Layout and Procedure In our scenario, we have used wired node N0 (Dell with Pentium Dual-Core 2.2 GHz, Marvell Yukon Fast Ethernet Controller and Windows 7 Ultimate with service pack1) as the sender and wireless node N1 (Compaq with Pentium Core Duo 1.83 GHz, Broadcom Wireless LAN and Windows 7 Ultimate with service pack1) as the receiver. In the topology R1 (Cisco 2100 Cable Modem) act as Cisco Modem while R2 (Linksys E1500 Wireless-N Router with SpeedBoost) is Cisco Access Point. Ethernet node N0 connects with R1 through a 100 Mbps link. The link bandwidth between R1 and R2 is set to 100 Mbps while the wireless link between R2 and N1 operates at a nominal data rate 11 Mbps. Fig. 1 Layout of the Network The experiments were conducted on wireless test for different security scenarios and traffic streams in the infrastructure mode of wireless LANs. A brief discussion of different aspects of these experiments is given below. 2.1 Security Scenarios The experiments were carried out for following scenarios:-  No Security: In this scenario the entities communicate over wireless link without any authentication and encryption. The results obtained are used as a reference for comparison with security enabled cases.