802.11 Wireless Networking Deployment Survey for Dublin, Ireland

This document describes the results obtained from, and the experiences of, a survey of wireless networking deployment in Dublin, Ireland conducted between May and July 2002. Recent advances in wireless technology, and its standardization, enable low-cost alternatives to traditional wired services for both commercial and non-commercial users; from omni-direction local area hot spots to long-distance, line-of-sight, point-to-point links. However, the adoption of wireless networks leads to security issues not encountered with traditional wired networks. We take Dublin as a case-study of wireless networking deployment, and four distinct aspects are focused on: the geographical distribution and volume of wireless equipment, the density of networks not running WEP-based security, the breakdown of equipment currently in use, and the applicability of a range of off-the-shelf equipment for sensing wireless networks. We found that a large number of both local area and point-to-point wireless solutions are being employed throughout Dublin, a large fraction of network operators are not addressing wireless security at the link layer, a wide range of manufacturers' equipment is being used, and we identify a practical setup for sensing wireless networks.