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802.11 Asociation Process

The document discusses the 802.11 association process between a wireless station and access point (AP). There are three connection states: unauthenticated and unassociated, authenticated and unassociated, and authenticated and associated. A series of frame exchanges occurs for authentication and association, including probe request, probe response, authentication request, authentication response, association request, and association response frames. Once associated, the station can transmit data frames.

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129 views17 pages

802.11 Asociation Process

The document discusses the 802.11 association process between a wireless station and access point (AP). There are three connection states: unauthenticated and unassociated, authenticated and unassociated, and authenticated and associated. A series of frame exchanges occurs for authentication and association, including probe request, probe response, authentication request, authentication response, association request, and association response frames. Once associated, the station can transmit data frames.

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802.

11 association process
802.11 Association process

• There are three 802.11 connection states:


• State 1: Unauthenticated and Unassociated
• State 2: Authenticated, Unassociated
• State 3: Authenticated, Associated
• The station must be in an authenticated and associated state before connection is established.
• The station and AP will exchange a series of 802.11 management frames in order to get to
an authenticated and associated state.
802.11 connection basics
 For a station to successfully join a WiFi network, a series of frame exchanges must occur which
make up the Authentication and Association process, the 802.11 State Machine. The frames part
of this transaction are as follows:
• Probe Request
• Probe Response
• Authentication Request
• Authentication Response
• Association Request
• Association Response
• Beacons: The access point periodically sends a beacon frame to announce its presence and relay
many information that is required by the stations to connect to the wireless network
• Probe Request: A station sends probe requests to discover 802.11 networks within its proximity.
Probe requests advertise the stations supported data rates and 802.11 capabilities such as
802.11n.
• Probe Response:  Access point receiving the probe request check to see if the station has at least
one common supported data rate. If they share a common data rate, a probe response is sent
advertising the SSID, supported data rates, encryption types if required, and other 802.11
capabilities of the access point.
• Authentication Request:   The station chooses a SSID/network from the probe responses it
receives. It also checks the compatibility on encryption type. Once compatible networks are
discovered the station will attempt low-level 802.11 authentication with compatible access
points. The station sends a low-level 802.11 authentication frame to an AP setting the
authentication to open and the sequence to 0x0001.
• Authentication Response: The access point receives the authentication frame and
responds to the station with authentication frame set to open indicating a sequence,  If
an access point receives any frame other than an authentication or probe request from
a station that is not authenticated it will respond with a deauthentication frame placing
the mobile into an unauthenticated an unassociated state. The station will have to begin
the association process from the low level authentication step. At this point the station is
authenticated but not yet associated.
• Association Request : Once the station determines which access point it would like to
associate to, it will send an association request to that access point.The association
request contains chosen encryption types and other compatible 802.11 capabilities.
• Association Response: If the elements of association request match the capabilities of
the access point, it will create an Association ID for the mobile station and  respond with
an association response with a success message granting network access to the mobile
station.
• Data:  At this stage the connection is established and the station is successfully
associated to the access point and is ready for data transfer
• For a station to successfully join a WiFi network, a series of frame exchanges must occur which
make up the Authentication and Association process, the 802.11 State Machine. The frames part
of this transaction are as follows:
• Probe Request
• Probe Response
• Authentication Request
• Authentication Response
• Association Request
• Association Response
• Authentication
In a station’s WiFi network discovery process, a Probe Request will be sent from the station to the
BSSID listed in a Beacon frame the station received. This is the beginning of the 802.11 State
Machine.
• The access point responds with a Probe Response frame. After the station receives the Probe
Response frame, it acknowledges the receipt of the frame with an Acknowledgement Frame.
Next, the station transmits an Authentication Request frame; this frame is also responded with an
Acknowledgement Frame from the access point.
• Open System authentication is a null authentication algorithm. Any
station can request Open System authentication and be authenticated
if the receiver has the authentication algorithm set to true, which is
usually the case.
There are only two messages that are part of the Authentication
frame transaction. The access point responds with an Authentication
Response frame. If the response frame is “successful” then the station
has been authenticated.
• Association
• Upon completion of successful Authentication frame exchanges, the station moves forward with associating.
The station transmits an Association Request frame containing the station’s capabilities within fields and
information elements of the frame.
• When the access point receives the Association Request frame, it responds with an Acknowledgement Frame
and transmits an Association Response frame with the result of successful or unsuccessful. The station must
support the required parameters defined by the WiFi network. If successful, the station will be assigned an
Association ID which can be identified within the Association Response frame.
• The station responds to the Association Response frame with an
Acknowledgement Frame which completes the 802.11 State Machine.
References
• https://netbeez.net/blog/station-authentication-association/
• https://wifibond.com/2017/04/08/802-11-association-process/

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