Security concerns in a Mesh Wi-Fi network

[Jouni Malinen]

On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 04:41:55PM +0100, Pablo Osuna wrote:

> - Can we use WPA-PSK in a network like ours? I mean, in the node
> described before we would need:
> 
> 1) Hostapd for the Master Hostap card. ESSID: Link1
> 2) Hostapd for the Master Madwifi card. ESSID: Link2
> 3) Wpasupplicant for the Managed Hostap card. ESSID: Link3

Yes, That should work fine. You can use hostapd to control two network
interfaces and wpa_supplicant to take care of the third interface.

> - Lets assume another case for the three interfaces scheme: One card
> running in Master mode and two cards running in Managed mode. In that
> case:
> 
> 1) Hostapd for the Master Hostap card. ESSID: Link1
> 2) Wpasupplicant for the Managed Madwifi card. ESSID: Link2
> 3) Wpasupplicant for the Managed Hostap card. ESSID: Link3

No problems here either.

> The question could be summarized as: Is WPA thought for a
> infrastructure-centralized network or it can be used for a topology like
> us, that is, in the same computer running several cards for different
> links?

WPA itself does not have limits on how the radios are configured. Each
card shows up as a separate network device and the other devices on the
same host do not limit the security mode configuration. They may cause
some interference problems due to number of radios, but that is
completely different issue and has nothing to do with security
configuration.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA