WiMax for Amford - Assignment Example

Question One WiMax for Amford (First sur no qualifications like Dr. College Position in organisation Place of author Abstract Amford has a need for improved communications. It is so bad the Amford Broadband Action Group (ABAG) has requested this report on what answers are available to them today. In particular whether they could make use of one of the latest developments in fixed and mobile networks. The Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax). A wide area network (WAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN) technology, it is being used for difficult communication in rural areas, but is it any good for curing the ills of Amford. It is a growing part of the 4G mobile standard that wireless network providers have been trying to get to the marketplace for over ten years. It is the next step forward from third generation (3G) mobile networks which supply many mobile phone users with their services today, 3G has seen the advent of the access to the internet and faster speeds than was possible before. But it has its limitations and it is those that have created the need for 4G and as a part of that, the WiMax system. WiMax is used as a fixed line system replacing the standard subscriber lines in use by telecomm companies today. 3G and its Limitations. The mobile network type used today is the 3G system, it runs across many mobile network providers and gives good service in those areas covered by the antennae. But it is limited and there are many places that simply cannot get a service or at best a limited service, especially for internet access and digital services. Some companies are trying to improve the situation for the short term. Temporary fixes to improve networks have not always worked as there are antennae in rural areas with no decent coverage, mainly because the cost of installing extra facilities would be enormous especially as the pay back on the outlay cannot be covered by the number of potential customers in that area. Amtons’ System and Where it Stands in the WiMax Pantheon There are fixed and mobile networks available, the first WiMax system was IEEE 802.16d for fixed systems, it was limited in its use to MANs in cities predominantly, whereas the mobile system: “WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access (BWA) up to 30 miles (50 km) for fixed stations, and 3 - 10 miles (5 - 15 km) for mobile stations. In contrast, the WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) standard is limited in most cases to only 100 - 300 feet (30 - 100m)” (WiMax.com 2011). Amton has the 802.16e which is fixed line or it is now a mobile WiMax system, a very good solution to their difficulties. The standard was ratified in 2005 by the IEEE Working Group (Wilcox 2008). 802.16e has a better range as seen above for fixed signals at 30 miles; more than enough for Amton, and its communication problems. Equipment for WiMax The radio equipment can be either indoors or outside on the wall facing the antennae. Indoors is useful for setting up the network, especially for the equipment provider, they should not have to send an installer, as the installation process is simple enough for the householder to do. External equipment may give improved reception, as there are no walls between the radio and the nearest antennae, although of course it is dependent on the signal strength, which will be between 2 to 11Ghz. The problem with external equipment is it’s exposed to all weathers and may be in extreme cold or heat, whereas the internal system does not have such problems, (Sharma 2011). The other major equipment is the antennae it would be good to have one around the village where it could give good coverage. There are fears of magnetic and electrical problems causing health issues especially in children. There is no conclusive proof, but it has been proven that microwave systems have far lower health issues than using a mobile phone regularly, as they actually use less power. (Mitchell, no date). The Best Data Rate and Limitations Is about 75 Mbps, which is as good as the present fixed line communications using digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, for the mobile WiMax the speed will be about 15 Mbps. WiMax works as long as there is a decent line of sight (LOS) which is where the signal is beamed directly at the next antennae or at the building for reception of the signal, the LOS is very important as it is this that allows a signal to get to a building. In Figure 1, non line of sight (NLOS), is when the signal does not get to its next point and which is a very real problem. When NLOS happens in cities, it is buildings that often cause the problem, but even rain can disrupt the signal. In the case of Amford it is in a valley with trees and a long way from the telephone exchange giving a major depreciation of signal. In Amford it could be the WiMax system will perform well as long as the provider sets up the antennae correctly for LOS from the exchange and to the village. As WiMax has a strong signal that can push through treetops and even buildings, and it can be beamed directly at Amford, rather than in Figure 1, which is in part what is happening today; then a better service is reasonably sure, although a trial will confirm it is OK. Figure 1: Example of Non Line of Sight (Sharma 2011). Privacy and Security using WiMax Nothing based on wireless technology is completely secure, but the broadband systems are familiar to people today, they know how to keep their WiFi systems locked down using passwords and the WEP key and so free from unauthorised access; it is the same with WiMax. When the working group responsible for setting up WiMax and its 802.16 standard discussed security it was decided to build in security rather than in the past where it was bolted on later. We know better today, and so with a system based on IP like WiMax it has been agreed on security standards such as: 1) Authentication of the subscriber device. That the device being used whether at home or elsewhere is the correct device and not something “cloned” for example. 2) Higher-level (user) authentication. Authentication of the user or customer is correct and again not from someone else. 3) Advanced over-the-air data encryption. Encryption is coding the signal itself so it cannot be broken and a hacker or thief of some sort can read the data held. 4) Options for securing data within the core network, which all converge on a backbone network. The options for securing the data across the network providers own systems, including to Amford. The network providers must ensure that security is in place and it is the correct level of security for protection of its customers, (Motorola 2007). Other Concerns There are some concerns depending upon which of the WiMax solutions is decided upon, there may be a need to update customer equipment, such as their phones as there would be a need to have WiMax capable equipment if it is fed directly into premises. If it is used in the network for the final mile solution in place of copper or optic fibre cables, then it can work well with WiFi enabled equipment such as PC’s or phones in the home. As the WiMax name says, one important word is interoperability, this means that equipment from different manufacturers should work together on WiMax, so no matter what you buy or from whom it will operate, including the latest standard of 4G equipment for mobile communications, (Poole, no date). . WiMax as a Solution for Amford WiMax may well be a possible answer, assuming the network provider is happy to use the system in their final mile solution for Amford, some operators do feel their core systems such as DSL are under attack by WiMax which is true, but it is a better system in many cases and the WiMax system is becoming familiar for solutions to this type of problem, look at Amton. Amton is using the 802.16e standard but there have been improvements in the standards and now the best will be the 802.16m standard, which should give speeds up to 1Ghz against Amtons’ best speed of 75Mbps throughput, although the 802.16e may in reality be much lower; at 37Mbps for its 10 Mhz channel bandwidth. The main point to investigate is how the network provider feels about implementing WiMax for Amford, if they will, how much will it cost for the final mile solution, and when can it be operable, as it could take some time to install. Investigate the cost of buying the customer premise equipment is it prohibitively expensive or can potential customers accept the cost? Word Count is 1470. Quotes are 52 words on page 4. References Mitchell, B. (n.d) Is wireless a health hazard? About.com, Wireless/ Networking. Available from: http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless/f/healthhazards.htm (accessed 12th September 2011). Motorola. (2007) WiMAX Security for Real-World Network Service Provider Deployments. Motorola Inc. Available from: http://www.motorola.com/web/Business/Products/Wireless%20Broadband%20Networks/WiMAX/WiMAX%20Access%20Points/WAP%20400/_Documents/StaticFile/WiMAX_Security_for_Real_World_Network_Service_Provider_Deployments_Copy.pdf (accessed 12th September 2011). Poole, I. (ed.) (n.d.) WiMAX 802.16 technology tutorial [online]. Available from: http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/wireless/wimax/wimax.php (accessed 10th September 2011). Sharma, P. (2011) Facts about WiMAX and why is it “The Future of Wireless Broadband” TechPluto. Available from : http://www.techpluto.com/wimax-in-detail/ (accessed 10th September 2011). Wilcox, H. (2008) WiMAX Goes the Last Mile [online]. Available from: http://www.c2mweb.eu/files/Whitepaper_Fixed_WiMAX.pdf (accessed 10th September 2011). WiMax.com (2011) What is WiMax. WiMax.com Broadband Solutions Inc Available from: http://www.wimax.com/ (accessed 8th September 2011). Bibliography Mitchell, B. (n.d) Is wireless a health hazard? About.com Wireless/ Networking. Available from: http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless/f/healthhazards.htm (accessed 12th September 2011). An interesting article on health hazards, WiFi and other wireless networks, with links to other sites. Motorola (2007) WiMAX Security for Real-World Network Service Provider Deployments. Motorola Inc. Available from: http://www.motorola.com/web/Business/Products/Wireless%20Broadband%20Networks/WiMAX/WiMAX%20Access%20Points/WAP%20400/_Documents/StaticFile/WiMAX_Security_for_Real_World_Network_Service_Provider_Deployments_Copy.pdf (accessed 12th September 2011). Excellent white paper on the intricacies of security for WiMax. Poole, I. (ed.) (n.d.) WiMAX 802.16 technology tutorial [online]. Available from: http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/wireless/wimax/wimax.php (accessed 10th September 2011). Article on a web page about WiMax. Sharma, P. (2011) Facts About WiMAX And Why Is It “The Future of Wireless Broadband” TechPluto. Available from : http://www.techpluto.com/wimax-in-detail/ (Accessed 10th September 2011). TechPluto has interesting articles on the latest developments in the technology sphere. Wikipedia (2011) WiMax. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX. (Accessed 10th September 2011. A good starting point, but the Wikipedia pages cannot be trusted as good sources for completely reliable information, as they are not always referenced, this page has problems with references. Wilcox, H. (2008) WiMAX Goes the Last Mile [online]. Available from: http://www.c2mweb.eu/files/Whitepaper_Fixed_WiMAX.pdf (accessed 10th September 2011). An informative, if very technical paper. WiMax.com (2011) What is WiMax. WiMax.com Broadband Solutions Inc Available from: http://www.wimax.com/ (accessed 8th September 2011). An excellent starting point from a group involved in implementing WiMax. Question Two The Threat of the Botnets The creation of a web site explaining botnets to students of the Open University with an assessment question. The web site should be designed to be easy to navigate with as few pages as possible and simple links from one point to another, but still encapsulating all the information needed for understanding botnets. To this end the design in Figure 1will be used. Starting with a Home page with links to all other pages in the form of a banner across the top. Figure1: Web Site Design The Home Page will simply show the title and links to the other pages, see Figure 1, it has to be clear of everything other than a few adverts for things like anti-virus programs. This will be the place that can sell the site and other products associated with it. The Home page sets the style of the web site, it should be uncomplicated and not to full of colours or other distractions from the content. As there are people who dislike or cannot cope with jazzy looking writing on sites it must be able to be happily read by anybody from anywhere, as someone in China could just as easily access it as someone in London who has poor eyesight. (213 words on web page) Page 1. What are Botnets? The development of the botnet (robot network) began with the intention of being a way to help companies market their products across the web. A bot is simply an automated computer program which accesses many computers across the internet, see Figure 2. A botnet can do a variety of tasks, sadly these days they are mainly malicious. The botnet connects computers to each other making a massive network which can then be used by the aptly titled botnet herders or botnet masters; sending out codes to make the machines run their instructions. (Symantec 1995 – 2011). Figure 2: Botnet in Peer to Peer Connections. (To be placed on left side of web page) (Binary Head n.d). A botnet is constructed by infecting machines using a virus or Trojan to open an IRC, or a file, the user then opens that file and the botnet code attaches itself to a system file in the main boot record, these days. So it actually starts before the machine loads the main system, by this means, it is completely undetectable by most standard anti-virus programs and is in a good place to send out its messages to other machines. The bot collects data on everything from a person logging onto web sites and getting data for identity fraud, to setting up malware on the machine to corrupt a companies networks or sending spam to thousands of other PC’s. The infected machines are often called zombies, as they are dumb but dangerous (Plonk 2008). (248 words on web page) Page 2. Defeating the Botnets. Botnets are difficult to defeat if a lead is followed it will go to an infected machine used by some innocent who will not be aware the machine is involved in something bad and not to the criminals. As botnets hide on a zombie machine within the operating system files or in the MBR they are rarely found by the present set of anti-viral programs as they look like they belong, although these programs are becoming written to try and find these menaces. The botnet cyber criminals are normally called “bot herders” or “bot masters” who use a control & command centre (C&C), which hides within the complex mass of the internet, again making it difficult to find and stop them. All is not lost though as there are free programs out there now for personal protection, one example is Trend Micro’s RUBotted™. Companies that supply operating systems such as Microsoft have been taking action to stop botnets. Microsoft says it has cleaned up 6.5 million machines just in the second quarter of 2010. Last year the worst country for botnet infections was the USA with 22 million in the last six months of 2010, with Brazil closest behind with 550,000 infections, Spain was 382,000 infections, the worst in Europe; followed by France, Britain and Germany. As many of these are across companies, help given by Microsoft is the best answer if a companies IT people cannot find the infection (End to End Trust 2011). (250 words on page) Page 3. The Latest Threat The threats are changing; the criminals are changing their attack to keep ahead of investigators and because of the market demand. Some botnet herders have found they can make money creating a botnet and then renting it out or even selling the whole network to someone else. This means that even if the operators are found they are not the creators; who carry on doing the same thing with another botnet creation. A hacker caught in Slovenia was surprised at how big the botnet he helped create actually became. The hacker known as Iserdo had written the code for the mariposa virus, it had infected 12.7 million users. There are still big botnets around, one that has yet to be closed down is called the Conficker worm and has infected 6 million Windows PC’s, actually peaking at 12 million machines (BBC 2010). There is a long way to go to rid the world of the menace; one reason is small specialist groups or single people making the code for a niche market are difficult to find. At present 95% of e-mail traffic is spam, to try stemming it the Netherlands has started a national whitelist of spam and attempt to stop botnets in Holland. As the internet is about to switch from Ipv4 to Ipv6, which it is hoped means that IP addresses numbers will never run out. The system will block any addresses not registered, which stops spammers and botnets completely. (Press Box 2011). (250 words on page) Page 4 FAQs and Links FAQ 1. How is a botnet created on a single machine? Usually a single machine is called a zombie. The way a zombie is created is shown below from an article by Binary Head: “The use of botnets consists of four major components: I. Infection of a machine with malicious botnet code. II. Connection to the command and control channel set up by the attacker. III. Downloading of secondary payload on command of the attacker. IV. Performing an attack or additional scanning, gathering information” (Binary Head n.d). FAQ 2. How are companies like Microsoft helping users? Microsoft like so many other industry leaders are very active in chasing down these criminals for example. An impressive job was done closing down the Waledec botnet which was done September 2010, the botnet was capable of sending 1.5 billion spam messages, there have been no reported instances of Waledec being found on any machine since. It is a long, expensive process but clearly worth it. (End to End Trust 2011). FAQ 3. How do I know my PC is infected by a botnet? You probably don’t know. It depends where it resides on your PC, if it is in the right area such as a file in the operating system then the latest anti-virus programs may pick it up. But to be sure you are not infected you can get a free bot checker like Trend Micro’s RUBotted™ program. Links to Other Sites with Good Information. Microsoft.com:http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/endtoendtrust/vision/botnet.aspx Symantec.com:http://www.symantec.com/business/threatreport/topic.jsp?id=threat_activity_trends&aid=bot_infected_computers (250 words on page) Page 5 Assessment Question Please answer the following multiple choice question by putting a clicking on the answer you think is correct: Question: What is a botnet? Answers. 1. A botnet is a new TV series about students at the OU. SORRY INCORRECT, please read page 1 of this web site again. 2. A bot net is a multiple set of computers unwittingly connected together for the purpose of illegal or malicious activities. WELL DONE. IT IS A LARGE NUMBER OF COMPUTERS ILLEGALLY LINKED TOGETHER IN A NETWORK WORKING ON MALWARE. 3. A science fiction film. SORRY INCORRECT, please read page 1 of this web site again. 4. A new network connection for computers using Linux. SORRY INCORRECT, please read page 1 of this web site again. 5. A network of computers working on the same task for a corporation. SORRY INCORRECT, please read page 1 of this web site again. (129 words on question page) References BBC (28th July 2010) Botnet hacker caught in Slovenia BBC News Technology. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10786701 (accessed 14th September 2011). Binary Head (n.d) What is botnet and what does a botnet do. Binary Head Tutorials. Available from: http://www.aboutonlinetips.com/zombie-army-and-how-does-botnet-attack/ (accessed 13th September 2011). End to End Trust (2011) Deactivating botnets to create a safer, more trusted Internet Microsoft.com. Available from: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/endtoendtrust/vision/botnet.aspx (accessed 14th September 2011). Plonk, A. Carblanc, A. (2008) Malicious software (malware): A security threat to the internet economy.Ministerialbackground report DSTI/ICCP/REG (2007)5/ FINAL. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Available from: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/53/34/40724457.pdf (accessed 13th September 2011). Press Box (11th January 2011) Dutch mail server whitelist declares war on botnets today! Press release Press Box.co.uk. Available from: http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Computing/Dutch_mail_server_whitelist_declares_war_on_botnets_today__611335.html (accessed 14th September 2011). Symantec (1995 – 2011) Threat Activity Trends. Symantec Corporation. Available from: http://www.symantec.com/business/threatreport/topic.jsp?id=threat_activity_trends&aid=bot_infected_computers (accessed 12th September 2011). Bibliography BBC (28th July 2010) Botnet hacker caught in Slovenia BBC News Technology. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10786701 (accessed 14th September 2011). A short article on a hacker who created a massive botnet. Binary Head (n.d) What is botnet and what does a botnet do. Binary Head Tutorials. Available from: http://www.aboutonlinetips.com/zombie-army-and-how-does-botnet-attack/ (accessed 13th September 2011). An informative article. End to End Trust (2011) Deactivating botnets to create a safer, more trusted Internet Microsoft.com. Available from: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/endtoendtrust/vision/botnet.aspx (accessed 14th September 2011). Exlains Microsofts’ work to close down a very dangerous botnet. Plonk, A. Carblanc, A. (2008) Malicious software (malware): A security threat to the internet economy.Ministerialbackground report DSTI/ICCP/REG (2007)5/ FINAL. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Available from: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/53/34/40724457.pdf (accessed 13th September 2011). In-depth paper on malware in Europe and asia Pacific written for the Seoul, Korea meeting of the OECD on the future of the internet economy. Symantec (1995 – 2011) Threat Activity Trends. Symantec Corporation. Available from: http://www.symantec.com/business/threatreport/topic.jsp?id=threat_activity_trends&aid=bot_infected_computers (accessed 12th September 2011). A great paper for information from leading experts. Wikipedia (2011) Botnet. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet (accessed 10th September 2011). Informative, but not a properly referenced page. Read More