Wireless Networking Report: RFID, NFC, Security, and Packet Tracer

This report provides an analysis of wireless networking, focusing on Near Field Communication (NFC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies. It explains the operational mechanisms of NFC, including its peer-to-peer mode and car emulation mode, and compares it with RFID, highlighting their applications and security challenges such as snooping and intervention attacks. The report also delves into security considerations, emphasizing the need for encryption and secure links to mitigate risks. Furthermore, the report includes a practical component involving the use of Packet Tracer simulation software to set up and configure a wireless network. It details the implementation of WPA2-PSK security with AES encryption and evaluates the network's functionality through ping tests, documenting the communication process and the impact of security measures on network connectivity. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of wireless networking concepts, security protocols, and network simulation techniques.

Running head: WIRELESS NETWORKING
Wireless Networking
Name of the Student:
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Author Note

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Answer to question number 1
Near Field Communication or NFC becomes ingrained in conjunction with NFC sensors
when it comes to a shorter distance between two different devices. A tag is used to transfer data
from any possible device irrespective of power. However, there is a requirement for small
transmitters for effective and successful transformation of information, without which the
transformation process will not be thriving (Zhao, Smith & Sample, 2015). For all Bluetooth,
WI-FI, and other wireless signals, the NFC mechanism forms analogous patterns. Radio waves
are used as intermediary when information transmission is about to be processed between these
devices. Nevertheless, there has to be implementations of additional requirements within the
system to make sure that successful connection is established with the rest of the devices as well.
NFC operation also requires utilizing RFID technology for the transfer of information from one
device to the other since RFID technology makes use of the electromagnetic induction process
for communication between data. The RFID technology has a unique advantage associated that
ensures that no external power resources are being utilized since they use their own
electromagnetic field for the purpose. The requirement for transmitting a radio frequency by
NFC is of about 1356 MHz with a speed of about 424 Kb/second or 106212 (Lau, 2015). This a
considerably high speed that can be considered enough to transfer music, pictures and any other
form of contact details. It can be seen that there are three approaches for the operation of Near
Field Communication or NFC that are available. Out of the three available approaches, the most
suitable approach in this regard is the peer to peer mode. To establish a successful mode for
effective exchange of confidential information, the specific modes of the peer to peer mode are
used. At the times where a device receives specific data or information from a sender, it is
regarded as a passive data and when the sender receives information from the device, it is termed

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as active data. In addition, car emulation mode for NFC devices may also be used as a smart
card. The NFC devices used as smart cards can also be defined as Contactless Credit Card, since
it can be tapped to gain access to any system or even make payments. The tags attached to the
NFC receiver devices are used for successful information transfer, which forms one of the major
applications of NFC devices (Kim et al., 2015). The utilization of this specific technology and
application along with a specific mode is regarded as the read write mode. There are impending
risks associated with this technology as well. This can be the effect of snooping, working as a
major challenge, where third party intrusion is inevitable but this would be the most unwanted
outcome. To subdue this risk factor, it is required that the transmission be absolutely well
encrypted. Security challenges can also take place while transmitting the information from the
sender to the receiver end (Zhao, Smith & Sample, 2015). The technology can only be vulnerable
because of an intermediary gaining unauthorized access over the information. Secured link and
active communication can reduce any security challenges while information packets or datagram
are being transmitted. Other risk regarding this would be intervention attacks, which also needs
to be eliminated to establish a secured connection between the sender and user.

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References
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Lau, S. S. (2015, December). Practical design of 13.56 MHz Near Field Communication (NFC)
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surface by Network Analyzer. In Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
(IEEM), 2015 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 1362-1366). IEEE.
Zhao, Y., Smith, J. R., & Sample, A. (2015, April). NFC-WISP: A sensing and computationally
enhanced near-field RFID platform. In RFID (RFID), 2015 IEEE International
Conference on (pp. 174-181). IEEE.
Zhao, Y., Smith, J. R., & Sample, A. (2015, September). NFC-WISP: an open source software
defined near field RFID sensing platform. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2015 ACM
International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings
of the 2015 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (pp. 369-372). ACM.