802.11i is a draft IEEE standard for 802.11 wireless network security. 802.11i defines several new standards, and also relies heavily on many existing standards.

New Protocols in 802.11i

802.11i introduced the RSN (Robust Secure Network) protocol for establishing secure communications.

802.11i also introduced the WRAP (Wireless Robust Authentication Protocol) and CCMP encryption protocols. WRAP and CCMP are both based upon the AES encryption algorithm.

802.11i utilizes EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) as the end-to-end transport for authentication methods between the wireless NIC (Network Interface Card) and the WAP (Wireless Access Point). 802.11i uses 802.1X (EAPoL) to encapsulate these EAP messages over wireless Ethernet.

802.11i, EAP-TLS, and RADIUS

Although EAP-TLS is not an official component of the 802.11i standard, it is the de facto authentication protocol for 802.11i wireless networks.

RADIUS is also not an official component of the 802.11i standard, but it is the de facto standard authentication provider.

Additional Information on 802.11i

For more information on 802.11i, check out this Overview.