Methods and systems for detecting a masquerading wireless device in a local area network are provided. The method includes receiving a first packet and a second packet. Preferably, the first packet includes a first identity information and a first time information, and the second packet includes a second identity information and a second time information. The method can compute, using the first time information, a first approximation to a starting time of a wireless device associated with the first identity information. The method can also compute, using the second time information, a second approximation to a starting time of a wireless device associated with the second identity information. The method further includes determining whether a masquerading wireless device is present in the local area network based on at least the first and second approximations.
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This present application claims priority to the U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/607,812, titled "Method and system for detecting masquerading wireless devices in local area computer networks", filed on Sep. 8, 2004; commonly assigned, and hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
In a wireless local area network, beacon frames are transmitted over the wireless local area network by one or more access points. The beacon frames are received at a detector in the wireless local area network. The received beacon frames are analyzed at the detector to detect a counterfeit access point in the wireless local area network.
