Hey everyone, thanks for coming back to Wi Fi fundamentals with location and analytics. This course will help you to muster the air. Up until now we have seen the discovery process. We've had the beacon frame sent from our access point and the probe request sent from our station. Discovery as you will see is happening all the time. As their station picks the probe response from the access point, he chooses one that is most compatible.
Compatibility can be based on its security encryption schemes, or supported data rate. And now our station begins what is known as an authentication process. The first step to actually join the network if a station wants to send traffic through the access point, it must be in the appropriate connection state, which is authenticated, and associated. Authentication requests frame is the first step when our station attempts to join the Wi Fi network. But nowadays, it has nothing to do with security. It is an automatic procedure for the two parties to start the negotiation process.
Our access point responses acceptance most of the time and it is now authenticated, but not associated. Up until now, our station is doing this process with multiple access point. If you remember our previous video, it is and enough to checking out different job proposals. Our station is chosen it's access point of choice and cents and association request frame with it supported data rate ending encryption. If our access point sees a match, it will respond with an association response frame, indicating acceptance or rejection. It will also send the station an AI ID, Association ID.
Every access point holds a table of its stations with their unique identifier. Now that our station is authenticated and associated, our access point will actually start to check its security credentials. If all goes well, we are Net. So we are finally connected. And we had started with the discovery process, the probe request the probe response, and one through authentication and association frames. We haven't touched on frames.
But these are all management frames, frames that takes care of the initial setup of our Wi Fi network. We will look into frames in a dedicated video or things station is connected now. And yet it still sends probe requests and listens to beacon frames, always looking for new opportunities. It does so because it is mobile, it always moves its signal degrades and it has to be ready to connect to Another access point, it is a survival impulse. We are reaching the end. And the last key concept to remember from the basic Wi Fi process is states.
Our station can be in different states during the connection process. The first one unauthenticated and unassociated, it is still in discovery mode. The second state, authenticated and unassociated, the third state is authenticated and associated, but still it hasn't started the security process. State for our machine is authenticated and associated station can now send data frames. Yet if the AP sends a dissociation request to the state Or if for any other reason the station disconnects. It goes all the way to state one.
That's all for now. Next up where does Wi Fi fits and the Oh assign layer. See you