MultiNet: usable and secure WiFi device association

This demo presents MultiNet, a novel method for joining devices to a domestic Wi-Fi network. MultiNet dynamically reconfigures the network to accept each device, rather than configuring each device to fit the network as is the norm. It does so by assuming that each device is preconfigured with a cryptographically generated WPA2 network SSID/passphrase pair, and then providing a lightweight interaction through which the user creates a new network for each device. This approach makes securely adding devices to a wireless network straightforward without compromising security or burdening the user, and maintaining backward compatibility with existing deployed standards and protocols. The demo deploys a MultiNet Access Point (AP) and a number of Wi-Fi enabled consumer devices to allow viewers to dynamically construct and deconstruct the network via the MultiNet controller currently implemented as an app on an Android phone (Figure 1). The code for MultiNet is publicly available under o...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: SIGCOMM
• Authors: Anthony Brown, Richard Mortier, Tom Rodden
• Keywords: Backward Compatibility, Communications, Domestic Environments, Open Source Licenses, SIGCOMM 2012