Question

I am examining the introduction of Infrared Communication. I read the item of security in your homepage but I could not solve the question.

In your homepage there is the description that the security is high because the leakage is small. In the case of Radio Wave Communication, ESS-ID, cryptograph and MAC address are adopted in order to improve the security. How about in the case of Infrared Communication?

Answer

There are two methods for the security of Infrared Communication.

The first one is the same method used in Radio Wave Communication.

In the case of Radio Wave Communication, ESS-ID and MAC address are adopted. WEP is the same. In the case of Infrared Communication, the same methods are adopted. In Infrared Communication the system is connected with the terminal equipment by Ethernet interface and the security method is the same because the control algorithm is the same except the transmission media in the space and the difference of the media conversion (transmit and receive parts). And Infrared Communication is much strong against the disguise and the interception in the transmission space.

The second one is the method used in the outdoor point-to-point communication system of 100〜1000Mbps.

In this case the situation is the same in the case of optical fiber, wire transmission and radio wave transmission. The modulation of the signal and the bit-scramble are adopted and they can improve the security of Infrared Communication.

ESS-ID : Extended Service Set Identification
MAC address : Media Access Control address
WEP : Wired Equivalent Privacy