Cisco Cisco Aironet 1200 Access Point Brochure
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Figure 2. Cisco Unified Wireless Network
WPA and WPA2 Support
The Cisco Unified Wireless Network includes support for the Wi-Fi Alliance certifications WPA and WPA2. WPA was introduced by the Wi-Fi
Alliance in 2003. WPA2 was introduced by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2004. All products Wi-Fi Certified for WPA2 are required to be interoperable
with products that are Wi-Fi Certified for WPA.
WPA and WPA2 offer a high level of assurance for end users and network administrators that their data will remain private and that access to their
networks will be restricted to authorized users. Both have personal and enterprise modes of operation that meet the distinct needs of the two market
segments. The Enterprise Mode of each uses IEEE 802.1X and EAP for authentication. The Personal Mode of each uses PSK for authentication.
Cisco does not recommend Personal Mode for business or government deployments because it uses a PSK for user authentication. PSK is not
secure for enterprise environments.