Aruba said pre-testing helps companies avoid incompatibilities, bugs, or software instability with new devices on the enterprise network that may lead to erratic device or network behavior. It gave the iPhone a Compatible Partner rating, which among other things means security keys used by the device were properly managed.
Interoperability testing mitigates risk and is especially important with new devices, like the iPhone, where pre-testing can uncover and address potential deployment issues, said Aruba head of technical marketing Vijay Raman.
Aruba’s firewall detected and prevented layer 2-7 attacks, provided deep packet inspection, and give iPhone users policy-based security that follows them and works regardless of the means used to access the network.
Aruba’s layered authentication scheme limited what the iPhone could do using PSK encryption prior to authentication through a captive portal or VPN, and dynamically blacklisted iPhones that didn’t adhere to the specified policy. The upshot was increased security against network attacks, better protection against packet flooding caused by broadcast messages – a common problem in older technology wireless networks – and the preservation of bandwidth for legitimate uses, according to Aruba.
Among other tests, the interoperability process verified operation of the security association mode (open, static WEP, WPA-PSK, and WPA2-PSK security), roaming, detecting network attachment for IPv4 (DNAv4) and VPN connections, which are L2TP and PPTP modes terminating on an Aruba mobility controller. Also, captive portal authentication combined with public shared key encryption for guest Internet access, and ARP traffic with and without proxy ARP.
