Gas Plasma Antennas Help Wi-Fi Security

mindless4210 writes "Markland Technologies has developed a new gas plasma antenna technology which could help to secure wireless networks. The technology allows for highly directive and electronically steerable digital data transmission via solid-state semi conductor based plasma generators. A plasma antenna can reposition itself at very high speeds, as well as change it's beamwidth and bandwidth, creating spatial and spectral security features which are not presently available with conventional WiFi antenna technology."

Comments

Now you see it......

[erick99]

This is a very cool technology. This antenna essentially "disappears" when it is not being used, making it fairly "stealthy". And, while a traditional metal rod or dish antenna is "cut" to a specific or very narrow range of frequencies, it would appear that the gas plasma antenna can essentially reconfigure itself to rapidly change frequencies. As a ham radio operator, I can really appreciate how useful that could be.

Happy Trails!

Erick

Re:Now you see it......

[nacturation]

Queue up the "bah! security through obscurity never works" posts. :)

I agree though, this is really fricking cool. With the right controls, you could make it so that the antenna characteristics change over time according to a pattern known only to those posessing the corresponding private key. Interception is harder and, even if it is intercepted, you could theoretically use this as one additional encryption layer.

Sounds great.

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact it sounds too good to be true.

Oh wait. I see. It's a press release from a startup company. Never mind.

If you reconfigure the modulators

[Neil Blender]

And verify the heisenberg compensators, it could just possibly work. You might need to check out the lateral sensor array though.

They forgot the best feature of all

[nizo]

The entertainment value when someone walks up and says, "hey whats this thing..." followed by screams as their hand disappears after touching the new flashy glowing thingy.

I can see it now

[MilkmanIAC]

Picture of a wide-eyed 'generic business person" with big print on the billboard that reads "Got Gas? If not, you're wireless network isn't secure."

Lamest security claim of the century?

[ChiralSoftware]

What good is a directional beam if it hits some radio-reflective object and bounces somewhere else? Also, even if the beam is 99% directional, sensitive or very close receivers could still pick up the 1% that leaks. A security system that is 99% effective is not much better than a system which is 10% effective. Without solid encryption and authentication built-in to the protocol, directional broadcasting is useless. With solid encryption and authentication built-in to the protocol, directional broadcasting doesn't add anything.

The one place where this could have some good security uses is for undetectable transmission, which is probably interesting to the military.

Of course, directional broadcasting has a whole set of real benefits, such as getting more bandwidth by allowing more transmitters in the same region, minimizing interference, minimizing radiation output, etc. But to call this a security feature? I guess the "everything good is a security feature" is the parallel to "everything bad is terrorist" idea which seems popular lately.

-----------
Create a WAP server

Re:My brain hurts

[erick99]

They do a pretty good job explaining it here.

Happy Trails!

Erick