Configuring Wireless LAN Interfaces

Overview

To configure a wireless LAN for CDRouter, the following three testvars must be configured, at a minimum:

lanInterface: This testvar specifies which physical interface CDRouter should use on the LAN; CDRouter will automatically detect whether the configured interface is wireless or Ethernet.
lanSecurity: This testvar specifies the security type used by the device under test (DUT) on the LAN; for wireless LAN interfaces this can be one of three values - NONE, WEP, or WPA. The default value for this testvar is NONE, which implies that no security is being used on the DUT.
lanSSID: This testvar specifies the wireless SSID of the DUT.

Additional testvars may be required based on the DUT’s wireless security settings. Configuration examples for some common wireless security modes are provided below.

Note that many of the testvars in these examples utilize default values which do not need to be explicitly uncommented in the config file. Detailed descriptions of all of the testvars used in these example configurations can be found on the Documentation tab of CDRouter’s web interface or in the LAN Configuration section of the CDRouter User’s Guide.

Example Configurations

Basic wireless with no security

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           NONE

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

WEP with static key

WEP with 64-bit static key and key index of 0:

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WEP

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network
testvar lanWEPKey             0102030405
testvar lanWEPKeyIndex        0

To use a 128-bit static key and key index of 3 instead:

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanWEPKey             0102030405060708090a010203
testvar lanWEPKeyIndex        3

WPA or WPA2-Personal

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

# -- WPA Encryption Configuration
testvar wpaMode               WPA-Personal (or WPA2-Personal)
testvar wpaKey                qacafe123

WPA or WPA2-Enterprise

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

# -- WPA Encryption Configuration
testvar wpaMode               WPA-Enterprise (or WPA2-Enterprise)

# -- LAN 802.1X and RADIUS Configuration
testvar enableRADIUSserver    yes
testvar radiusHost            remoteHost
testvar radiusSecret          qacafe123

# -- LAN EAP Type and Credentials
testvar eapType               eap-tls
testvar eapIdentity1          user1
testvar eapPassword1          qacafe123
testvar eapUserCertPath1      /usr/cdrouter/tests/user1.pem
testvar eapUserCertPassword1  qacafe123
testvar eapUserPrivateKey1    ""

WPA3-Personal

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

# -- WPA Encryption Configuration
testvar wpaMode               WP3-Personal
testvar wpaSaePassword        "sae secret"

WPA3-Enterprise

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

# -- WPA Encryption Configuration
testvar wpaMode               WPA3-Enterprise

# -- LAN 802.1X and RADIUS Configuration
testvar enableRADIUSserver    yes
testvar radiusHost            remoteHost
testvar radiusSecret          qacafe123

# -- LAN EAP Type and Credentials
testvar eapType               eap-tls
testvar eapIdentity1          user1
testvar eapPassword1          qacafe123
testvar eapUserCertPath1      /usr/cdrouter/tests/user1.pem
testvar eapUserCertPassword1  qacafe123
testvar eapUserPrivateKey1    ""

Wireless Mesh Topologies

CDRouter can be used to test LAN networks comprised of multiple wireless extenders that form a distributed LAN or “mesh” topology. The lanBSSID testvar specifies the unique BSSID address of the mesh node that CDRouter’s wireless interface will associate with.

Example config for mesh topology

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           NONE

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

# -- Advanced Wireless Configuration
testvar lanBSSID              00:01:02:00:00:01

Multiple Wireless Networks

The CDRouter Multiport Expansion allows multiple LAN interfaces to be connected to the DUT simultaneously. Each physical wireless interface can be configured with its own independent security settings, SSID, BSSID, and channel.

Some devices broadcast the same SSID on multiple frequency bands. CDRouter can be configured to connect on a specific band by either:

Configuring the BSSID of the device’s 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz or 6.0GHz AP using the lanBSSID testvar, or
Configuring the specific channel or frequency band to connect on using the lanChannel testvar

Example config for connecting to a specific SSID

In this example the DUT is broadcasting unique SSIDs in the 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz frequency bands. CDRouter’s primary LAN client will connect to the DUT’s 5.0GHz radio which is broadcasting the SSID my-network 5.0GHz, while CDRouter’s second LAN interface will connect to the DUT’s 6.0GHz radio which is broadcasting a unique SSID of my-network 6.0GHz.

# -- Base LAN Configuration ("lan")
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA
testvar wpaMode               WPA2-Personal
testvar lanSSID               "my-network 5.0GHz"
testvar wpaMode               auto
testvar wpaKey                qacafe123

# -- Multiport LAN Configuration ("lan2")
testvar_group lan2 {
    testvar lanInterface          wifi7-be
    testvar lanSecurity           NONE
    testvar lanSSID               "my-network 6.0GHz"
}

Example config for connecting to a specific BSSID

In this example the DUT is broadcasting the same SSID in the 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz frequency bands. CDRouter’s primary LAN client will connect to the DUT’s 5.0GHz radio by configuring its BSSID of 00:01:02:00:00:AA, while CDRouter’s second LAN interface will connect to the DUT’s 6.0GHz radio by configuring its BSSID of 00:01:02:00:00:BB.

# -- Base LAN Configuration ("lan")
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA
testvar wpaMode               WPA2-Personal
testvar lanSSID               "my-network"
testvar wpaKey                qacafe123
testvar lanBSSID              00:01:02:00:00:AA

# -- Multiport LAN Configuration ("lan2")
testvar_group lan2 {
    testvar lanInterface          wifi7-be
    testvar lanSecurity           NONE
    testvar lanSSID               "my-network"
    testvar lanBSSID              00:01:02:00:00:BB
}

Example config for connecting on a specific frequency band

In this example the DUT is broadcasting the same SSID in the 2.4GHz, 5.0 and 6.0GHz frequency bands. CDRouter’s primary LAN client will connect to the DUT’s 2.4GHz radio by configuring the band to 2.4GHz, while two additional LAN interfaces will connect to the DUT’s 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz radios by configuring their respective frequency bands.

# -- Base LAN Configuration ("lan")
testvar lanInterface          wifi1-ax24
testvar lanSecurity           WPA
testvar lanSSID               "my-network"
testvar wpaMode               WPA2-Personal
testvar wpaKey                qacafe123
testvar lanChannel            2.4GHz

# -- Multiport LAN Configuration ("lan2")
testvar_group lan2 {
    testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
    testvar lanSecurity           WPA
    testvar lanSSID               "my-network"
    testvar wpaMode               WPA2-Personal
    testvar wpaKey                qacafe123
    testvar lanChannel            5GHz
}

# -- Multiport LAN Configuration ("lan3")
testvar_group lan2 {
    testvar lanInterface          wifi7-be
    testvar lanSecurity           WPA
    testvar lanSSID               "my-network"
    testvar wpaMode               WPA2-Personal
    testvar wpaKey                qacafe123
    testvar lanChannel            6GHz
}

Multiple Virtual Wireless LAN Clients

Some interfaces on the NTA1000 platform allow multiple wireless LAN clients to be created at the same time on the same interface. CDRouter will create additional temporary clients on these interfaces for particular tests as needed. It is also possible to configure persistent clients that are active for the duration of the test run using the lanClients testvar in the config file.

Testing with multiple wireless clients requires the CDRouter Multiport expansion. Each wireless interface of the NTA1000 supports a different number of wireless LAN clients. See the Wireless Virtualization Support section of the CDRouter Multiport User Guide to determine the maximum number of clients supported by each NTA1000 system.

Configuration Example

This example configures 10 wireless LAN clients on interface wifi2-ax56 with WPA-Personal security:

# -- Interface Configuration
testvar lanInterface          wifi2-ax56
testvar lanSecurity           WPA
testvar lanClients            10

# -- Wireless Configuration
testvar lanSSID               my-network

# -- WPA Encryption Configuration
testvar wpaMode               WPA-Personal (or WPA2-Personal)
testvar wpaKey                qacafe123

Advanced WPA Configuration Options

The following wireless security modes defined by the WiFi Alliance can be configured directly using the testvar wpaMode:

WPA-Personal
WPA-Enterprise
WPA2-Personal
WPA2-Enterprise
WPA3-Personal
WPA3-Enterprise

Within CDRouter these modes represent configuration presets that map to specific, fixed testvar values according to the following table:

Testvar	WPA-Personal	WPA-Enterprise	WPA2-Personal	WPA2-Enterprise	WPA3-Personal	WPA3-Enterprise
wpaMode	WPA	WPA	RSN	RSN	RSN	RSN
wpaKeyMgmt	PSK	802.1X	PSK	802.1X	SAE	SUITE-B-192
wpaCipher	TKIP	TKIP	CCMP-128	CCMP-128	CCMP-128	GCMP-128
wpaGroupCipher	auto	auto	CCMP-128	CCMP-128	CCMP-128	GCMP-128
wpaKey	user defined	not used	user defined	not used	not used	not used
wpaPMF	no	no	no	no	yes	yes
wpaSaePassword	not used	not used	not used	not used	user defined	not used

To deviate from the configuration presets above, the wpaMode testvar must be set to one of the values below:

auto - Automatically select WPA connection mode
WPA - Use WPA security mode
RSN - Use WPA2/WPA3 security mode

These modes make it possible to enable and set advanced WPA configuration options such as the key management mode (wpaKeyMgmt), pairwise cipher (wpaCipher), group cipher (wpaGroupCipher), and whether or not protected management frames (PMF) are enabled (wpaPMF).

Notes

A number of WPA related testvars within CDRouter can be set to a value of auto. When auto mode is selected for any applicable WPA testvar, CDRouter will automatically use the strongest encryption options supported by the DUT. Specific values can be set for each testvar as well to test a single mode of operation.
Please see this Knowledge Base article for information on which EAP types are supported for each LAN security mode.
WPA3 relies on the Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) handshake as opposed to the Pre-Shared Key (PSK) technique used in WPA2 and WPA. As a result, the testvar wpaSaePassword must be specified for WPA3-Personal configurations while the testvar wpaKey for WPA-Personal and WPA2-Personal configurations.
WPA3 requires the use of protected management frames (PMF). PMF is optional for RSN modes and can be enabled using the testvar wpaPMF.

Backwards Compatibility

When support for WPA3 was added in CDRouter 11.5 a number of new WPA3 specific testvars were added while some existing testvars options were deprecated.

To maintain backwards compatibility with older configurations, CDRouter will automatically map any deprecated WPA related testvar values to new, supported values according to the following table:

Testvar	Deprecated Values	New Value
lanSecurity	WPA-802.1X, WPA-PSK	WPA
wpaMode	WPA2	RSN
wpaCipher	AES-CCMP	CCMP-128
wpaGroupCipher	AES-CCMP	CCMP-128

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