ZyXEL Communications AX Series User Manual page 209

Chapter 9 Wireless
(Extensible Authentication Protocol) tunnel and sends the network name (SSID) and the WPA-PSK or
WPA2-PSK pre-shared key to the enrollee. Whether WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK is used depends on the
standards supported by the devices. If the registrar is already part of a network, it sends the existing
information. If not, it generates the SSID and WPA2-PSK randomly.
The following figure shows a WPS-enabled client (installed in a notebook computer) connecting to a
WPS-enabled access point.
Figure 116 How WPS Works
The roles of registrar and enrollee last only as long as the WPS setup process is active (2 minutes). The
next time you use WPS, a different device can be the registrar if necessary.
The WPS connection process is like a handshake; only two devices participate in each WPS transaction.
If you want to add more devices you should repeat the process with one of the existing networked
devices and the new device.
Note that the access point (AP) is not always the registrar, and the WiFi client is not always the enrollee.
All WPS-certified APs can be a registrar, and so can some WPS-enabled WiFi clients.
By default, a WPS device is 'un-configured'. This means that it is not part of an existing network and can
act as either enrollee or registrar (if it supports both functions). If the registrar is un-configured, the
security settings it transmits to the enrollee are randomly-generated. Once a WPS-enabled device has
connected to another device using WPS, it becomes 'configured'. A configured WiFi client can still act
as enrollee or registrar in subsequent WPS connections, but a configured access point can no longer act
as enrollee. It will be the registrar in all subsequent WPS connections in which it is involved. If you want a
configured AP to act as an enrollee, you must reset it to its factory defaults.
AX/DX/EX/PX Series User's Guide
209