ZyXEL Communications N220 User Manual page 29

Chapter 2 Wireless LANs
already part of a network, it sends the existing information. If not, it generates
the SSID and WPA(2)-PSK randomly.
The following figure shows a WPS-enabled client (installed in a notebook
computer) connecting to a WPS-enabled access point.
Figure 6 How WPS works
ACTIVATE ACTIVATE
WPS WPS
WITHIN 2 MINUTES
WPS HANDSHAKE
ENROLLEE REGISTRAR
SECURE TUNNEL
SECURITY INFO
COMMUNICATION
The roles of registrar and enrollee last only as long as the WPS setup process is
active (two 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 wireless client
is not always the enrollee. All WPS-certified APs can be a registrar, and so can
some WPS-enabled wireless clients.
By default, a WPS devices is "unconfigured". 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 unconfigured, 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 wireless 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
29
N220 User's Guide