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Post-Association Operations Overview

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When the wireless LAN (WLAN) adapter successfully completes an association operation with an access point (AP), the operating system creates a data port for the association. The operating system then initiates a post-association operation on the data port by calling the Dot11ExtIhvPerformPostAssociate function.

Note  For Windows Vista, the IHV Extensions DLL supports only infrastructure basic service set (BSS) networks.

 

When performing the post-association operation, the IHV Extensions DLL can do the following:

  • Allocate any resources needed for the new data port.

  • Perform proprietary security processing for the data port, including sending and receiving packets for the authentication algorithm configured during the pre-association operation. For more information about this operation, see Pre-Association Operations.

  • Derive cipher keys and download them to the WLAN adapter.

When the WLAN adapter completes a disassociation operation with the AP, the operating system terminates the post-association operation on the data port by calling the Dot11ExtIhvStopPostAssociate function. Following this call, the operating system deletes the data port for the association.

The following topics describe what the IHV Extensions DLL must do to perform or stop a post-association operation.

Performing a Post-Association Operation

Stopping a Post-Association Operation

Interface to the Native 802.11 802.1X Module

For more information about the association operation, see Association Operations.

For more information about the disassociation operation, see Disassociation Operations.

For more information about the procedures involved in port management, see Port-Based Network Access.