What are Protected Management Frames? Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA2 with Protected Management Frames provides a WPA2-level of protection for unicast and multicast management action frames. Unicast management actions frames are protected from both eavesdropping and forging, and multicast management action frames are protected from forging. WPA2 with Protected Management Frames augments WPA2 privacy protections already in place for data frames with mechanisms to improve the resiliency of mission-critical networks.
PMF certification will become mandatory for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac devices from July 1, 2014 Wi-Fi Alliance recently announced an information on upcoming changes to Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA2™ test requirements related to Protected Management Frames (PMF).
Changes to Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA2 testing:
PMF certification will become mandatory for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac devices on July 1, 2014. PMF certification will remain optional for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED a, b, g, and n devices. Requirements for PMF certification can be found in the PMF test plan on the members’ website at this link: PMF_Test_Plan v1.0.2
Other programs that utilize Robust Action Frames may also require PMF as a pre-requisite certification. Members should review the MRD or test plan of any program of interest for specific requirements.
For further details of above requirement, please visit Wi-Fi Alliance Website(http://www.wi-fi.org/) for detailed test plan.