Comparison of Throughput and CPU Usage between WPA3 and WPA2 Security Methods on Wireless Networks 802.11n

Abstract

Communication in the IEEE 802.11 protocol or what is known as Wi-Fi, uses open medium such as air to transmit data. This creates a higher vulnerability to data eavesdropping than closed media such as cables. The IEEE has established data security standards using the WEP method, then refined by the Wi-Fi Alliance to become WPA. In 2017 WPA version 2 has arisen a vulnerability so that it can be easily broken into by hackers. To solve this problem, in 2018 the Wi-Fi Alliance has developed a new standard, namely WPA3 which has a better method than WPA2 in securing wireless networks. The test results on the OpenWRT system show that the throughput on the WPA3 network is about 2 Mbps better with 6 times transmission failure. During the testing process with a duration of 1 minute, WPA3 network can deliver 13MB more data than WPA2. CPU utilization in WPA3 is higher when compared to WPA2, which is 6% during the peak-time testing process using the iPerf3 application, but WPA3 offers better security when compared to WPA2.