Patent ID: 7316031

Claim:
A system for monitoring a wireless network, comprising: a security network including a plurality of monitoring devices coupled to a centralized security manager, the security network operable to manage access to a data network associated with a plurality of authorized devices; wherein each monitoring device comprises: a packet sniffing module operable to receive packets communicated from one or more wireless device, each packet associated with a communication session; a packet filtering module operable to: filter the received packets to identify any packets associated with the establishment of a communication session: and select one or more packets identified as being associated with the establishment of a communication session for communication to the centralized security manager; and a packet routing module operable to communicate one or more of the selected packets to the centralized security manager; and wherein the centralized security manager comprises: a packet collection module operable to receive the one or more selected packets communicated from each monitoring device; a packet analysis module operable to: analyze the one or more packets; and determine whether a particular communication session is valid based on the analysis of at least one particular packet associated with a particular wireless device; and an alert module operable to communicate an alert if the particular communication session is not valid; wherein the plurality of authorized devices includes a plurality of authorized wireless access points and a plurality of authorized wireless clients, each of the wireless access points operable to provide one or more of the authorized wireless clients access to the data network; and the centralized security manager further comprises a countermeasure module operable to prevent the wireless device access to the data network via each of the plurality of wireless access points if the wireless device is not one of the plurality of authorized devices.