There are 3 types of frames used in the 802.11 layer 2 communications happening over the air which manages and controls the wireless link.
Management Frames
Control Frames
Data Frames
In this blog we will have a detailed look at all the management frame packet captures.
Management Frames: Management frames are used by stations to join and leave a BSS (Basic Service Sets).
| Frames | Subtype Bits |
| Association request | 0000 |
| Association response | 0001 |
| Reassociation request | 0010 |
| Reassociaiton response | 0011 |
| Probe request | 0100 |
| Probe response | 0101 |
| Beacon | 1000 |
| ATIM (Announcement traffic indication message ) | 1001 |
| Disassociation | 1010 |
| Authentication | 1011 |
| Deauthentication | 1100 |
| Action | 1101 |
Below is the packet capture of each of these frames. These are captured over the air using Saavius adapter and Omnipeek software.
Association Request:
Association Response:
Re-association request:
Check out some important elements points in the re-association request frames
Reassociation response:
Probe request:
Probe response:
Beacon: Notice some important elements inside the Beacon frames.
ATIM (Announcement traffic indication message):
Disassociation:
Authentication:
Deauthentication:
Action:
In the next section, I shall add the packet capture of control and data frames
wifi-bond 