The purpose of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-127, Guide to Securing WiMAX Wireless Communications, is to provide information to organizations regarding the security capabilities of wireless communications using WiMAX networks and to provide recommendations on using these capabilities. WiMAX technology is a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) technology based upon the IEEE 802.16 standard. It is used for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to, fixed last-mile broadband access, long-range wireless backhaul, and access layer technology for mobile wireless subscribers operating on telecommunications networks.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to organizations in securing their legacy IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLAN) that cannot use IEEE 802.11i. Details on securing WLANs capable of IEEE 802.11i can be found in NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-97. Recommendations for securely using external WLANs, such as public wireless access points, are outside the scope of this document.