A self-encryption mechanism for authentication of roaming and teleconference services

Abstract

A simple authentication technique for use in the global mobility network (GLOMONET) is proposed. This technique is based on the concept of distributed security management, i.e., the original security manager administrates the original authentication key (long-term secret key) acquired when a user makes a contract with his home network, while a temporary security manager is generated for a roaming user in the visited network that provides roaming services. The temporary security manager will take the place of the original security manager when the roaming user stays in the service area of the visited network. In the proposed authentication protocol for the regular communication phase, the procedures of the original security manager and the temporary security manager are the same except for introducing different parameters. Furthermore, the proposed technique not only reduces the number of transmissions during the authentication phase, but it also can decrease the complexity of mobile equipment. The idea behind the proposed technique is to introduce a simple mechanism which is called "self-encryption". We also suggest that this mechanism can be easily adopted as the authentication function for the secure teleconference service.