Abstract
The demand of ubiquitous communications drives the development of advanced mobile technologies. Meanwhile, recent increases in mobile data usage and the emergence of new IP service applications constitute the motivation to integrate 3GPP cellular mobile systems with broadband WLANs. Since 3GPP and WLAN systems complement each other in terms of infrastructure and network coverage and bandwidth, 3GPP-WLAN Heterogeneous Mobile Networks based on the 3GPP-based Home Network (3GHN) are proposed for meeting the growing demands in high-speed data access on any mobile devices. However, heterogeneous radio access technologies and architectures lead to many interworking issues, such as network transparency, security mechanism, seamless handover, and quality of service. Among of them, security and handover are the major motives to ensure the confidentiality, reliability and continuity of services in 3GPP-WLAN Heterogeneous Mobile Networks. This paper proposes fast handover pre-authentication protocol to reduce the handover authentication latency and authentication signaling overhead during the whole handover session. The proposed protocol supports Intra-Domain Handover Pre-Authentication (Intra-HO Pre-Auth) and Inter-Domain Handover Pre-Authentication (Inter-HO Pre-Auth) for preauthenticating the Mobile User (MS) prior to performing an Inter-domain Handover (Inter-domain HO)/Intra-domain Handover (Intra-domain HO) process. Meanwhile, the reduction in retrieving new Authentication Vector sand key sets from the Home Location Register/Home Subscriber Service/Authentication Center in 3GHN achieves for minimized redundant authentication signaling transactions between 3GPP domains and WLAN domains. In addition, this paper provides simulation results which show that the proposed Intra-HO Pre-Auth achieves 49% handover authentication performance improvement compared to EAP-AKA, and the proposed Inter-HO Pre-Auth achieves 26% handover authentication performance improvement as well.
Highlights
Over recent years, the evolution in wireless communications and mobile communications satisfies the growing demand for broadband wireless access to IP services at anytime, anywhere and on any mobile devices
This paper provides a proof implementation based on NS-2 with 802.11 WLAN model; the simulation results show the superior performance in handover authentication delay than that in Extensible Authentication Protocol-Authentication and Key Agreement protocol (EAP-AKA)
The performance of Inter-domain HO delay is illustrated in Figure 8, and the delay reduction in Inter-HO Pre-Auth protocol reaches up to 26% compared to EAP-AKA full authentication protocol
Summary
The evolution in wireless communications and mobile communications satisfies the growing demand for broadband wireless access to IP services at anytime, anywhere and on any mobile devices. HLR/HSS/AuC might be far away or separated by several network domains from the MS Such a long journey authentication round trip may result in enormous authentication message transactions between 3GPP networks and WLAN networks. The strategy of designating EAP-AKA as handover authentication protocol seems unfavorable for minimizing handover latency and for ensuring continuity services in 3GPP-WLAN Heterogeneous Mobile Network. The contribution of this paper is to propose a fast handover authentication protocol, including Inter-HOPreAuth and Intra-HO Pre-Auth, which reduces handover authentication delays during Inter-domain HO and Intradomain HO. When the MS roams across different APs located within the same WLAN domain, WAAA server is appointed to replace HAAA/ HLR/HSS/AuC for authenticating the MS via Intra-HO Pre-Auth prior to performing Intra-domain HO process. Fast Handover Pre-Authentication Protocol achieves secure key management distribution, fresh key re-generation, and minimum handover authentication latency in 3GPP-WLAN Heterogeneous Mobile Network.
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