Authentication optimization for seamless handovers

Brahim Gaabab (1) , David Binet (1) , Jean-Marie Bonnin (2)

1 FT - France Télécom, Division R&D, Caen
2 RSM - Département Réseaux, Sécurité et Multimédia

Handover is a key concept in wireless, cellularbased communications. It occurs when a mobile node changes its point of attachment to the network in order to meet an acceptable received signal strength level. Handover management refers to the procedures that need to be carried out upon handover, including discovery, configuration, authentication, and location update in order to recover network access. One important constraint to handover management is meeting the stringent realtime application requirements in terms of maximum allowed flow disruption. This paper addresses the authentication procedure, that is to say how the mobile node rapidly gets authenticated to restore the network access authorization? We focus on the authentication architecture being developed in the IETF including the recent Protocol for Carrying Network Access Authentication (PANA). We then analyze the different proposed optimizations and highlight their respective issues.

Mots clés: Handover management; PANA; Authentication

Domaines: Multimédia [cs.MM]; Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Brahim Gaabab, David Binet, Jean-Marie Bonnin. Authentication optimization for seamless handovers. IFIP/IEEE International symposium on integrated network management, may 21-25, Munich, Germany, May 2007, Munich, Germany. ⟨hal-02900602⟩