Access control in wireless local area networks: Fast authentication schemes

Wireless local area networks (WLAN) are rapidly becoming a core part of network access. Supporting user mobility, more specifically session continuation in changing network access points, is becoming an integral part of wireless network services. This is because of the popularity of emerging real-time streaming applications that can be commonly used when the user is mobile, such as voice-over-IP and Internet radio. However, mobility introduces a new set of problems in wireless environments because of handoffs between network access points (APs). The IEEE 802.11i security standard imposes an authentication delay long enough to hamper real-time applications. This chapter will provide a comprehensive study on fast authentication solutions found in the literature as well as the industry that address this problem. These proposals focus on solving the mentioned problem for intradomain handoff scenarios where the access points belong to the same administrative domain or provider. Interdomain roaming is also becoming common-place for wireless access. We need fast authentication solutions for these environments that are managed by independent administrative authorities. We detail such a solution that explores the use of local trust relationships to foster fast authentication.