Reduced Overhead Frequent User Authentication in EAP-Dependent Broadband Wireless Networks

The authentication mechanisms in Broadband Wireless Networks (BWN) are predominantly based on Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). However, the complexity of EAP causes an impediment in BWN networks which involve high speed mobility. Even though it provides a highly secured mechanism, the current authentication process has high authentication overheads which affect the Quality of Service (QoS) in time sensitive data applications such as VoIP and VoD. The alternative would be to consider re-authentication approach which reduces the number of full EAP authentications but at the same time provides a secure handoff to the mobile users at a lower latency and hence does not impact the QoS of the applications. The proposed Frequency-based Re-authentication Protocol (FRP) is an extension to EAP, aiming to reduce the network access time and in turn reduce the authentication latency, by taking into account the frequency of visits of a particular mobile user to an access domain. In addition, we also propose a frequent – User Authentication Process (f-UAP) which when used with FRP significantly minimizes the EAP authentication overhead. A mathematical model is formulated to illustrate the tradeoff achieved when FRP along with EAP is used in the f-UAP approach. The security evaluation of the proposed FRP is carried out using Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool. Furthermore, simulation analysis show that the FRP authentication latency is lower compared to the existing re-authentication mechanisms.