An access control architecture for metropolitan area wireless networks

Schmid, Stefan and Finney, Joe and Wu, Maomao and Friday, Adrian and Scott, Andrew and Shepherd, William (2001) An access control architecture for metropolitan area wireless networks. In: Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems : 8th International Workshop, IDMS 2001 Lancaster, UK, September 4–7, 2001 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science . Springer, Berlin, pp. 29-37. ISBN 9783540425304

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel access control architecture for publicly accessible, wireless networks. The architecture was designed to address the requirements obtained from a case study of ubiquitous Internet service provisioning within the city of Lancaster. The proposed access control mechanism is. based on the concepts of secure user authentication, packet marking, and packet filtering at the access routers. The paper demonstrates to what extent this token-based, soft-state access control mechanism improves security and robustness, and offers improved performance over that provided by existing approaches within roaming networks. Early indications show the access control mechanism can better be implemented through the use of active routers, in order to facilitate dynamic rollout and configuration of the system. In addition, extensions to Mobile IPv6 are proposed, which provide support for roaming users at a fundamental level.