Mobile distributed authentication protocol

Networks access control is a crucial topic and authentication is a pre-requisite of that process. Most existing authentication protocols (for example that used in the GSM mobile network) are centralised. Depending on a single entity is undesirable as it has security, trust and availability issues. This paper proposes a new protocol, GSM-secure network access protocol (G-SNAP). In G-SNAP, the authentication procedure and network access control is handled by a quorum of authentication centres. The advantages of the novel protocol include increased security, availability and distributed trust

A secure network access protocol (SNAP)

Both the size, and the interconnectivity of computer networks are increasing tremendously. However, the possibility of an attack compromising the network is also increasing, making network security critical. Strong authentication protocols are needed to restrict network access to only authorised users. Most existing protocols for authentication and network access are based on centralised authentication using one authentication server or certificate authority that is unconditionally trusted Despite the use of strong authentication mechanisms, the process is between the user and a single authentication entity. In these protocols, the decision to authenticate or grant service to users is controlled by this single entity. Centralised authentication protocols suffer certain drawbacks. In this paper, a new protocol Secure Network Access Protocol (SNAP) is proposed SNAP increases network security and availability by distributing the trust between several authentication entitie