Fast Authentication in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The growing diffusion of wireless devices is leading to an increasing demand for mobility and security. At the same time, most applications can only tolerate short breaks in the data flow, so that it is a challenge to find out mobility and authentication methods able to cope with these constraints. This paper aims to propose an authentication scheme which significantly shortens the authentication latency and that can be deployed in a variety of wireless environments ranging from common Wireless LANs (WLANs) to satellite-based access networks

Flat Cellular (UMTS) Networks

Traditionally, cellular systems have been built in a hierarchical manner: many specialized cellular access network elements that collectively form a hierarchical cellular system. When 2G and later 3G systems were designed there was a good reason to make system hierarchical: from a cost-perspective it was better to concentrate traffic and to share the cost of processing equipment over a large set of users while keeping the base stations relatively cheap. However, we believe the economic reasons for designing cellular systems in a hierarchical manner have disappeared: in fact, hierarchical architectures hinder future efficient deployments. In this paper, we argue for completely flat cellular wireless systems, which need just one type of specialized network element to provide radio access network (RAN) functionality, supplemented by standard IP-based network elements to form a cellular network. While the reason for building a cellular system in a hierarchical fashion has disappeared, there are other good reasons to make the system architecture flat: (1) as wireless transmission techniques evolve into hybrid ARQ systems, there is less need for a hierarchical cellular system to support spatial diversity; (2) we foresee that future cellular networks are part of the Internet, while hierarchical systems typically use interfaces between network elements that are specific to cellular standards or proprietary. At best such systems use IP as a transport medium, not as a core component; (3) a flat cellular system can be self scaling while a hierarchical system has inherent scaling issues; (4) moving all access technologies to the edge of the network enables ease of converging access technologies into a common packet core; and (5) using an IP common core makes the cellular network part of the Internet

Mobility: a double-edged sword for HSPA networks

This paper presents an empirical study on the performance of mobile High Speed Packet Access (HSPA, a 3.5G cellular standard) networks in Hong Kong via extensive field tests. Our study, from the viewpoint of end users, covers virtually all possible mobile scenarios in urban areas, including subways, trains, off-shore ferries and city buses. We have confirmed that mobility has largely negative impacts on the performance of HSPA networks, as fast-changing wireless environment causes serious service deterioration or even interruption. Meanwhile our field experiment results have shown unexpected new findings and thereby exposed new features of the mobile HSPA networks, which contradict commonly held views. We surprisingly find out that mobility can improve fairness of bandwidth sharing among users and traffic flows. Also the triggering and final results of handoffs in mobile HSPA networks are unpredictable and often inappropriate, thus calling for fast reacting fallover mechanisms. We have conducted in-depth research to furnish detailed analysis and explanations to what we have observed. We conclude that mobility is a double-edged sword for HSPA networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first public report on a large scale empirical study on the performance of commercial mobile HSPA networks

Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey

This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols, user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed, use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are some text overlaps with the previous submissio

A network mobility management architecture for a heteregeneous network environment

Network mobility management enables mobility of personal area networks and vehicular networks across heterogeneous access networks using a Mobile Router. This dissertation presents a network mobility management architecture for minimizing the impact of handoffs on the communications of nodes in the mobile network. The architecture addresses mobility in legacy networks without infrastructure support, but can also exploit infrastructure support for improved handoff performance. Further, the proposed architecture increases the efficiency of communications of nodes in the mobile network with counter parts in the fixed network through the use of caching and route optimization. The performance and costs of the proposed architecture are evaluated through empirical and numerical analysis. The analysis shows the feasibility of the architecture in the networks of today and in those of the near future.Verkkojen liikkuuvudenhallinta mahdollistaa henkilökohtaisten ja ajoneuvoihin asennettujen verkkojen liikkuvuuden heterogeenisessä verkkoympäristössä käyttäen liikkuvaa reititintä. Tämä väitöskirja esittää uuden arkkitehtuurin verkkojen liikkuvuudenhallintaan, joka minimoi verkonvaihdon vaikutuksen päätelaitteiden yhteyksiin. Vanhoissa verkoissa, joiden infrastruktuuri ei tue verkkojen liikkuvuutta, verkonvaihdos täytyy hallita liikkuvassa reitittimessa. Standardoitu verkkojen liikkuvuudenhallintaprotokolla NEMO mahdollistaa tämän käyttäen ankkurisolmua kiinteässä verkossa pakettien toimittamiseen päätelaitteiden kommunikaatiokumppaneilta liikkuvalle reitittimelle. NEMO:ssa verkonvaihdos aiheuttaa käynnissä olevien yhteyksien keskeytymisen yli sekunnin mittaiseksi ajaksi, aiheuttaen merkittävää häiriötä viestintäsovelluksille. Esitetyssä arkkitehtuurissa verkonvaihdon vaikutus minimoidaan varustamalla liikkuva reititin kahdella radiolla. Käyttäen kahta radiota liikkuva reititin pystyy suorittamaan verkonvaihdon keskeyttämättä päätelaitteiden yhteyksiä, mikäli verkonvaihtoon on riittävästi aikaa. Käytettävissa oleva aika riippuu liikkuvan reitittimen nopeudesta ja radioverkon rakenteesta. Arkkitehtuuri osaa myös hyödyntää infrastruktuurin tukea saumattomaan verkonvaihtoon. Verkkoinfrastruktuurin tuki nopeuttaa verkonvaihdosprosessia, kasvattaenmaksimaalista verkonvaihdos tahtia. Tällöin liikkuva reitin voi käyttää lyhyen kantaman radioverkkoja, joiden solun säde on yli 80m, ajonopeuksilla 90m/s asti ilman, että verkonvaihdos keskeyttää päätelaitteiden yhteyksiä. Lisäksi ehdotettu arkkitehtuuri tehostaa kommunikaatiota käyttäen cache-palvelimia liikkuvassa ja kiinteässä verkossa ja optimoitua reititystä liikkuvien päätelaitteiden ja kiinteässä verkossa olevien kommunikaatiosolmujen välillä. Cache-palvelinarkkitehtuuri hyödyntää vapaita radioresursseja liikkuvan verkon cache-palvelimen välimuistin päivittämiseen. Heterogeenisessä verkkoympäristossä cache-palvelimen päivitys suoritetaan lyhyen kantaman laajakaistaisia radioverkkoja käyttäen. Liikkuvan reitittimen siirtyessä laajakaistaisen radioverkon peitealueen ulkopuolelle päätelaitteille palvellaan sisältöä, kuten www sivuja tai videota cache-palvelimelta, säästäen laajemman kantaman radioverkon rajoitetumpia resursseja. Arkkitehtuurissa käytetään optimoitua reititystä päätelaitteiden ja niiden kommunikaatiokumppaneiden välillä. Optimoitu reititysmekanismi vähentää liikkuvuudenhallintaan käytettyjen protokollien langattoman verkon resurssien kulutusta. Lisäksi optimoitu reititysmekanismi tehostaa pakettien reititystä käyttäen suorinta reittiä kommunikaatiosolmujen välillä. Esitetyn arkkitehtuurin suorituskyky arvioidaan empiirisen ja numeerisen analyysin avulla. Analyysi arvioi arkkitehtuurin suorituskykyä ja vertaa sitä aikaisemmin ehdotettuihin ratkaisuihin ja osoittaa arkkitehtuurin soveltuvan nykyisiin ja lähitulevaisuuden langattomiin verkkoihin.reviewe

Mobility and Handoff Management in Wireless Networks

With the increasing demands for new data and real-time services, wireless networks should support calls with different traffic characteristics and different Quality of Service (QoS)guarantees. In addition, various wireless technologies and networks exist currently that can satisfy different needs and requirements of mobile users. Since these different wireless networks act as complementary to each other in terms of their capabilities and suitability for different applications, integration of these networks will enable the mobile users to be always connected to the best available access network depending on their requirements. This integration of heterogeneous networks will, however, lead to heterogeneities in access technologies and network protocols. To meet the requirements of mobile users under this heterogeneous environment, a common infrastructure to interconnect multiple access networks will be needed. In this chapter, the design issues of a number of mobility management schemes have been presented. Each of these schemes utilizes IP-based technologies to enable efficient roaming in heterogeneous network. Efficient handoff mechanisms are essential for ensuring seamless connectivity and uninterrupted service delivery. A number of handoff schemes in a heterogeneous networking environment are also presented in this chapter.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure

A Novel Design and Implementation of Dos-Resistant Authentication and Seamless Handoff Scheme for Enterprise WLANs

With the advance of wireless access technologies, the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) has gained significant increase in popularity and deployment due to the substantially improved transmission rate and decreased deployment costs. However, this same widespread deployment makes WLANs an attractive target for network attacks. Several vulnerabilities have been identified and reported regarding the security of the current 802.11 standards. To address those security weaknesses, IEEE standard committees proposed the 802.11i amendment to enhance WLAN security. The 802.11i standard has demonstrated the capability of providing satisfactory mutual authentication, better data confidentiality, and key management support, however, the design of 802.11i does not consider network availability. Thus 802.11i is highly susceptible to malicious denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which exploit the vulnerability of unprotected management frames. This paper proposes, tests and evaluates a combination of three novel methods by which the exploitation of 802.11i by DoS attacks can be improved. These three methods include an access point nonce dialogue scheme, a fast access point transition protocol handoff scheme and a location management based selective scanning scheme. This combination is of particular value to real-time users running time-dependant applications such as VoIP. In order to acquire practical data to evaluate the proposed schemes, a prototype network has been implemented as an experimental testbed using open source tools and drivers. This testbed allows practical data to be collected and analysed. The result demonstrates that not only the proposed authentication scheme eradicates most of the DoS vulnerabilities, but also substantially improved the handoff performance to a level suitable for supporting real-time services