A hash-chain based authentication scheme for fast handover in wireless network

Abstract

This paper proposes a hash-chain based authentication scheme for fast handover in wireless network (HAS). The full authentication procedure described in IEEE 802.11 is inappropriate to be applied to a handover, since it has heavy operation and delay time during handover. Though various methods were proposed to solve the problem, the existing schemes degrade the security of authentication or impose the entire administrative burden of the authentication on the authentication server. The main focus of this paper is on reducing the administrative burden of the authentication server and enhances the security strength of the fast handover authentication. The proposed scheme in this paper is robust to the attack by a compromised AP by using hash key chain between a mobile station and the authentication server. The scheme also decentralizes the administrative burden of the authentication server to other network entities.