Fast pre-authentication based on proactive key distribution for 802.11 infrastructure networks

Abstract

Recently, user mobility in wireless data networks is increasing because of the popularity of portable devices and the desire for voice and multimedia applications. These applications, however, require fast handoffs among base stations to maintain the quality of the connections. Re-authentication during handoff procedures causes a long handoff latency which affects the flow and service quality especially for multimedia applications. Therefore minimizing re-authentication latency is crucial in order to support real-time multimedia applications on public wireless IP networks.In this paper, we proposed two fast re-authentication methods based on the predictive authentication mechanism defined by IEEE 802.11i security group. We have implemented these methods in an experimental test-bed using freeware and commodity 802.11 hardware and we demonstrate that they provide significant latency reductions compared to already proposed solutions. Conducted measurements show a very low latency not exceeding 50 ms under extreme congested network conditions.