Efficient 3G/WLAN Interworking Techniques for Seamless Roaming Services with Location-Aware Authentication

Abstract

This paper proposes novel concepts and architectures for location-aware seamless authentication and roaming in the new interworking system between third-generation (3G) mobile networks and wireless local area networks (WLANs) where local mobility movements (micromobility) are handled together with global movements (macro-mobility). We introduce location as a key context in secure roaming mechanism for context-aware interworking. The fast secure roaming with locationaware authentication is implemented at an entity called LBS Broker that utilizes the concepts of direction of user and pre-warming zone. We present the interworking techniques with LBS Broker for seamless secure WLAN/3G integration enabling to meet the requirements of the future location-aware service scenarios. Performance evaluation is also presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme for fast location-aware secure roaming.