Title: A secure coverage area expansion scheme for public wireless LAN services

Authors: Ryu Watanabe, Toshiaki Tanaka

Addresses: KDDI R&D Laboratories, Inc., 2-1-15 Ohara, Fujimino, Saitama 356-8502, Japan. ' KDDI R&D Laboratories, Inc., 2-1-15 Ohara, Fujimino, Saitama 356-8502, Japan

Abstract: An ad-hoc network style connection can be utilised to expand the coverage area of public wireless LAN (WLAN) services. By relaying the messages among user nodes, a node can obtain an internet connection, even though the node is located outside the AP|s direct wireless communication area. This concept has been realised by using the ad-hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol and mobile IP. However, it has some drawbacks in terms of security. The AODV has no functions for confirming the validity of routing messages; therefore, there are many threats due to faked or forged routing messages. In contrast, if a secure ad-hoc routing protocol is used for message routing in the WLAN service, the message route can be appropriately maintained. However, in order to employ secure ad-hoc routing protocols, a key and IP address have to be securely delivered to each WLAN node in advance. For this purpose, in this paper, the authors propose a secure address and public key certificate allocation scheme for WLAN services.

Keywords: wireless LAN; public WLAN; WLAN services; secure ad-hoc routing; public key infrastructure; PKI; privacy protection; security; local area networks; ad hoc networks; AODV routing protocol; mobile IP; secure address; public key certificate allocation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITM.2010.035461

International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.9 No.4, pp.389 - 403

Published online: 30 Sep 2010 *

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