Wireless hotspots: current challenges and future directions

In recent years, wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) have established Wi-Fi hotspots in increasing numbers at public venues, providing local coverage to traveling users and empowering them with the ability to access email, Web, and other Internet applications on the move. In this paper, we observe that while the mobile computing landscape has changed both in terms of number and type of hotspot venues, there are several technological and deployment challenges remaining before hotspots can become an ubiquitous infrastructure. These challenges include authentication, security, coverage, management, location services, billing, and interoperability. We discuss existing research, the work of standards bodies, and the experience of commercial hotspot providers in these areas, and then describe compelling open research questions that remain.

[1]  John B. Shoven,et al.  I , Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.

[2]  Jeffrey I. Schiller,et al.  An Authentication Service for Open Network Systems. In , 1998 .

[3]  Andy Hopper,et al.  The active badge location system , 1992, TOIS.

[4]  Andy Hopper,et al.  A new location technique for the active office , 1997, IEEE Wirel. Commun..

[5]  Allan C. Rubens,et al.  Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) , 1997, RFC.

[6]  Ion Stoica,et al.  Packet fair queueing algorithms for wireless networks with location-dependent errors , 1998, Proceedings. IEEE INFOCOM '98, the Conference on Computer Communications. Seventeenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. Gateway to the 21st Century (Cat. No.98.

[7]  Craig Metz,et al.  A One-Time Password System , 1996, RFC.

[8]  R. Srikant,et al.  Fair scheduling in wireless packet networks , 1999, TNET.

[9]  Masahiro Morikura,et al.  New high-rate wireless LAN standards , 1999, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[10]  Guido Appenzeller,et al.  User-friendly access control for public network ports , 1999, IEEE INFOCOM '99. Conference on Computer Communications. Proceedings. Eighteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. The Future is Now (Cat. No.99CH36320).

[11]  Allan C. Rubens,et al.  Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) , 2000, RFC.

[12]  Hari Balakrishnan,et al.  6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on on Mobile Computing and Networking (ACM MOBICOM ’00) The Cricket Location-Support System , 2022 .

[13]  J. Lansford,et al.  The design and implementation of HomeRF: a radio frequency wireless networking standard for the connected home , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[14]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  RADAR: an in-building RF-based user location and tracking system , 2000, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2000. Conference on Computer Communications. Nineteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (Cat. No.00CH37064).

[15]  Jesse Walker,et al.  Unsafe at any key size; An analysis of the WEP encapsulation , 2000 .

[16]  David A. Wagner,et al.  Intercepting mobile communications: the insecurity of 802.11 , 2001, MobiCom '01.

[17]  Mahadev Satyanarayanan,et al.  Pervasive computing: vision and challenges , 2001, IEEE Wirel. Commun..

[18]  Jouni Mikkonen,et al.  Wireless LAN access network architecture for mobile operators , 2001 .

[19]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  Secure wireless Internet access in public places , 2001, ICC 2001. IEEE International Conference on Communications. Conference Record (Cat. No.01CH37240).

[20]  Nitin H. Vaidya,et al.  A Power Control MAC Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks , 2002, MobiCom '02.

[21]  William A. Arbaugh,et al.  An Initial Security Analysis of the IEEE 802.1X Standard , 2002 .

[22]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  Characterizing user behavior and network performance in a public wireless LAN , 2002, SIGMETRICS '02.

[23]  David Kotz,et al.  Characterizing Usage of a Campus-wide Wireless Network , 2002 .

[24]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  Hot-spot congestion relief in public-area wireless networks , 2002, Proceedings Fourth IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications.

[25]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  The location stack: a layered model for location in ubiquitous computing , 2002, Proceedings Fourth IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications.

[26]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  PAWNs: Satisfying the need for ubiquitos secure connectivity and location services , 2002, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[27]  Henry Haverinen,et al.  Cellular access control and charging for mobile operator wireless local area networks , 2002, IEEE Wirel. Commun..

[28]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  The effect of first-hop wireless bandwidth allocation on end-to-end network performance , 2002, NOSSDAV '02.

[29]  Harry L. Van Trees,et al.  Optimum Array Processing , 2002 .

[30]  David Kotz,et al.  Analysis of a Campus-Wide Wireless Network , 2002, MobiCom '02.

[31]  Apostolis K. Salkintzis,et al.  WLAN-GPRS integration for next-generation mobile data networks , 2002, IEEE Wirel. Commun..

[32]  Marco Gruteser,et al.  USENIX Association , 1992 .

[33]  Haiyun Luo,et al.  UCAN: a unified cellular and ad-hoc network architecture , 2003, MobiCom '03.

[34]  Kuang-Ching Wang,et al.  End-to-end throughput and delay assurances in multihop wireless hotspots , 2003, WMASH '03.

[35]  William G. Griswold,et al.  Challenge: ubiquitous location-aware computing and the "place lab" initiative , 2003, WMASH '03.

[36]  Seung-Jae Han,et al.  Design and implementation of a WLAN/cdma2000 interworking architecture , 2003, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[37]  Abhay Dharmadhikari,et al.  SIM Based WLAN Authentication for Open Platforms , 2003, Security and Management.

[38]  Huseyin Selcuk Ozturk,et al.  Evaluation of Secure 802.1X Port-Based Network Access Authentication Over 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks , 2003 .

[39]  Magdalena Balazinska,et al.  Characterizing mobility and network usage in a corporate wireless local-area network , 2003, MobiSys '03.

[40]  Damien Deville,et al.  Smart Card operating systems: Past Present and Future , 2003 .

[41]  Stefan Savage,et al.  802.11 Denial-of-Service Attacks: Real Vulnerabilities and Practical Solutions , 2003, USENIX Security Symposium.

[42]  Seung-Jae Han,et al.  Integration of 802.11 and third-generation wireless data networks , 2003, IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37428).

[43]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  MultiNet: connecting to multiple IEEE 802.11 networks using a single wireless card , 2004, IEEE INFOCOM 2004.

[44]  Nitin H. Vaidya,et al.  A Power Control MAC Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks , 2005, Wirel. Networks.