Techniques for authentication protocols and key distribution on wireless ATM networks

With the growing acceptance of ATM as the standard for broadband networking and the increasing importance of wireless devices, it has become appropriate to extend ATM application to wireless platforms. Adding a wireless network to existing wired network creates a set of problems. Security functions have to be reconsidered since wired network security did not account for the open medium, mobile roaming. A necessary foundation for securing a network is the ability to authenticate entities. There is a need to authenticate users of the system so that the resources would not be misused by nonsubscribers. After authentication by authentication protocol, two parties who involves in communications should be able and entitle to believe that they are communicating with each other and not with intruders. In mobile networks, normally secret-key cryptography is used for authentication. In this paper, both secret key and public key are attempted to be used in wireless ATM network.