Handover Optimised Authentication Scheme for High Mobility Wireless Multicast

In this paper a distributed handover optimized authentication scheme based on independent session key per access network (HOISKA) is developed for the decentralized multi-service group key management scheme over wireless mobile multicast. It enables a handover user Mi involved in multiple multicast service subscriptions to securely reuse the long term credential initially issued by the trusted authentication server (As) for deriving unique session keys per access network as it performs handover authentication across various access networks. The distributed nature of the scheme enables offloading the authentication function to the area network controllers (AKDs) such that As is not involved during handover exchange authentication signaling. This simplifies handover by reducing handover exchange signalling constituting to handover delays. Handover Access authentication (HAA) phase in HOISKA is presented then analyzed using the delay analytical model. The model proves efficacy by inducing minimum delays with less handover blocking probability while providing same level of security to the widely deployed handover authentication scheme.