Handover keying and its uses

Mobile nodes must authenticate themselves in order to use network services. When mobile nodes roam into a new cell, they must re-authenticate to the new layer 2 and 3 devices. This re-authentication process can take as long as two seconds, which is unacceptable for applications such as voice over IP. In this article we present several recently developed authentication protocols that can reduce the reauthentication delay. Both intra-domain and inter-domain handover scenarios are discussed. We mainly focus on two protocols - 802.11r and EAP Re-authentication protocol for handover keying. These two protocols use security key hierarchies to avoid full authentication. An application of these protocols is presented for the control and provisioning of a wireless access-point network.