Pre-authentication for Fast Handoff in Wireless Mesh Networks with Mobile APs

Abstract. Wireless mesh networks can extend the network service region by just adding APs. However wireless mesh networks also have the same security problems as the traditional wireless LAN. Until now, many methods have been proposed to solve the authentication problem, particularly for the fast handoff, in the traditional wireless LAN. However, previous methods are not efficient to the wireless mesh network with mobile APs because they just considered static APs. In this paper, we propose a new pre-authentication method for the wireless mesh network with mobile APs. We adapted the neighbor graph method of previous schemes for the compatibility. However, our method is suitable to the wireless mesh network by applying a Du et al’s key distribution. Furthermore, we present a formal analysis about our method by using a logic based formal analysis method.