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KUANG-HUI CHI, CHIEN-CHAO TSENG+ AND YA-HSUAN TSAI+
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology
Touliu, 640 Taiwan
E-mail: chikh@yuntech.edu.tw
+Institute of Computer Science and Engineering
National Chiao Tung University
Hsinchu, 300 Taiwan
E-mail: {cctseng; yhtsai}@csie.nctu.edu.tw
This paper deals with secure fast handoff among access points (APs) of different
IEEE 802.11r mobility domains. We leverage standard IEEE 802.11i mechanisms to let a
station preauthenticate and establish a pairwise transient key with some target AP beforehand.
Upon reassociation, the new AP aware of the preauthenticated station can thus complete
handoff sooner than would otherwise be required. In order to resolve target APs
timely, we introduce a location server that maintains network topology of an autonomous
system covering multiple mobility domains. The location server assesses with which AP(s)
the mobile station may reassociate next using its migration tendency. Accordingly the
station is instructed to preauthenticate with fewer potential next APs than unnecessary.
Performance discussions indicate that our proposal is effective in practice. Our approach
is not only complementary to emerging IEEE 802.11r-based techniques but also useful to
any network-layer fast handoff schemes for streamlined communication.
Received May 27, 2008; revised June 1, 2009; accepted October 22, 2009.
Communicated by Tei-Wei Kuo.
* This work has been supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan, R.O.C., under Grants No. NSC 98-
2220-E-009-047 and NSC 97-2221-E-009-051-MY3.