A WPKI-based security mechanism for IEEE 802.16e

IEEE 802.16e standard will enhance broadband wireless access solutions by taking advantage of the inherent mobility of wireless media. As the mobile services supported in the standard, new security problems may be coming and becoming a serious obstacle to develop the WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Access Network). In this paper, security principles used in 802.16e is analyzed to find the vulnerabilities and threats to mobile WiMAX. A security mechanism against the threats is proposed based on WPKI (Wireless Public Key Infrastructure) technology to solve both security problems and the problems caused by the poor ability of the mobile terminal. By simulating the complete WPKI-based security process, the mechanism is proved to be competent for providing data privacy, integrity and non-repudiation protection between BS (base station) and MS (mobile station).