Secure Application-Aware Service Differentiation in Public Area Wireless Networks

We are witnessing the increasing demand for pervasive Internet access from public area wireless networks (PAWNs). As their popularity grows, the inherent untrusted nature of public places and the diverse service requirements of end users are two key issues that need to be addressed. We have proposed two approaches to address these issues. First, the Home-based Authentication Protocol (HAP) that provides a framework by which to establish trust between a nomadic client and a service provider using a trusted third party (home). Second, we argue that the best-effort-based service model provided by many access points is not enough to satisfy the end user fairness and to maximize the wireless link utilization for a diverse user population. We have proposed an application-aware service differentiation (AASD) mechanism that takes both application semantics and user requirements into consideration. Our analysis of this framework shows several fruitful results. The total authentication latency increases with the number of clients but at a rate that is much less than linear increasing latency. Also, in comparison with two other bandwidth allocation approaches, the best effort and static access control, our proposed application-aware service differentiation method, outperforms them in terms of the client fairness and wireless bandwidth utilization.