A Service-Agent-Based Roaming Architecture for WLAN/Cellular Integrated Networks

In this paper, an agent-based integrated service model for wireless local area network (WLAN)/cellular networks and the relevant authentication and event tracking for billing support schemes are proposed. The service model does not require inefficient peer-to-peer roaming agreements to provide seamless user roaming between the WLAN hotspots and the cellular networks, which are operated by independent wireless network service providers. The proposed authentication and event-tracking schemes take the anonymity and intractability of mobile users into consideration and operate independently so that the integrated billing service can be applied to the cellular network, even if it still uses a traditional authentication scheme. Security analysis and overhead evaluation are given to demonstrate that the proposed service model and the supporting schemes are secure and efficient.