3G-based access control for 3GPP-WLAN interworking

The integration of WLANs and 3G networks has recently evolved into a very hot topic. In order to provide a convenient access to both networks in different environments, the integration of 3G and WLAN authentication procedures would be highly beneficial. We propose a novel access control mechanism which reuses the existing 3GPP authentication procedures over a secure 3GPP infrastructure to obtain WLAN access. The proposed method, based on a loose coupling architecture, can be deployed over WLAN networks with or without IEEE 802.11x and employs a single set of control procedures for both WLAN and 3GPP accesses.