A Revised Secure Authentication Protocol for IEEE 802.16 (e)

The WiMAX IEEE 802.16 (e) is defined as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access by the WiMAX Forum, formed in April 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the IEEE 802.16 standard, and it is officially known as Wireless MAN. The absence of physical boundaries makes in general a wireless network more vulnerable than a wired network. The IEEE 802.16 provides a security sublayer in the MAC layer to address the privacy issues across the fixed BWA (Broadband Wireless Access). Several proposals have been published to address the flaws in IEEE802.16 security after the release of IEEE802.16-2001. However, even with the modified version IEEE802.16-2004, the security problems still persist and many additional flaws have emerged. This paper examines the threats against the authentication protocols of WiMAX and proposes a new authentication protocol which is more reliable and secure. The proposed protocol is rigid against the attacks like Denial of service (DOS), Man-in-the-middle and replay.