A secured microcellular network supported by system-VLSI

This paper proposes a public microcellular network allowing extension of LAN to the mobile network, which is named mobile multimedia metropolitan area network (MM-MAN). Users driving at highspeed can enjoy the same IT environment as in their office. This is one of the promising services of the 4G featuring IP-based high-bit-rate communications to fast terminals. The service requires secure VPN communications over the Internet section and wireless section to conceal business activities of users. Private IP addresses are used in the MM-MAN to veil the activity of the mobile user. The pre-shared secret keys, which are distributed from the VPN Server in the original home LAN are the basis to perform mutual authentication, registration and secure tunnel establishment for the mobile users in the MM-MAN. The established security associations (SA) are preserved unchangeably in an all IP cellular network during the movement of the mobile terminal across the microcells. The MM-MAN requires system-VLSI for intelligent base stations operated in each microcell allowing continuous packet transfer despite of frequent hand-offs. The base station is connected through PON (passive optical network), which is a kind of optical bus.