Secure wireless handoff

Abstract

With the rapidly growing demand for portable devices such as laptops, handheld computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with wireless networking capabilities, the need for reliable wireless data network communication has also increased. Just like in mobile voice communication, users demand uninterrupted, secure wireless data communication as they move from place to place. Mobile IP satisfies some of these demands - it enables mobile devices with fixed IP addresses to be permanently reachable even as their point of attachment to the network changes. This allows for routing of data packets to and from the mobile device irrespective of its location on the network. While uninterrupted data flow can be achieved with Mobile IP, it introduces additional security vulnerabilities, including data privacy, data integrity and authentication. The goal of this thesis is to investigate such vulnerabilities and explore implementations to overcome them.