Patent ID: 8494487
Filing Date: 2013-07-23
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of authenticating a mobile terminal, the method comprising: maintaining a list of potential Network Access Servers (NASs) corresponding to a NAS in a backend authentication server; transmitting authorization information corresponding to each of the potential NASs, from the backend authentication server to each of the potential NASs, when the mobile terminal is authenticated via the NAS, wherein the authorization information for each respective potential NAS comprises a master session key (MSK) for each respective potential NAS, each MSK being generated based on an extended MSK (EMSK) that is obtained by a full EAP authentication between the backend authentication server and a current NAS; detecting by the mobile terminal whether a new NAS is pre-authenticated, when the mobile terminal moves to a domain of the new NAS; detecting by the mobile terminal whether a new NAS is pre-authenticated, when the mobile terminal moves to a domain of the new NAS; detecting by the new NAS whether the mobile terminal is pre-authenticated; and performing an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication, by the new NAS, to authenticate the mobile terminal via a Pre-Shared Key (PSK) method, when the mobile terminal and the new NAS are pre-authenticated, without performing a full EAP authentication with the backend authentication server, wherein the detecting of whether the new NAS is pre-authenticated comprises transmitting a list of NAS identifiers of potential target NASs from the NAS to the mobile terminal, transmitting a NAS identifier of the new NAS from the new NAS to the mobile terminal via EAP, and determining in the mobile terminal that the new NAS is pre-authenticated, when the NAS identifier of the new NAS is comprised in the list.