Patent ID: 8893231

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at a regional attachment element a first authentication request from a user equipment via a first access node of an access domain; checking at the regional attachment element whether required authentication material for authentication is locally present in the access domain where the authentication is requested, in response to receiving the first authentication request; performing a full authentication procedure involving communication between the regional attachment element and a centralized attachment element and storing the required authentication material, in response to determining that the required authentication material is not locally present; receiving at the regional attachment element a second authentication request only from the user equipment via a second access node of the access domain and directly to the regional attachment element, the second access node being independent of the first access node and located in the access domain; checking at the regional attachment element whether the authentication material required for authentication is locally present in the access domain where the authentication is requested, in response to receiving the second authentication request; and performing a fast authentication procedure not involving the centralized attachment element, in response to determining that required authentication material is locally present; where the first access node uses a first type of access and the second access node uses a different, second type of access.