Patent ID: 7458095

Claim:
In a communication system comprising at least one network, including network entities which provide connectivity to user equipment, a method of connecting the user equipment to the at least one network comprising: establishing a secure tunnel which provides connection between the user equipment and one of the network entities; and authenticating the user equipment with another of the network entities, wherein the authenticating of the user equipment with the another of the network entities occurs at least partially simultaneously with a phase of the establishing of the secure tunnel, wherein the phase is determined based on a protocol or authentication method, wherein establishing the secure tunnel begins before authenticating the user and wherein during a time between a beginning of establishing the secure tunnel with one of the network entities and a beginning of authenticating the user equipment with another of the network entities, the at least one network communicates with the user equipment to confirm that the request from the user equipment to establish a secure tunnel is not part of a denial of service attack, and wherein communication during the time includes at least one of a request for an identification of the user equipment and a request for capability of the user equipment to support at least one data protocol.