Patent ID: 8341395

Claim:
An apparatus having a computer implemented protocol for providing security to media independent handover services, comprising: a point of service including an independent authenticator for providing the media independent handover services to handover mobile devices attached to serving access networks to candidate access networks, wherein said independent authenticator to authenticate said candidate access networks prior to the handover of the mobile devices attached to said serving access networks to the candidate access networks, said serving access networks and said candidate access networks belong to heterogeneous access networks each having a plurality of heterogeneous media to support different access technologies, in which each of the plurality of heterogeneous media having a specific serving media; and an access controller to apply an access control through an access authentication with said point of service providing the media independent handover services through an authentication server; wherein when the access authentication is established between the point of service and the authentication server, said mobile devices are authorized to access said media independent handover services through said point of service for the mobile devices attached between the heterogeneous media supported by said serving access networks and said candidate access networks and a security association or secure session is bound to peers, to include the mobile devices and the Point of Service, within media independent handover protocol in that media independent handover messages are not encapsulated when a transport layer security is added.