Patent ID: 7936710

Claim:
A method in a telecommunication system for allowing a SIM-based authentication to users of a wireless local area network who are subscribers of a public land mobile network, the method comprising: (a) a wireless terminal accessing the wireless local area network through an accessible Access Point; (b) the wireless terminal discovering an Access Controller interposed between the Access Point and the public land mobile network; (c) carrying out a challenge-response authentication procedure between the wireless terminal and the public land mobile network through the Access Controller, the wireless terminal provided with a SIM card and adapted for reading data thereof; wherein the challenge-response authentication submissions in step (c) take place before having provided an IP connectivity to the user, and are carried: on top of a Point-to-Point layer 2 protocol (PPPoE) between the wireless terminal and the Access Controller; and on an authentication protocol residing at an application layer between the public land mobile network and the Access Controller; and the method further comprising: (d) Access Controller offering the IP connectivity to the user at the wireless terminal, by sending an assigned IP address and other network configuration parameters, once said user has been validly authenticated by the public land mobile network.