Unified security frameworks for integrated WiMAX and optical broadband access networks

Abstract

This dissertation proposes the integration of optical and Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) broadband access networks in order to combine the strengths of optical and wireless technologies and converge them seamlessly. To protect the access network security, this dissertation has developed the design of unified security frameworks for the proposed integrated optical and WiMAX broadband access networks.

Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPONs) offers a popular broadband access solution, providing high bandwidth and long transmission range to meet users' fast evolving needs. WiMAX provides a wireless broadband solution and it supports mobility. This dissertation proposes a WiMAX over EPON network architecture to provide optical bandwidth for the WiMAX base station (BS). The dissertation also presents a unified security framework for the proposed WiMAX over EPON architecture using public key infrastructure (PKI) and extensible authentication protocol (EAP). The security framework could achieve efficient system management, enhance the system security, and realize unified key management. Furthermore, the dissertation introduces three handover scenarios in the WiMAX over EPON network and describes the corresponding handover schemes based on a pre-authentication method and the communication framework of the ranging step. The proposed handover mechanisms can simplify and accelerate the handover process, compared to the standard WiMAX handover scheme, while keeping the handover procedure secure.

Free Space Optics (FSO) provides a relatively flexible optical wireless solution to provide gigabit bandwidth to areas where fiber is costly or hard to deploy. This dissertation also proposes an integrated Mobile WiMAX and FSO broadband access network and presents a unified EAP-based security framework. The dissertation then evaluates and compares the performance of EAP-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS) and EAP-Tunneled Transport layer Security (EAP-TTLS) for the FSO-WiMAX network, and also evaluates the impact of the point-to-point FSO link. Measurements show that, compared to EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS provides a more flexible, efficient, and secure way to protect the integrated FSO-WiMAX access network. Experiments conducted as part of investigation demonstrate that the point-to-point FSO link does not degrade the performance of EAP authentication in the integrated network.