Authentication and payment protocol preserving location privacy in mobile IP

Mobile IP enables a mobile node (MN) to move around without losing their transport-layer connectivity by using resources in a foreign domain network. Mobile IP (MIP) is expected to be the core infrastructure of future mobile communication, but two services must be provided before the wide deployment of MIP. One is to provide secure communication and the other is to make payment. Security services, such as authentication and access control, have been considered since the birth of MIP, but little attention has been given to location privacy and anonymity services despite of their increased significance in wireless network. An incontestable payment protocol must be also developed, considering the usage of foreign domain network resources by the MN. As mix-network provides basic concept of location privacy protection, this paper proposes an authentication and payment protocol hiding location information, based on mix-network.