Latency evaluation of extensible authentication protocols in WLANs

Authentication has been an important issue in providing access to the clients in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). In order to protect the WLANs from intruders and malicious users, authentication protocols are employed. This paper evaluates the authentication delay introduced by EAP-enabled WLAN Access Points (AP) when used from indoor and outdoor environments. Experiments were performed on a wireless testbed in which a user connects to an AP under static and mobile conditions. The parameters considered are authentication time, reauthentication time, packet loss during reauthentication and the time taken by 4-way handshake at various speeds of mobile node. The results show that the largest delay is introduced by the most secure authentication protocols called tunneled authentication protocols. It was also observed that the mobility of the mobile node increases the authentication delay and the time taken by the 4-way handshake.