An Efficient Authentication Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks

In a wireless mesh network (WMN), how to guarantee safe access to sensitive information has been an issue under research partly because of various hidden attacks and attack vectors. As a network with no need to depend on a fixed infrastructure, WMN is operated over an open and wireless medium. Every user accessing to radio wave may access to the network. Hence, as the first line of defense, authentication for network access can stop illegal users from visiting the network. As an essential mechanism, an authentication program ensures safe access. A reliable handoff protocol on basis of some technologies is put forward in this paper, examples include classical hierarchical network model, Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Strategy evaluation and trust evaluation. The authentication protocol is on basis of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) where the validity of users and terminal devices are verified. Therefore, only reliable terminals applied by legal users can access to a WMN. According to numerical analysis and simulation outcomes, the switchoff authentication protocol proposed greatly overcomes other authentication protocols with regard to the ratio of authentication success and authentication delay.