Authentication and Authorization Method in Multi-domain, Multi-provider Networks

One of the open issues of the all-IP network Integrating wireless and wired technologies is the definition of an authentication, authorization solution running on multi-domain networks with different technologies that has a high security level and addresses the time requirements for real-time multimedia applications. At the same time, the increasing popularity of the voice-over-IP (VoIP) services requires call authorization solutions that allow to charge only one of the users involved in a multimedia session for the payment of all the resources used for it. In this paper, we propose a consortium-based trust model between providers of network resources and providers of voice-over-IP services that allows them to share information for the authentication and the authorization of their users. We define a new model for authentication and authorization of roaming users and a signaling solution for it based on the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and the Network Access Control Protocol (NACP). We also define a new authorization model for multi-domain VoIP calls and we propose a signaling solution for it based on the Next Steps in Signaling protocol (NSIS).