| The current standard of cellular digital packet data (CDPD) networks does not address the issue of bilateral authentication for all involved entities in a typical communication link. In addition to authentication, the privacy factor for some of these entities has also been overlooked. The objective of this research is to provide an efficient method to address these shortcomings in the CDPD network. In order to achieve the above goals, the proposed approach first establishes a highly secure network environment in which: (1) all the mobile units and intermediate systems are bilaterally authenticated, (2) all the traffic on the network is encrypted.; Next, to determine the required level of security, a set of rules will be introduced for setting the level of the authentication and the length of the encryption key based on several parameters, including the radio signal quality and the location of the end user. The new protocol in some cases may introduce a minimal but acceptable delay, which is due to additional operations for providing bilateral authentication. The main application of the proposed system is for the mobile users in the area of public safety, healthcare, remote control and telemetry. The system enables the mobile units to have a secure, reliable and real time interaction with the resources located on the corporate Local Area Network (LAN), over a limited but economical wireless network. |
