Jeroen van Bemmel

An Architecture for User Location in Heterogeneous Mobile Networks

Fourth generation mobile networks will allow end-users to roam over different network technologies, such as UMTS, CDMA2000 and Wi-Fi. These mobile networks make it possible to determine the location of the mobile terminal, which can be used by applications to provide enhanced services. Each mobile network technology has its specific way to determine the terminal’s location, and to provide this information to the end-user or mobile application. Mobile application developers should not be exposed to the peculiarities of the different network technologies, and should be offered a network technology independent API to obtain user location information. In this paper we propose an architecture that provides 3rd party mobile application developers with a secure API to obtain the user’s location over heterogeneous networks that are managed by different parties. The proposed architecture is validated by a proof- of-concept implementation using UMTS and Wi-Fi networks.

Authentication across heterogeneous networks

In the beyond third-generation (3G) vision, the convergence of different access network technologies is realized and end-user devices are able to roam seamlessly among them. Seamless roaming requires authentication to a network, which may require interaction with an end user that results in the termination of ongoing service sessions and, therefore, inhibits seamless roaming. Furthermore, some access technologies may support a plethora of authentication protocols, making selection of the appropriate method(s) of authentication challenging for an end user. We propose a solution involving single sign-on authentication that allows the end user to roam between different administrative domains and access network technologies (e.g., wireline and wireless). Our solution integrates a number of authentication mechanisms and does not require any end-user interactions while roaming, thus enabling a seamless roaming experience. We describe a prototype implementation of this solution using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)/Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS∗)/wireless local area network (WLAN) networks and present our conclusions using measurements on this prototype.