AWiMA: An Architecture for Adhoc Wireless Mobile Internet Access

This paper suggests a system architecture for wireless wide-area-networking access using adhoc networking between a mobile client node without direct connectivity to a wireless-wide-area-network and a mobile service provider node with connectivity to a wireless-wide-area-network. It provides a means for securely providing such adhoc wireless networking services using a server for tunneling and routing, registration and authentication. The architecture also provides support for handoff of a client node from one service provider to another with persistence of a tunnel between the client and the server enabling a soft-handoff Different wireless protocols may be used for adhoc networking, with filtered interconnection of authenticated clients implemented at a service provider node. The architecture is applicable across different wide-area-network protocols, and provides simultaneous support for multiple wide-area-network protocols.