Performance evaluation of EAP-based authentication for proposed integrated mobile WiMAX and FSO access networks

In this paper, we propose an integrated Mobile WiMAX and free space optics (FSO) broadband access network where the FSO network is used to provide high capacity backhaul for the Mobile WiMAX front end. The integrated network extends the coverage of Mobile WiMAX networks to larger areas in applications where the fiber network is expensive and difficult to deploy. We present a unified EAP-based security framework, and we evaluate and compare the performance of EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS for this integrated FSO-WiMAX access network. Furthermore, we evaluate the impact of the point-to-point FSO link in the integrated access network. Our measurement shows that compared to EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS provides a more flexible, efficient, and secure way to protect the integrated FSO-WiMAX access network. Our experiment also demonstrates that the point-to-point FSO link does not degrade the performance of EAP authentication in the integrated network.