EAP-BASED AUTHENTICATION FOR AD HOC NETWORK

Wireless network has been deployed worldwide, but some security issues in wireless network might have
prevented its further acceptance. One of the solutions to overcome the limitation of wireless network security is
the IEEE 802.1X specification, a mechanism for port-based network access control, which is based on
Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). It is an authentication framework that can support multiple
authentication methods. EAP can run over many types of data-link layer and it is flexible in its implementation.
Thus, it might be possible to use EAP as a generic authentication mechanism in various wireless networks,
including ad hoc network. This paper describes possible use of EAP in ad hoc network and proposes a
mechanism / approach to implement EAP in ad hoc network using EAP multiplexing model with master node as
authentication server.