Authentication in wireless networks:: state of the art and integration with smart card

Wireless LAN have spread very quickly over the past few years. Demand for wireless access to LANs has raised due to new mobile computing devices, such as laptops and personal digital assistants, and a desire for seamless and permanent connections to networks. Nevertheless a lot of security issues remain and stop its deployment in corporations. One of the most important issues is the authentication of a terminal to an Access Point. We propose an interface to integrate the Extensible Authentication Protocol into smart cards and will show that smart cards could constitute the de-facto device for authentication in Wireless LAN as they are for GSM and will be for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System).