An analytical study on the impact of authentication in wireless local area network

Authentication can provide security by preventing unauthorized usage and negotiating the credentials for secure communications. Nevertheless, it induces heavy overhead to communications, further deteriorating the quality of service (QoS). Therefore, analyzing the QoS and security impact of authentication becomes critical to developing efficient authentication schemes. In this paper, we first introduce a system model for the analysis of challenge/response authentication in wireless networks. Then, we evaluate authentication cost, delay, and call dropping probability for different security levels. By considering traffic and mobility patterns, we show the numerical results to illustrate the impact of authentication on security and system performance.