Wireless Communications Server for Community WiFi Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional networks lack the capability to uniquely identify and authenticate users for WiFi access across a service provider's subscriber lines, hindering the implementation of a robust and scalable community wireless communications service.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that utilize a network gateway device to determine user identity and send requests to a wireless communications server, which queries a database for access history, generates login interfaces as needed, and interacts with an authentication server to assign temporary IP addresses and manage access, ensuring secure and efficient user authentication and network access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional networks are used for WiFi access, then network simplicity is maintained, but user identification and authentication capability is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the authentication function into a separate wireless communications server that interacts with existing network gateways. This allows user identification and authentication capabilities to be added without redesigning the entire network infrastructure, resolving the contradiction between improved authentication reliability and maintained network simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The wireless communications server acts as an intermediary between users and the network infrastructure. It receives authentication requests, queries access history databases, and coordinates with network gateways to grant or deny access, thereby providing robust user verification without requiring changes to the core network architecture.
2Reliability
If user authentication infrastructure is added to conventional networks, then authentication capability is improved, but implementation scalability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless communications server provides universal authentication services that can be deployed across multiple network gateways and access points simultaneously. The system queries a centralized access history database and manages authentication for any user requesting WiFi access through any gateway in the service provider's network, enabling scalable deployment without compromising security.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary authentication checks by querying access history databases before granting network access. User identities are verified in advance through the wireless communications server, which coordinates authentication requests and determines access eligibility before the user is connected to the network, ensuring security while enabling rapid service deployment.
3Reliability
If centralized authentication management is implemented, then access control reliability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication management function is extracted from individual network gateways and consolidated into a dedicated wireless communications server. This centralizes access control security while keeping the overall system architecture relatively simple, as the server interacts with existing gateways through standardized interfaces and queries a centralized access history database.
Data Source
AI summary
Novel tools and techniques provide for implementing community wireless communications service. In some embodiments, a network gateway device might receive, from a user device via a customer gateway device, a first request for wireless access to a network. If it determines that the user device is unassociated with the customer associated with customer gateway, the network gateway might send a second request with an identifier of the user device to a WiFi server, which might generate and send a login user interface (“UI”) to the user device. The user might send a response including a unique identifier, which the WiFi server might include in an access request to an authentication server. If authenticated by the authentication server, the WiFi server might send a care-of address (“COA”) request to the network gateway, which assigns the COA to the user device and provides the user device with wireless access to the network.