Abstract
In an Open Broadband Access Network consisting of multiple Internet Service Providers, delay due to multi-hop processing of authentication credentials is a major obstacle to fast handover between access points, effectively preventing delay-sensitive interactive applications such as Voice over IP. By exploiting existing trust relationships between service providers and access points, it is possible to pre-authenticate a mobile terminal to an access point, creating a Kerberos-style ticket that can be evaluated locally. The terminal can thus perform a handover and be authenticated to the new access point, without incurring communication and processing delays by involving other servers.