• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37 no.5B
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• pp.385-394
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• 2012

The tactical mobile communication network, which comprises a part of the next-generation Tactical Information and Communication Network (TICN), provides means of communication and control for Tactical Multi-Functional Terminals (TMFT) belonging to a Mobile Subscriber Access Point (MSAP). The next-generation of MSAP is capable of constructing a backbone network via LCTR and HCTR directional antennas. At the same time, WMN modules are used to create and manage a wireless mesh backbone. When directional antennas are used in mobile environments, seamless services cannot be efficiently supported as the movement of the node prevents the angle of the antenna to constantly match. Therefore, data communication through the wireless mesh networks is required to provide direct communication between mobile MSAPs. Accordingly, mutual authentication and data encryption mechanisms are required to provide reliable data transmission in this environment. To provide efficient mutual authentication between MSAP devices, the process of verifying a certificate of the other MSAP device through its own authentication server is required. This paper proposes mutual authentication mechanisms where the MSAP requiring authentication and the MSAP that permits it initiates low-cost and efficient authentication in a distributed way. More specifically, we propose a method of applying EAP-ELS (Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security) in the next-generation TICN.