IntelliNet Technologies claimed its latest server would end the
problem of mobile data sessions being interrupted by password
prompts as users move between wireless LAN hotspots and areas
covered by cellular high-speed services.
The Enhanced Authentication Protocol (EAP) Server, announced last
month, will also allow operators to charge customers for both
wireless LAN and wide-area network (WAN) services on the same
bill.
Many users of notebooks, handheld computers and mobile phones can
or soon may be able to get high-speed data over a variety of
wireless services, including public wireless LANs and wide-area
services such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).
However, the various networks have evolved separately, so they
usually have different systems to identify customers and log their
network use.
IntelliNet's EAP is designed to authenticate users of wireless LAN,
GPRS, and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)
services and collect information that a carrier can use for
accounting and billing.
Customers do not have to enter a user name and password every time
they leave one service and go on to another, said Arun Handa,
vice-president of engineering at IntelliNet.
Instead, the user's Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), a small card
or software application that stores information about the customer,
will send information to the EAP server automatically.
The EAP server can share that information over the standard carrier
signalling system with the Home Location Register, which
authenticates the user, and the Service Control Point, which keeps
track of the services on offer and the customer's account
information.
Carriers can set up the EAP to work with systems that bill by time
or by bits of data, and even for prepaid services, Handa said. They
also can use it in conjunction with roaming arrangements with other
service providers, such as wireless LAN operators.