A versatile roaming service framework with billing support for WLAN/cellular integrated networks

In this paper, a versatile WLAN/cellular networks integrated roaming service framework with billing support is proposed, which can lift off the requirement of peer-to-peer roaming agreements to provide seamless user roaming between WLAN hotspots and cellular networks operated by independent wireless network service providers. Within the framework, an adaptive authentication and an event-tracking scheme have been developed considering the anonymity of the mobile users and allowing the integrated billing service to be applied to cellular network if it still uses a traditional authentication scheme. Security analysis and overhead evaluation demonstrate that the proposed roaming service framework is secure and efficient.