Wireless communications are being driven by the need for providing network access to mobile or nomadic computing devices. The need for wireless access to a network is evident in current work environments. A number of new protocols have been recently published with the goal of providing both privacy of data and authentication of users for mobile systems. Such protocols can employ private-key and/or public key cryptographic algorithms. Publickey algorithms hold the promise of simplifying the network infrastructure required to provide security services such as: privacy, authentication and non-repudiation, while symmetric algorithms require less processing power on the mobile device. In this paper a selection of protocols are reviewed and they are broadly divided into two categories: second generation and third generation protocols. A summary of the capabilities and services provided by each protocol is then provided.
T. Newe, Tom Coffey