WIRELESS ROUTER ASSISTED SECURITY HANDOFF (WRASH) IN A MULTI-HOP WIRELESS NETWORK

A wireless router assisted security handoff method (300) includes an efficient layer 2security handoff for an infrastructure-based mobile multi-hop wireless network. The handoff is assisted with a wireless router (311) which is the first hop from the mobile station (301) to the new access point (307). The security context from the old access point (303) is first delivered to the mobile station (301) in a secure manner. The first handoff message (309) from mobile station (301) to the new access point (307) has three roles namely, re-association request, security context delivery and new session key generation handshaking. The first hop wireless router (311) vouches the freshness of the message contents and tunnels the message securely to the new access point (307). The second message (315) from the new access point (307) to the mobile station (301) completes the handoff process.