Abstract
3G-WLAN is a companion system of third-generation (3G) cellular systems and WLAN systems. By integration of these two systems, users can not only be offered a bit rate expectation placed on 3G systems, but also sufficient roaming and mobility support. Through 3G-WLAN, users could accesses into 3G application servers and makes use of service of these server. The services usually make use of the technique of multicasting. In order to cater for security of multicasting, a multicast key is needed to protect confidentiality and integrity of data transmitted between users. Thus, users need a multicast key agreement to derive and manage the multicast keys. This multicast key agreement need to deal with changes of intersystem and consolidate and reconcile the security architectures of the systems. In this paper, we propose a framework of multicast key agreement for 3G-WLAN. It can not only deal with situation of change of intersystem but also satisfy security requirements. It can extend to other networks for maintain security of multicast as well. © 2009 IEEE.