TECHNIQUES FOR OFFERING SEAMLESS ACCESSES IN ENTERPRISES HOT SPOTS FOR BOTH GUEST USERS AND LOCAL USERS.

摘要

A wireless Local Area Network (LAN 11) capable of providing "enterprise guest" hosting includes at least one an e-open wireless LAN access point (15) that provides access to both guests (12) and local users (14). Upon receipt of a request for access, the access point forwards the request to an authentication proxy (21). The authentication proxy then authenticates the party requesting access in accordance with that party's status (that is, whether the party is a local user or guest). Upon successful authentication, the network routes the traffic from a local user differently as compared to that for a guest. For example traffic from guests goes to gateway for receipt in an external network such as the Internet (19), whereas traffic from the local user goes to a local network, e.g., a corporate intranet 16. In this way, the Wireless LAN 11, after ascertaining the status of the party requesting access, can limit guest traffic according to the guest access policy.