Secure handover in a LiFi network

A subsystem for supporting an end point to carry out a secure handover from an access point currently associated with the end point to another access point out of a plurality of access points in an optical multi-cell wireless communication network, the subsystem being configured to:

• obtain one or more neighbor relationships among the plurality of access points;
• select for the end point a candidate access point out of the plurality of access points, other than the currently associated access point, for a secure handover of the end point, in view of the obtained one or more neighbor relationships;
• and
• inform the end point via the currently associated access point about the candidate access point to trigger the end point to start a procedure for pre-establishing a new pairwise transient key between the end point and the candidate access point for the secure handover.

An end point for performing a secure handover from an access point currently associated with the end point to another access point out of a plurality of access points in an optical multi-cell wireless communication network, the end point comprising:

• an optical transceiver configured to perform optical wireless communication;
• a controller configured:
• to secure an optical wireless communication link with the currently associated access point by using a pairwise transient key to encrypt or decrypt data communicated on the link;
• and
• to trigger a procedure for pre-establishing a new pairwise transient key between the end point and a candidate access point for a secure handover, upon reception of information related to the candidate access point by the optical transceiver;
• and wherein the procedure is triggered before the handover to the candidate access point actually takes place.

A method of a subsystem for supporting an end point to carry out a secure handover from an access point currently associated with the end point to another access point out of a plurality of access points in an optical multi-cell wireless communication network,

• the method comprising the steps of the subsystem:
• obtaining neighbor relationship among the plurality of access points;
• selecting for the end point a candidate access point out of the plurality of access points, other than the currently associated access point, for a secure handover of the end point, in view of the obtained neighbor relationship;
• and
• informing the end point via the currently associated access point about the candidate access point to trigger the end point to start a procedure for pre-establishing a new pairwise transient key between the end point and the candidate access point for the secure handover.