Method and apparatus for controlling credit based access (prepaid) to a wireless network

摘要

A method for de-authenticating a client device from a network based on a credit based access control is disclosed. The method comprises receiving by an access point (AP) in the network a user request for user access from the client device according to an authentication protocol and transmitting by the AP an access request to an authentication server in response to the user request. The AP receives an access response from the authentication server authenticating the user access for the client device, where the access response contains a parameter having a value indicative of the length of available continued access of the client device to the network based on remaining user credit. The then transmits a re-authentication request to the authentication server when the parameter value reaches a threshold to cause a re-authentication of the client device with the network to occur before granting further access to the network by the client device.