Wireless mesh network (WMN) is a very promising technology for extending existing networks with its easy-to-deploy architecture. The wireless backbone serves to interconnect different networking technologies through mesh routers (MRs). MRs act either as access points for end users, as gateways to external (internet) networks, or as routers relaying traffic between WMN stations. Unfortunately, security issues still remain unsolved in WMNs. Some reliable authentication and access control mechanisms are highly needed so the selected authentication method is tightly suited to the resource constraints of the stations (energy and processing). In this paper, we present a biometric-based authentication scheme that relies on certificates and ID-based cryptography (IBC). That is, the public keys of MRs and stations are derived directly from their respective identities. Their private keys are computed based on a secret element which is specific to each authentication domain of the mesh backbone. The public elements of each domain are proved as authentic through a certificate. Our authentication scheme is complemented with a fast reconnect protocol which supports station handover from one authentication domain to another.