A Survey on Authentication and Key Agreement Protocols in Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

Unlike current closed systems such as 2 nd and 3 rd generations where the core network is controlled by a sole network operator, multiple network operators will coexist and manage the core network in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). This open architecture and the collaboration between different network operators will support ubiquitous connectivity and thus enhances users' experience. However, this brings to the fore certain security issues which must be addressed, the most important of which is the initial Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) to identify and authorize mobile nodes on these various networks. This paper looks at how existing research efforts the HOKEY WG, Mobile Ethernet and 3GPP frameworks respond to this new environment and provide security mechanisms. The analysis shows that most of the research had realized the openness of the core network and tried to deal with it using different methods. These methods will be extensively analysed in order to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.

Introducing a novel authentication protocol for secure services in heterogeneous environments using Casper/FDR

“…This UK will be burnt onto the SIM card of the mobile device and will only be used to derive further keys; in other words, it will not be used to encrypt/decrypt any messages, which means that it will not be exposed to intruders. Furthermore, as has initially been highlighted in and then analyzed in and , it is crucial to secure the communication in the core network to provide security in an open and heterogeneous environment such as the one described in Section 2. Therefore, secure connections using VPN or IPSec protocols have to be set between the operational network entities in the core network to protect their transactions.…”

Security V/S Qos for LTE Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol

“…More security is needed to satisfy the privacy requirements, which EPS, UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) has failed to ensure [3] [4]. QoS performance is critical in the success of inter-technology handovers, which will be offered by heterogeneous networks [18]. During inter-technology handover, as the delay during identification and authentication at the destination technology increases, the call drop rate increases also.…”