Abstract
Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is a popular 3G standard for mobile telecommunication networks. ‘Vulnerability of the subscriber’s identity privacy and the need to eliminate this vulnerability’, is an established security issue in UMTS. This vulnerability continues to exist up to various extents in the descendent networks of UMTS, like LTE. Several solutions suggesting improvements to the identity privacy in UMTS is present in the literature. In this paper, we look into select few of these solutions, with the expectation that researcher envisioning to work in this area will get a direction in devising an efficient mechanism in improving identity privacy in UMTS, its descendants and future mobile networks.
Highlights
Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is a popular 3G standard for mobile telecommunication networks
We discuss some of the characteristics that we believe are desirable in an efficient identity privacy ensuring solution for UMTS: Less computational overhead at the Mobile Station (MS): Computationally intensive algorithms must be avoided at the MS, as they are limited by low battery power and computational capability
The current authentication and key agreement protocol adopted by UMTS does not assure perfect identity privacy
Summary
3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has standardised one of the most popular third generation mobile telecommunication network called the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). The Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocol adopted by UMTS is called the UMTSAKA. The SN utilises one of these AVs to perform mutual authentication of the MS through a challenge response mechanism In this phase, a Cipher Key (CK) and an Integrity Key (IK) are established between the MS and the SN, so that communication over the otherwise vulnerable radio link can happen in a secured and reliable way.
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