Abstract
The fifth-generation mobile network (5G) integrates various application services in a heterogeneous network environment. Compared to the traditional networks, 5G is not just an extension of the 4th generation, which contains three important properties, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). 5G applies the functionalities of Network Function Virtualization and Software-Defined Networking to support multiple services and proposes a new concept called Network Slicing. Users can access different services quickly in the 5G network supported by network slicing. In a traditional network like 4G, if a user wants to access different services, it will be necessary to perform different authentication procedures that cause additional burden and operation cost in the user’s device. However, the 5G network inherits the previous network architecture. Hence, the user’s device still needs to be authenticated by the core network. Besides, providing a guarantee of connecting to a correct network slice is one of the prime concerns. The paper presents an authentication scheme tailored for the 5G network. In the proposed scheme, the authentication is decentralized to the edge clouds to achieve low latency. Moreover, the authentication flow is no longer attached to the operator all the time to reduce time latency. The proposed scheme is secure against the attackers who aim to impersonate users, network operators, or even network slices, and it also provides secure session key exchange. Empirical performance assessment in terms of its functionalities gains better acceptability of the proposed scheme than other existing ones.
Highlights
T HE FIFTH-GENERATION mobile network (5G) inherits the functionalities of network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), and it enables multiple services through the network slicing with distinctive characteristics
According to the IMT2020 project proposed by the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) [1], the 5G standard was published in 2020, and the new system of 5G is commercialized to demonstrate diversified services such as enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-high reliability, and low latency applications, massive Internet of Things (IoT), etc
According to the security white paper “Security challenges and opportunities for 5G mobile networks” [3] released by NOKIA in 2017, and “5G SECURITY: SCENARIOS AND SOLUTIONS” [4] released by Ericsson in 2015, the 5G security authentication framework needs to consider the following aspects: 1) Multiple access networks 2) Fast service switching 3) Fast authentication 4) Reduction of the computation cost of the operator Since the appearance of heterogeneous networks and network slicing, the network society becomes more complicated than before, so we need a mechanism for rapid authentication and computation to support a diverse network society
Summary
T HE FIFTH-GENERATION mobile network (5G) inherits the functionalities of network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), and it enables multiple services through the network slicing with distinctive characteristics. 3) Low-Power Massive-Connections: The main applications of the 5G are smart cities, smart health care systems, environmental monitoring, and even prevention of forest fires These application scenarios have some common characteristics, such as large numbers of packets transmission, numerous devices, and a wide range of areas. With the aforementioned four properties, the 5G network environment requires high-speed data rates while providing various services to different devices and users. According to the security white paper “Security challenges and opportunities for 5G mobile networks” [3] released by NOKIA in 2017, and “5G SECURITY: SCENARIOS AND SOLUTIONS” [4] released by Ericsson in 2015, the 5G security authentication framework needs to consider the following aspects: 1) Multiple access networks (heterogeneous networks) 2) Fast service switching (network slicing) 3) Fast authentication 4) Reduction of the computation cost of the operator Since the appearance of heterogeneous networks and network slicing, the network society becomes more complicated than before, so we need a mechanism for rapid authentication and computation to support a diverse network society. Designing a fast and light-weight authentication for the 5G network environment is a crucial goal for 3GPP and the operators
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