Decentralized Identifiers and Self-Sovereign Identity - A New Identity Management for 6G Integration? : MobileCloud 2021 Invited Talk

Abstract

Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) are emerging decentralized identity solutions. DIDs allow legal entities like organizations to create and fully control their identifiers while building the necessary infrastructure for SSI, enabling entities like persons, organizations, or machines to fully control and own their digital identities without the involvement of an intermediate central authority. DIDs are identifiers that are used to reference entities unambiguously and, together with DID Documents stored in a verifiable data registry, establish a new, decentralized public-key infrastructure. An SSI-based digital identity may be composed of many different claims certified by an issuer. Examples are the identity holder’s name, age, gender, university degree, driving license, or other attributes. What makes SSI unique compared to other identity management solutions is that the users keep their digital identities in storage of their choice and thus determine their distribution and processing.With this privacy-by-design approach, the emergence of DIDs and SSI can shape the architecture of the future Internet and its applications, which will impact the future of mobile networks. While 5G networks are currently being rolled out, a discussion about the new capabilities of 6G networks, which are still in the distant future, has long since begun. In addition to even faster access, shorter delays, and new applications, features such as human-centricity, data protection, and privacy are being addressed in particular in the discussions. These latter points make DIDs, SSI, and related concepts and architectures promising candidates for 6G adoption.The talk gives a brief introduction to DIDs and SSI and then discusses the benefits and drawbacks the integration of these technologies into 6G may have. Furthermore, the talk identifies different use cases and identifies the system components and functions of cellular networks affected by a 6G integration.