Abstract
In the next-generation heterogeneous wireless networks, designing authentication protocols that meet the demand of mobile users/applications is a challenge. This paper proposes authentication and re-authentication protocols for 4G wireless networks, in particular, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), WLAN, and WiMAX-Advanced (WiMAX-A) interworking architecture. The proposed protocols are applicable to 5G networks. With the consideration of the existing standard authentication protocols, a new set of authentication and re-authentication protocols has been reinvented to provide fast and secure handovers (HO) in the current 4G and the next 5G networks. The proposed authentication protocols can be invoked when the users perform a vertical HO (between different networks) for the first time, whereas the re-authentication protocols can be invoked when the users perform a horizontal HO (within the same network domain). These protocols provide an efficient method to protect user identity and reduce the burden on the authentication server (AS) during the sequential handovers. The results of the analytical model show that the proposed protocols achieve better performance than standard and other protocols. The reduction of handover cost, handover delay, and energy consumption in the proposed protocols reaches up to 22%, 44%, and 17%, respectively. In addition, the verification tools show that the proposed protocols are secure, dependable, and prevent all types of authentication and secrecy attacks.
Highlights
The 3GPP standards support the interworking between the advanced long-term evolution (LTE-A) networks and other wireless networks to provide better services in coverage, cost, and performance
This is due to performing the intra authentication protocols which are not affected by the number of hop count since there is no communication between the local servers and 3AAAS
The handover delay for all protocols are almost the same when Pr is 0. This is because at this point, the re-authentication protocols are not invoked and all methods are starting with full authentication protocols; the difference is starting to increase gradually until it reaches to 34%
Summary
The 3GPP standards support the interworking between the advanced long-term evolution (LTE-A) networks and other wireless networks to provide better services in coverage, cost, and performance. The users in the LTE-WLAN-WiMAX interworking architecture must be authenticated by the LTE Home Subscriber Server (HSS) in the home network, which adds delay and overhead on these servers each time the user connects or moves in the interworking architecture. Three standard full authentication protocols, EAP-AKA , INEA, and EPS-AKA protocols, are enhanced to provide full authentication process between the user and WLAN, WiMAX, and LTE networks, respectively, when the user connects to one of these networks for the first time. A set of new re-authentication protocols is proposed to be performed after the enhanced standard authentication protocols These protocols provide fast inter and intra re-authentication processes in LTE-WiMAX-WLAN interworking architecture during inter and intra handovers, respectively. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section 3 presents an overview of the interworking architecture between LTE-WLAN-WiMAX networks; it presents the standard full and fast authentication protocols.
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