Handover authentication between different types of eNBs in LTE networks

Abstract

There are two types of base stations in the long term evolution (LTE) wireless networks, home eNodeB (HeNB) and eNodeB (eNB). It is critical to achieve seamless handovers between the HeNB and the eNB in order to support mobility in the LTE networks. A handover from an eNB/HeNB to a new eNB/HeNB, suggested by the third generation partnership project (3GPP), requires distinct procedures for different mobility scenarios, which will increase the system complexity. Besides, the existing handover schemes for other wireless networks are not suitable for the mobility scenarios in the LTE networks due to their inherent vulnerabilities. In this paper, we propose a fast and secure handover authentication scheme, which is to fit in with most of the mobility scenarios in the LTE networks. Compared with other handover schemes, our scheme cannot only achieve a simple authentication process with desirable efficiency, but also provide several security features including perfect forward/backward secrecy (PFS/PBS), which have never been achieved by the previous works. The experiment results and formal verification by using the automated validation of internet security protocols and applications (AVISPA) tool show that the proposed scheme is efficient and secure against various malicious attacks.