Proposing packet-key based end-to-end security architecture for the post-LTE networks

Abstract

Abstract This paper proposes the end-to-end security scheme with packet key mechanism to perform ciphering of user traffic between two User Equipments (UEs) attached to the different Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. In LTE system, each UE derives its master key after a mutual authentication is performed between the UE and its local LTE network. In this paper, two end-to-end UEs use their own master keys to generate real-time packet keys where different packet keys are applied to encrypt packet stream data on a packet basis. Because the life cycle of the packet key is same as a packet period, the proposed security scheme significantly improves the security strength for end-to-end LTE users. This paper also analyzes the security strength of the proposed packet key system as well as the degree of latency for the session initialization, real-time packet encryption, and real-time packet decryption.