Abstract
The IEEE 802.21 framework for Media Independent Handover (MIH) provides seamless vertical handover support for multimode mobile terminals. MIH messages are exchanged over various wireless media between mobile terminals and access networks to facilitate seamless handover. This calls for the need to secure MIH messages against network security threats in the wireless medium. In this paper, we first analyze IPSec/IKEv2 and DTLS security solution for secure MIH message transport. We show that handover latency can be an impediment to the use of IPSec and DTLS solutions. To overcome the handover overhead and hence minimize authentication time, a new secure MIH message transport solution, referred as MIHSec in this paper, is proposed. Experimental results are obtained for MIH between WLAN and Ethernet networks and the impacts of MIH message security on the handover latency are evaluated for IPSec, DTLS, and MIHSec security solutions. The effectiveness of MIHSec is demonstrated.
Highlights
Modern access systems have the capability to fulfill a specific quality-of-service (QoS) to the user, which leads to a requirement for seamless transitions from one access network to another in the presence of terminal mobility
This paper analyses different security methods which could be used for Media Independent Handover (MIH) message protection
The experiments showed better results in terms of message overhead for MIH Security (MIHSec) and IP Security (IPSec) methods compared to Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)
Summary
Modern access systems have the capability to fulfill a specific quality-of-service (QoS) to the user, which leads to a requirement for seamless transitions from one access network to another in the presence of terminal mobility. DTLS is a security solution at the transport layer, used for applications that operate over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). In contrast to these existing security solutions, an MIH Security (MIHSec) solution is proposed and analyzed in this paper. To overcome the handover overhead and minimize authentication time, a new secure MIH message transport solution, referred as MIHSec in this paper, is proposed. Prototypes of MIH security methods with IPSEc/IKEv2, DTLS, and the new MIHSec mechanism are developed and the results are compared based on IEEE 802.21 Draft 11 for handover scenarios between Wi-Fi and Ethernet networks.
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