IP Multimedia Subsystem Authentication Research Articles

Improved IP Multimedia Subsystem authentication mechanism for 3G-WLAN networks

The provision of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) introduces important advantages for users of 3G-WLAN networks. However, a multi-pass authentication procedure needs to be performed before accessing the IMS, resulting in added overhead and possible Quality of Service (QoS) degradations. The problem is further compounded when the user moves from one Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) domain into another, which requires the authentication procedure to be repeated. To mitigate this problem, we present a lightweight, robust, and architecture-compatible IMS authentication protocol that implements a one-pass IMS procedure by promoting efficient key re-use for a mobile user. The security of the proposed protocols is verified using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) security analyser. We also analyse the authentication delay of our proposed scheme. Numerical results reveal a reduction in user authentication delay of more than 50% compared to the existing authentication procedure.

Reducing Signaling Traffic for the Authentication and Key Agreement Procedure in an IP Multimedia Subsystem

In the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) of UMTS, two authentication procedures are necessary for IMS subscribers before accessing IMS services: (i) packet-switch domain authentication using the authentication and key agreement of the 3rd Generation Partnership Projects (3GPP AKA), and (ii) IMS authentication using IMS AKA. However, since IMS AKA is based on 3GPP AKA, almost all of the operations are the same. Besides, IMS AKA needs two round-trips to carry out. Therefore, it is inefficient that almost all involved steps in IMS AKA are duplicated. Therefore, we propose a one-pass IMS AKA instead of IMS AKA. The one-pass IMS AKA can keep the security properties of IMS AKA, such as mutual authentication and key agreement. Furthermore, the one-pass IMS AKA not only has at least 45% improvement over IMS AKA in terms of authentication signaling, but also has 76.5% improvement over IMS AKA in terms of storage space.

Efficient and Provably Secure IP Multimedia Subsystem Authentication for UMTS

In a Universal Mobile telecommunications system IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), even when an IMS subscriber has passed the packet-switch domain authentication, the IMS subscriber's identity must be confirmed by the IMS authentication again before accessing IMS services. Both the packet-switch domain and the IMS authentications are necessary for the IMS subscriber. This is referred to as a two-pass authentication. However, the packet-switch domain authentication is carried out by the authentication and key agreement (AKA) of the 3rd generation partnership projects (3GPP), called 3GPP AKA; the IMS authentication is carried out by IMS AKA. Since IMS AKA is based on 3GPP AKA, almost all of the operations are the same. It is inefficient because almost all the involved steps in the two-pass authentication are duplicated. Hence, the one-pass authentication was proposed to increase the efficiency of the IMS authentication. Unfortunately, the one-pass authentication has some security problems and loses the mutual AKA capabilities. Therefore, in this paper, an evolutionary IMS AKA (E-IMS AKA) in the IMS authentication is proposed to replace the IMS AKA. E-IMS AKA not only adheres to the security requirements of IMS AKA, but also maintains the efficiency of the one-pass authentication method.