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Introducing a novel authentication protocol for secure services in heterogeneous environments using Casper/FDR
Author(s) -
Aiash M.,
Loo J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of communication systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1099-1131
pISSN - 1074-5351
DOI - 10.1002/dac.2561
Subject(s) - computer science , computer network , authentication server , session key , authentication (law) , session (web analytics) , authentication protocol , terminal (telecommunication) , computer security , cellular network , handover , key (lock) , protocol (science) , heterogeneous network , wireless network , telecommunications , encryption , wireless , world wide web , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
SUMMARY Next generation network is a convergence of networks such as 2G/3G, WLAN as well as the recently implemented Long Term Evolution networks. Future mobile devices will switch between these different networks to maintain the connectivity with end servers. However, to support these heterogeneous environments, there is a need to consider a new design of the network infrastructure, where currently closed systems such as 3G will have to operate in an open environment. Security is a key issue in this open environment; after authenticating the mobile terminal to access the network, there is a requirement for service‐level mechanisms to protect the session between the mobile terminal and the remote service provider. Furthermore, because mobile terminals switch between networks of different characteristics in terms of coverage, quality of service and security, there is a need for reassessing the security of the same session over the different networks to comply with the changes at the network level due to the mobility. Therefore, this paper introduces a service‐level authentication and key agreement protocol to secure the session between the mobile terminal and the end server. The proposed protocol considers user mobilities in a heterogeneous environment and reassesses the session's security level in case of handover. The proposed protocol has been verified using formal methods approach based on the well‐established Casper/FDR compilers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.