Authentication and Encryption in GSM and 3GUMTS: An Emphasis on Protocols and Algorithms

TL;DR

This paper reviews authentication and encryption mechanisms in GSM and 3G/UMTS networks, detailing their architectures, protocols, and algorithms, with a focus on security features like the KASUMI cipher.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the security protocols and algorithms used in GSM and 3G/UMTS networks, highlighting their design and implementation details.

Findings

Detailed explanation of GSM and 3G/UMTS architectures

Analysis of authentication protocols and algorithms

Discussion of KASUMI block cipher security features

Abstract

Mobile communication touches every aspect of our life, it become one of the major dependencies that the 21st Century civilizations rely on. Thereby, security is a major issue that should be targeted by communication technologies. In this paper we will target authentication and encryption in GSM and 3G/UMTS. In order to understand clearly how things work, we will start by presenting the architecture of each network, its major components, its authentication algorithms, protocols used, and KASUMI Block Cipher.