A Survey on Authentication and Key Agreement Protocols in Heterogeneous Networks

TL;DR

This survey reviews authentication and key agreement protocols in heterogeneous networks, analyzing various frameworks' approaches to security in open, multi-operator environments to identify strengths and weaknesses.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of existing authentication protocols in heterogeneous networks, highlighting their effectiveness and limitations in open, multi-operator settings.

Findings

Most protocols address network openness with diverse methods

Strengths and weaknesses of current mechanisms are identified

Security challenges in multi-operator networks are systematically analyzed

Abstract

Unlike current closed systems such as 2nd and 3rd generations where the core network is controlled by a sole network operator, multiple network operators will coexist and manage the core network in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). This open architecture and the collaboration between different network operators will support ubiquitous connectivity and thus enhances users' experience. However, this brings to the fore certain security issues which must be addressed, the most important of which is the initial Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) to identify and authorize mobile nodes on these various networks. This paper looks at how existing research efforts the HOKEY WG, Mobile Ethernet and 3GPP frameworks respond to this new environment and provide security mechanisms. The analysis shows that most of the research had realized the openness of the core network and tried to deal with it using different methods. These methods will be extensively analysed in order to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.