A Quantum Safe Key Hierarchy and Dynamic Security Association for LTE/SAE in 5G Scenario

TL;DR

This paper introduces Quantum Key GRID, a quantum-resistant security protocol for LTE/SAE in 5G, enhancing security and key management without major system changes.

Contribution

It proposes a novel quantum-safe key hierarchy and dynamic security association scheme specifically designed for 5G LTE architectures.

Findings

Proven robust against quantum computer attacks

Significant security improvements over existing schemes

Efficient deployment with minimal system modifications

Abstract

Millions of devices are going to participate in 5G producing a huge space for security threats. The 5G specification goals require rigid and robust security protocol against such threats. Quantum cryptography is a recently emerged term in which we test the robustness of security protocols against Quantum computers. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a security protocol called Quantum Key GRID for Authentication and Key Agreement (QKG-AKA) scheme for the dynamic security association. This scheme is efficiently deployed in Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture without any significant modifications in the underlying base system. The proposed QKG-AKA mechanism is analyzed for robustness and proven safe against quantum computers. The simulation results and performance analysis show drastic improvement regarding security and key management over existing schemes.