Security-Aware Availability Modeling of a 5G-MEC System

TL;DR

This paper extends a 5G-MEC system availability model to include security threats and connectivity failures, demonstrating that strategic redundancy and rapid attack response are crucial for maintaining high system availability.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive availability model for 5G-MEC systems that accounts for security attacks and connectivity issues, enhancing prior models.

Findings

A three-element redundancy achieves around 99.99% availability.

Slow attack detection and recovery significantly reduce system availability.

Connectivity issues are a critical factor affecting system dependability.

Abstract

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) is an essential technology for the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks. MEC enables low-latency services by bringing computing resources close to the end-users. The integration of 5G and MEC technologies provides a favorable platform for a wide range of applications, including various mission-critical applications, such as smart grids, industrial internet, and telemedicine, which require high dependability and security. Ensuring both security and dependability is a complex and critical task, and not achieving the necessary goals can lead to severe consequences. Joint modeling can help to assess and achieve the necessary requirements. Under these motivations, we propose an extension of a two-level availability model for a 5G-MEC system. In comparison to the existing work, our extended model (i) includes the failure of the connectivity between the 5G-MEC elements and (ii) considers attacks against the 5G-MEC elements or their interconnection. We implement and run the model in M\"{o}bius. The results show that a three-element redundancy, especially of the management and core elements, is needed and still enough to reach around 4-nines availability even when connectivity and security are considered. Moreover, the evaluation shows that slow detection of attacks, slow recovery from attacks, and bad connectivity are the most significant factors that influence the overall system availability.