A Fast and Secure Uniform Handover Authentication Scheme for 5G HetNets

Abstract

As the deployment of 5G has gained momentum, challenging cases to become more apparent such as handover authentication and the delay caused by frequent handovers. Therefore, to achieve handovers in heterogeneous networks which includes the 5G and other access networks is a challenging task that requires full access authentication procedures for different handover scenarios as the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has suggested. So, this requirement not only increases the number of exchanged messages but also the system complexity in the network. Most importantly, the existing handover authentication mechanisms for different mobile networks are not suitable for handover cases in the 5G mobile network due to the different architecture of the 5G would make those schemes vulnerable to the various attacks. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a handover authentication scheme that is secure and efficient for every handover scenario in 5G Heterogeneous Networks. Compared with existed handover schemes and the current 3GPP standard, the proposed scheme can achieve seamless handover authentication with a simple process and robust security features against various attacks. The result of formal verification by using AVISPA and performance analysis shows that the scheme has robust security and efficiency for interconnectivity in the 5G mobile networks.