Cryptography in Wireless Standards

Abstract

We survey the use of cryptographic mechanisms in the context of some of the most important wireless technologies. On the area of cellular systems, we .rst take a look at security solutions in the GSM technology, the dominant global cellular standard.We show how the security model and security mechanisms were extended and enhanced in the successor of the GSM system, i.e. in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), speci.ed in a global initiative, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). In the area of short-range wireless technologies we examine Wireless LAN security, standardized by IEEE, and Bluetooth security, speci.ed by an industry consortium called the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group). The radio frequencies used by WLAN and Bluetooth are close to each other, even partially overlapping. The most notable di.erence between the two systems is the range of the area of communication. Typical use case of WLAN is access to Internet through a WLAN base station from distances up to several hundred meters while typical Bluetooth use case is communication between two devices, e.g. a mobile phone and a headset, where distance between the devices is in the order of ten meters.