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An efficient authentication protocol for mobile communications

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Abstract

In this paper, a new Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) authentication protocol is proposed to improve some drawbacks of the current GSM authentication protocol for roaming users including: (a) communication overhead between VLR; (b) huge bandwidth consumption between VLR and HLR; (c) storage space overhead in VLR; (d) overloaded in HLR with authentication of mobile stations; and (e) not supporting bilateral authentication. The main contribution of this paper is that it does not only improve the drawbacks listed above but also fits the needs of roaming users. In addition, the proposed protocol does not change the existing architecture of GSM, and the robustness of the proposed protocol is the same as that of the original GSM, which is based on security algorithms A3, A5, and A8.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Photonics and Communication Engineering, Asia University, No. 500, Lioufeng Road, Wufeng Shiang, Taichung, Taiwan

    Cheng-Chi Lee

  2. Department of Computer Science, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, 402, Taichung, Taiwan

    I-En Liao

  3. Department of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, 402, Taichung, Taiwan

    Min-Shiang Hwang

Authors
  1. Cheng-Chi Lee
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  2. I-En Liao
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  3. Min-Shiang Hwang
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Correspondence to Min-Shiang Hwang.

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Lee, CC., Liao, IE. & Hwang, MS. An efficient authentication protocol for mobile communications. Telecommun Syst 46, 31–41 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-009-9276-4

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