Performance Analysis of the Novel SSL Based UMTS Authentication Protocol

Abstract

In this paper Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) authentication protocol for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks is analyzed, a new authentication protocol is proposed and analyzed , performance analysis and bandwidth consumption comparison is achieved. The proposed protocol uses digital certificates public key infrastructure and Secure Socket Layer SSL symmetric key generation schemes to generate ciphering key and integrity key. In the proposed protocol International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) is sent encrypted while it is sent in plaintext in 3GPP AKA. The proposed protocol does not use authentication vectors, and instead it sends messages between network entities encrypted using their public keys. A fluid mobility model is used to investigate the performance and signaling messages between entities in both protocols. Analysis showed a big enhancement in signaling traffic and bandwidth in the proposed protocol.