A Dual-layer Zero Trust Architecture for 5G Industry MEC Applications Access Control

Abstract

This paper introduces a dual-layer zero trust architecture (ZTA) to enhance 5G vertical industry multi-access edge computing (MEC) application (APP) access control security. In the dual-layer ZTA, zero trust policy engine is deployed at the 5G core network, which evaluates the trust value of a UE to access to the MEC APP service. User's 5G network layer behavior and industry application layer behavior are jointly evaluated at the policy engine. Protocol interactive procedures are designed to realize the proposed framework in a real 3GPP-defined 5G network. The 5G network exposure function and open interfaces are leveraged to realize the mobile operator and vertical industry dual-layer cooperation. Moreover, behavior entropy is proposed to quantitatively evaluate user trust value and access control matrix under multiple user behavior attributes. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed scheme can effectively eliminate the MEC illegal access issues for user devices access to different MEC APPs and services belonging to a number of industry customers.