Security Study and Monitoring of LTE Networks

Authors

  • Dominik Ernsberger University of Applied Sciences Munich, Germany
  • K. Jijo George NEC Technologies India Private Ltd. Chennai, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/jicts2245-800X.713

Keywords:

LTE, LTE Security, Blockmon

Abstract

Mobile communication systems are ubiquitous nowadays. The main requirements of these networks are privacy and security of the subscriber as well as a high performance. To provide these properties the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) developed the LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile communication network which is deployed worldwide.

In this paper, we give a brief overview of the LTE Network Architecture as well as a look on the security mechanism as defined by 3GPP. We describe the security architecture and discuss possible threats and attacks on the core and on the access network. Due to these possible attacks we developed a program which is able to extract certain security relevant information out of the message flow in real time and to detect a possible attach flood attack. Finally, we validate the function of the program with three test cases and discuss the impact of such flood attacks on the LTE network and other future work to extend it to other protocol exchanges.

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Author Biographies

Dominik Ernsberger, University of Applied Sciences Munich, Germany

Dominik Ernsberger received his B.Sc. degreein Computer Science from the University ofApplied Sciences Munich, Germany in 2018. He did a six month internship in the NEC India Standardization (NIS) Team at NEC Technologies India Private Ltd. Chennai. His research interest includes Next Generation Networks, Mobile and Network Security as well as Digital Forensic. He is currently pursuing his M.Sc in Computer Science with Embedded Computing as major field of study at the University of Applied Sciences Munich, Germany.

K. Jijo George, NEC Technologies India Private Ltd. Chennai, India

K. Jijo George received his Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from Kurukshetra Institute of Technology and Management, India in 2011. He has over 4 years of experience in research and development of mobile communication networks. He worked as Research Engineer in NEC India Standardization (NIS) Team at NEC Technologies India Private Ltd. Chennai. Prior to joining NECI he was associated with IIIT, Bangalore as Research Associate in Context awareness in mobile applications. At NEC he worked on security aspects of telecom networks and testbed development of next generation mobile networks. His research interest includes Next Generation Networks, Mobile and Network Security and Telecom Security. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Cognitive Technical Systems in Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg, Germany.

References

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K. Jijo George et al.: “End-to-End Mobile Communication Security Testbed Using Open Source Applications in Virtual Environment”, Journal of ICT Standardization, Vol. 3 Issue 1, July 2015, Article No. 4, pp. 67–90.

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Published

2019-01-20

How to Cite

Ernsberger, D. ., & George, K. J. . (2019). Security Study and Monitoring of LTE Networks. Journal of ICT Standardization, 7(1), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.13052/jicts2245-800X.713

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Articles