Authentication Protocol for 3G Mobile Communication Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we propose three new authentication mechanisms based on Asymmetric-key cryptosystems. The three authentication protocols are designed based on the security requirements of the third generation mobile communication systems, which is proposed by UMTS. The advantages of the Asymmetric-key cryptosystems are to solve a very important key management problem for key distribution. Besides, it can provide non-repudiation for the part of the transmitted data. Therefore, we adopt the Asymmetric-key cryptosystems to design our authentication schemes. The characteristic of the first schemes is that the User and the Network Operator have the public keys from each other, respectively. The characteristic of the second schemes is that we exploit the exchange of certificate to achieve the goal of exchange of the public key between the User and the Network Operator. The characteristic of the third schemes is that the Network Operator can obtain the public key from the User’s certificate sent by Certificate Server. Similarly, the User can obtain the public key from the Network Operator that is sent be Certificate Server. The proposed authentication protocols for 3G mobile communication systems are analyzed to be correct to achieve the critical goals of the requirements of security and threats, and these protocols are efficient and effective because they are computationally low complexity and are simple but secure enough.