Introducing a novel authentication protocol for secure services in heterogeneous environments using Casper/FDR

Next generation network is a convergence of networks such as 2G/3G, WLAN as well as the recently implemented Long Term Evolution networks. Future mobile devices will switch between these different networks to maintain the connectivity with end servers. However, to support these heterogeneous environments, there is a need to consider a new design of the network infrastructure, where currently closed systems such as 3G will have to operate in an open environment. Security is a key issue in this open environment; after authenticating the mobile terminal to access the network, there is a requirement for service-level mechanisms to protect the session between the mobile terminal and the remote service provider. Furthermore, because mobile terminals switch between networks of different characteristics in terms of coverage, quality of service and security, there is a need for reassessing the security of the same session over the different networks to comply with the changes at the network level due to the mobility. Therefore, this paper introduces a service-level authentication and key agreement protocol to secure the session between the mobile terminal and the end server. The proposed protocol considers user mobilities in a heterogeneous environment and reassesses the session's security level in case of handover. The proposed protocol has been verified using formal methods approach based on the well-established Casper/FDR compilers