Performance Evaluation Of Public Key-Based Authentication In 3G And B3G Mobile Systems

There are greater demands to provide a more flexible, reconfigurable and scalable security mechanism that can keep up with the mobile hosts fast evolving into full-fledged IP-enabled devices along with the development of 3G and B3G (Beyond 3G) technology. The SSL Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) mechanism, combined with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) can enhance the security abilities of mobile devices, which is attracting increasing attentions in the industry. Some research has begun on it, which perceives authentication as a service performing at the higher protocol layers regardless of the lower-layer technology. However, the mechanism still lacked well-rounded experimental backups and further investigation was needed.An alternative approach is proposed in this thesis hereunder using OPNET Modeler to more accurately simulate the security technique for performance measurement in 3G and Beyond 3G environment. The work was focused on the application response time and seeking space for improvement within protocol structure. The procedure involved analyzing messages exchanged, designing SSL AKA custom application and setting up UMTS scenarios for simulations. The results obtained show that SSL-based authentication can be deployed in wireless systems in a feasible manner with regard to handshake time, while it can simultaneously provide both the necessary flexibility to network operators and a high level of confidence to end users. It is also indicated that session resumption provides a dramatic performance improvement and should be exploited to further optimize the SSL AKA mechanism.