Antonio Fresa

A testbed for experimentation of innovative services in the B3G framework

UMTS 3G networks are going to be widely deployed commercially, even if in their first releases they will be mainly focused on telephony and multimedia services based on circuit switched technologies. The roll out of the 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), that can be forecast to happen in the next few years, will introduce mobile users to a new class of multimedia services based on the Internet protocol. The research community is already investigating a possible evolution for the 3G networks based on heterogeneous high-speed access networks allowing new multimedia services and a global coverage (Beyond 3G - B3G). In the present paper we describe a testbed developed by the Co.Ri.TeL. Consortium in the framework of the Presto Project, whose objective is to provide a suitable and common platform, inspired to the IMS ideas, for experimenting a wide variety of B3G SIP-based mobile services. The services experimented on top of the testbed include a multiuser video conferencing architecture, added-value user-defined multimedia services, an audio-video message box and a video-on-demand provisioning infrastructure. The service provisioning mechanisms are all built within a common mobility-management and security framework, providing an approach which is independent from the various possible underlying radio access technologies. In particular, the security capabilities of the developed architecture comprise user and network authentication, authorization to service access and IP-layer signalling cryptography integrated with application-layer mobility.

Secure Mobile IPv6 for B3G Networks

The rapid spread of new radio access technologies, the ever increasing requirements for security, as well as the required capability for the final users to experience continuous connectivity and uninterrupted services of IP applications as they move about from one access network to another, has stimulated the technical and scientific community to investigate future evolution scenarios for 3G networks, generically referred to as Beyond-3G or 4G. Key issues are certainly security provision for applications exchanging data in diverse wireless networks and seamless mobility (handoff) between different coverage domains and, possibly, access technologies. Many proposals are based on the use of the mobile IPv6 protocol. In this paper we analyse the security threats emerging from some MIPv6 mechanisms for mobility management, and we propose a solution to secure them, under the assumption that both communicating end users are attached to a MIPv6-enabled IP multimedia subsystem network

MIPv6 binding authentication for b3g networks

In last years, the introduction of new wireless communication systems has stimulated the technical and scientific community to investigate future evolution scenarios for 3G networks, generically referred to as Beyond-3G or 4G. In order to guarantee high end-to-end quality of service and security, Beyond-3G networks will cope with some issues such as session security in wireless environments and seamless mobility among different coverage domains and, possibly, access technologies. In this paper we analyze the security threats emerging from some mechanisms for mobility management, and we propose a solution to improve the security level under the assumption that both communicating terminals are attached to a 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem that supports both the Session Initiation Protocol and the Mobile IP version 6 protocol.

A 3G IMS-BASED TESTBED FOR SECURE REAL-TIME AUDIO SESSIONS

The emerging all-IP mobile network infrastructures based on 3rd Generation IP Multimedia Subsystem philosophy are characterised by radio access technology independence and ubiquitous connectivity for mobile users. Currently, great focus is being devoted to security issues since most of the security threats presently affecting the public Internet domain, and the upcoming ones as well, are going to be suffered by mobile users in the years to come. While a great deal of research activity, together with standardisation efforts and experimentations, is carried out on mechanisms for signalling protection, very few integrated frameworks for real-time multimedia data protection have been proposed in a context of IP Multimedia Subsystem, and even fewer experimental results based on testbeds are available. In this paper, after a general overview of the security issues arising in an advanced IP Multimedia Subsystem scenario, a comprehensive infrastructure for real-time multimedia data protection, based on the adoption of the Secure Real-Time Protocol, is proposed; then, the development of a testbed incorporating such functionalities, including mechanisms for key management and cryptographic context transfer, and allowing the setup of Secure Real-Time Protocol sessions is presented; finally, experimental results are provided together with quantitative assessments and comparisons of system performances for audio sessions with and without the adoption of the Secure Real-Time Protocol framework.

Securing Real-Time Sessions in an IMS-Based Architecture

The emerging all-IP mobile network infrastructures based on 3rd Generation IP Multimedia Subsystem philosophy are characterised by radio access technology independence and ubiquitous connectivity for mobile users. Currently, great focus is being devoted to security issues since most of the security threats presently affecting the public Internet domain, and the upcoming ones as well, are going to be suffered by mobile users in the years to come. While a great deal of research activity, together with standardisation efforts and experimentations, is carried out on mechanisms for signalling protection, very few integrated frameworks for real-time multimedia data protection have been proposed in a context of IP Multimedia Subsystem, and even fewer experimental results based on testbeds are available. In this paper, after a general overview of the security issues arising in an advanced IP Multimedia Subsystem scenario, a comprehensive infrastructure for real-time multimedia data protection, based on the adoption of the Secure Real-Time Protocol, is proposed; then, the development of a testbed incorporating such functionalities, including mechanisms for key management and cryptographic context transfer, and allowing the setup of Secure Real-Time Protocol sessions is presented; finally, experimental results are provided together with quantitative assessments and comparisons of system performances for audio sessions with and without the adoption of the Secure Real-Time Protocol framework.