Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Inter Base Station Communication in Heterogeneous Networks
Gaurang Bansal, Vinay Chamola · 2020
Over the past few years, with increasing mobile traffic and decreasing revenue per user, Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) have become a topic of interest to many stakeholders. HetNets is a combination of networks with different access technologies and cell types working with each other. Mobile network operators are keen to reduce operational expenses by deploying HetNets while they provide better QoS to the user anywhere, anytime wireless connectivity. Although HetNets provide various benefits, yet many open issues need to be addressed to harness their impact. They are also prone to several security threats such as physical attacks, man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, impersonation attacks, replay attacks, and node tampering attacks. Moreover, due to the different nature and structure of each network in a HetNet, secure handover between various wireless networks is a complex task that is not yet resolved. In this paper, we address the issues mentioned above by designing a secure handover mechanism that is resistant to both passive and active attacks. We also show a performance comparison of our protocol with the state-of-the-art protocols for securing hetnets based on computation, communication, and memory storage cost.