Security Architecture in UMTS Third Generation Cellular Networks Tomás Balderas-Contreras René A. Cumplido-Parra Reporte Técnico No. CCC-04-002 27 de febrero de 2004 © Coordinación de Ciencias Computacionales INAOE Luis Enrique Erro 1 Sta. Ma. Tonantzintla, 72840, Puebla, México. Security Architecture in UMTS Third Generation Cellular Networks Tom´asBalderas-Contreras Ren´eA. Cumplido-Parra Coordinaci´onde Ciencias Computacionales, Instituto Nacional de Astrof´ısica, Optica´ y Electr´onica, Luis Enrique Erro 1, Sta. Ma. Tonantzintla, 72840, Puebla, MEXICO
[email protected] [email protected] Abstract Throughout the last years there has been a great interest in developing and standardizing the technologies needed to achieve high speed transmission of data in cellular networks. As a result, mobile communications technology has evolved amaz- ingly during the last decades to meet a very demanding market. Third generation (3G) wireless networks represent the more recent stage in this evolutionary process; they provide users with high transmission bandwidths which allow them to transmit both audio and video information in a secure manner. This report concerns a specific imple- mentation of the 3G requirement specification: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), which is considered to be the most important of the 3G proposals. In order to protect the information transmitted through the radio interface, either user data or signaling data, an advanced security scheme was conceived. Among the features of this scheme are: mutual authentication,