Investigation of spatial exposure control in 3G cellular/wireless system in conjunction with access authentication

Abstract

The number of services provided by the mobile system has increased in an amazing rate. Technology has been the driving part for services like SMS, Chatting, and lately the new MMS standard with mobile terminals and integrated cameras. As the technology evolves, so does the mobile terminals and the services with them. The hype for the next decade may be position aware services. As GPS modules are getting cheaper, and more and more terminal providers integrate this chip with their equipment, the usage of such applications will explode. In the eyes of the security conscious operators, this new technology has potential for use in security systems. The 3G systems today offer exposure control on two dimension, i.e. usage (KB) and time. A new dimension is presented in this thesis, namely the spatial dimension. Based on the position of the user it is possible for the operators to control the user’s access and keep an eye out on dubiously roaming partners. This thesis implements a spatial dimension to the authentication and access part of a 3G system. The results of the work show that the authentication and key agreement procedure may not be the most suitable place to implement such a system. Is it more favorable to implement is against the service?