Verifiable AKA for beyond 3G wireless packet services

Security in third generation wireless systems has been enhanced from second generation systems to support network authentication of devices and enhanced key size. However, the basic model of security for 3G systems is still circuit-switched based. We propose a security model in this paper based on forward security that is more efficient to support packet switched services for beyond 3G networks with negligible overhead on the user equipment or AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) Server. Forward Security is applicable with secret keys changing with time periods and could be easily verifiable by the verifier using the single fixed key. The intruder/eavesdropper who is able to compromise a packet would not be able to derive the meaning of the whole data content since the Cipher Key/Integrity Key compromised is only applicable to the packet sent at the current time period. The intruder cannot compromise the packets sent for the packet-switched (PS) session over other time periods and thereby serves to be several times more secure to the existing 3GPP AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement) security model.