RDAP: Rapid deployment authentication protocol between mobile devices and femtocells

Abstract

Femtocells is an ongoing technology to improve coverage for broadband radios, e.g., WiMAX and 3G. To prevent the core network from unauthorized accesses, a security gateway is designed to protect communications between legal femtocells and the core network. However, there are no integrated solutions to protect subscribers from rogue femtocells. Without any protection mechanisms, rogue femtocells are able to launch any attacks they wish, e.g., Sybil attack, Man-In-The-Middle attack. Hence, we propose an mutual authentication protocol to prevent rogue femtocells. With aid of visual channel, subscribers' mobile device can verify the source of connected femtocell based on physical trust. After the protocol finishes, a secure tunnel is also forced to protect mutual communication. Moreover, this protocol could be dynamically deployed and seamless combined with current access control mechanisms. In the end of this paper, we conduct the procotol on the current mobile phone platform to show its efficiency. © 2010 IEEE.