A Secure Framework for Communications in Heterogeneous Networks

Heterogeneous Networks represent an open architecture in which two different domains need to cooperate in order to provide ubiquitous connectivity. The first is network operators domain, where multiple network operators share the core network to provide network accessibility over a wide variety of wireless technologies such as WiFi and mobile network technologies. The other is the Application-Service Providers domain, which launches various services ranging from the normal video streaming to the most confidential E-Commerce services. This highlights the fact that any efficient security solution for heterogeneous networks has to consider the security in these different domains. Therefore, this paper introduces security framework that comprises two Authentication and Key Agreement protocols to secure transactions at the network and service levels. The proposed protocols have been formally verified using formal methods approach based on Casper/FDR tool.