Protecting future mobile access networks

Mobile access networks are evolving providing more user services as the per-user bandwidth as well as the power autonomy are increasing. Security requirements are therefore becoming more demanding since important information is at stake. The absence of a hard wired channel for the transfer of data and its replacement by the air interface is the major disadvantage in terms of security of the wireless networks and makes the task of securing access more challenging. The dominating protocol for the protection of routing messages and authentication of routing entities is discussed in this paper and potential vulnerabilities are exposed that may result in network security threats.