Study of an Improved AKA Protocol Based on the SIM Card

In addition to existing voice call service, the GSM platform has evolved to include various multimedia services and 3G services enabling international roaming. On that ground, safe data transmission and receiving technology and protection of privacy have become the key elements for the GSM service. However, many researchers have pointed out the problems inherent to the security algorithm and protocol for safe data communication using GSM. In this paper, we would like to analyze the security problems associated with the 2nd and 2.5th GSM network environment and consequently propose a security protocol providing safe services in the third generation network environment as well as the second generation network environment. The newly proposed security protocol may provide significantly strengthened security by allowing authentication of SIM users between SIM and ME and authentication among SIM/ME/AuC as well as reduced complexity in key agreement.