Analysis of Authentication Traffic in Next Generation 3GPP LTE Networks

The 3GPP Long Term Evolution/System architecture (LTE/SAE) is the advancement of mobile cellular technology after UMTS. Due to major changes in the structure of core network, integration different access networks and various mobile subscriber behaviors, signaling traffic overhead of different processes is increasing significantly. One of these processes is Evolved Packet System-Authentication and Key Agreement (EPS-AKA) processes. In 3GPP LTE/SAE networks, there are new authentication triggers (e.g. horizontal and vertical handover, multimedia requests) other than call arrival and location updates which create a lot of traffic overhead; In this paper, by using an analytical model and statistical function, the average authentication signaling traffic of a UE is calculated. All computations are based on certain traffic parameters including random variable of time intervals between contiguous authentication triggers which mentioned above. All discrete events of time intervals are typically modeled by a random variable with a specific distribution such as Gamma and lognormal. According to the specified timing diagram in cellular networks while a UE is located in the serving network (MME), service requests-based Random Generator is simulated which estimates the average number of authentication events and the mean number of authentication vectors and also we analysis and compared different UE´s behavior on the authentication traffic and effects of different tracking area update (TAU) method on authentication traffic is considered