Pre-AKA Secure Signaling for Wireless Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communication systems face security vulnerabilities as messages transmitted before authentication and key agreement (AKA) are not secured, making them susceptible to interception and denial-of-service attacks.
Innovation Solution
Establishing a secure connection between user equipment (UE) and network devices using security credentials or public key-based cryptography to secure signaling messages prior to AKA, preventing unauthorized responses and ensuring message integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If messages are transmitted before AKA without security measures, then the signaling process can proceed quickly and simply, but the messages become vulnerable to interception and denial-of-service attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by establishing security credentials and cryptographic context before the actual authentication and key agreement process. The network device and UE exchange and store security parameters (such as authentication token, cryptographic context) in advance, so that when pre-AKA signaling occurs, these pre-established credentials can be used to secure the messages without adding complex real-time security mechanisms.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If security credentials are established before AKA, then pre-AKA messages can be secured against attacks, but the authentication process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses an intermediary approach by introducing a standardized cryptographic context structure that mediates between the security requirements and the authentication process. This cryptographic context acts as an intermediary layer that encapsulates security credentials (authentication token, security parameters) in a structured format, allowing secure pre-AKA signaling without requiring complex custom security implementations for each message exchange.
3Reliability
If secure signaling is implemented before AKA using cryptographic methods, then message integrity and authenticity are ensured, but the processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces processing overhead during actual communication by performing cryptographic setup in advance. Security credentials and cryptographic contexts are established and cached before AKA, allowing pre-AKA signaling to use these pre-computed credentials rather than performing full cryptographic operations for each message. This preliminary cryptographic setup minimizes real-time processing requirements.
Data Source
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AI summary
Techniques are described for wireless communication. A method of wireless communication at a wireless communication device includes generating a secured query message based at least in part on a security credential of the wireless communication device, where the secured query message is generated prior to performing an authentication and key agreement (AKA) with a network; transmitting the secured query message to the network; receiving a response to the secured query message; and determining whether to perform the AKA with the network based at least in part on the received response.