A New Trust Model for Improved Identity Privacy in Cellular Networks

Cellular networks have evolved through various generations, starting with 1G, followed by 2G and then by 3G, cellular networks have come a long way. A recent technology that has marked the beginning of 4G is Long Term Evolution (LTE). While transmission technologies, authentication mechanisms, confidentiality protection, etc., improved significantly through the generations, not much has improved with regards to the subscriber’s identity privacy, and LTE is no exception. Much of this could be due to the trust model adopted in these networks. Introduction of sensitive services like mobile-banking, mobile-commerce, etc., has increased the importance of identity privacy by many folds. Identification of threats like location tracking and comprehensive profiling where data about movement, usage, etc., of a subscriber is amassed and linked to his/her identity to explore various attacks is quite alarming. In this paper, we propose a new trust model for strengthening identity privacy in cellular networks; it has an additional capacity to enhance interoperability among different cellular operators. We also propose a security extension that adopts this trust model to improve identity privacy and interoperability in LTE. A formal analysis of the extension proves that it meets its security goals.