Security and impact of the IoT on mobile networks

The ongoing evolution of wireless cellular networks is creating a new ecosystem with pervasive presence of a great variety of network-enabled objects which, based on unique addressing schemes, are able to interact with each other. Cellular connectivity is reaching beyond smartphones and tablets, providing access to data networks for connected home appliances, machinery and vehicles. The rapid evolution of mobile networking technologies and the transition towards IPv6 might drive this trend to an ecosystem where every single consumer item could be reachable through the cellular network. This convergence of the Internet and cellular mobility networks is breeding new Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication systems, which are the enabling platform for the Internet of Things (IoT) [1]. Cellular-based IoT applications are experiencing a drastic growth backed up by the large investments from network operators [2]. Current studies forecast the cellular IoT to be 1000 times more profitable than mobile data and as lucrative for operators as the Short Messaging Service (SMS) [3]. This is an attractive new market for cellular operators, which are currently dealing with a heavily competitive market and declining revenues. Consequently, IoT applications are among the common denominator of some of the largest investments in mo-1 2 CHAPTER 1. SECURITY AND IMPACT OF THE IOT ON MOBILE NETWORKS bile and cellular technology innovation. Cellular operators are seeking valuable partnerships in markets such as connected cars [4] and remote health-care systems [5]. Indeed, forecasts preview the health industry as one of the main drivers of the IoT market over the next few years [6]. Consensus exists in the industry that great growth in mobile cellular connectivity from M2M and embedded mobile applications will be experienced. More than 50 billion non-personal data-only mobile devices are expected to join existing mobile networks, supporting this plethora of emerging applications [7]. Consequently, in order to provide ubiquitous broadband connectivity to the IoT, massive device connectivity (billions of connected devices) is one of the main goals for the design and planning of future 5G mobile systems [8]. The fourth generation of mobile networks, the Long Term Evolution (LTE), has been designed for greatly enhanced capacity in order to provide support to a large number of connected devices. As such, LTE introduces significant improvements at the Radio Access Network (RAN) and a more flexible IP-only (Internet Protocol) architecture at the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Although a substantial percentage of current M2M systems operate over legacy second and …