Group Controller-based Authentication for Machine Type Communication Under LTE Network

Abstract

Machine Type Communication (MTC) in the cellular network with ubiquitous coverage and various applications has played an important role in our daily life. For security, MTC devices need to follow the Evolved Packet System-Authentication and Key Agreement (EPS-AKA) protocol to guarantee the secure requirements in the machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. However, a huge number of terminal devices tried to complete the authentication procedure simultaneously, which would bring a severe congestion and overload for the network. In this paper, we proposed an efficient, available and scalable group controller-based authentication and key agreement (GC-AKA) protocol for devices to ensure the safety in the long term evolution (LTE) network. Through a design of group controller and simplicity of devices’ work in the authentication process, it would be more secure and efficient for resource-constrained devices in the communications between device and the cellular network, while providing simultaneous authentications for a mass of devices without congestion and overload in the network.