195
A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
9
9.1 Introduction
5G is the next phase in the evolution of mobile networks. The recent ITU‐T statistics
[1] reveal that active mobile broadband subscriptions are on the rise, and have over‑
taken both fixed broadband subscriptions and individuals connected to the Internet.
This segment is rapidly growing and expectedly the number of Internet‐connected
wireless devices will rise. The initial estimates for 5G are to handle 100 devices per
inhabitant of the world, and that data traffic will grow 1000‐fold from the years 2010 to
2020. However, besides faster mobile broadband and increased capacity, 5G will have to
support new trust models, service delivery models, use cases and withstand challenges
from an evolved threat landscape [2].
The divergent requirements of different use cases will require the ability to tailor
the network to meet the particular use‐case requirements, for example with respect
to reliability, services availability and level of security. For this, the concept of network
slicing is proposed. A network slice is a set of resources and communication nodes
handling a significant user or device segment with intended coverage area. Compared
to provisioning such communication through regular mobile broadband access, in
the slice, the network control and data planes can be enhanced with additional
( virtualized) network functions and the resources can be dimensioned in the way that
meets the requirements of the use case. To take an example of the potential of slicing,
laws on privacy protection apply to communication when at least one human is
involved. Contrary to humans, machines do not have human rights, so if needed, the
network can extensively monitor machine‐to‐machine communication for security
reasons. It seems that allowing such monitoring in the same network (or network
slice) where humans also communicate, would be a legal nightmare; however, when
suitable isolation is achieved by network slicing, arranging and controlling such
monitoring would become much easier.
Besides others, the threat landscape would evolve due to new valuable services being
carried over the network, new service delivery models and a multitude of end‐devices
Customer Edge Switching: A Security Framework for 5G
Hammad Kabir, Raimo Kantola, and Jesus Llorente Santos
Department of Communication and Networking, Aalto University, Finland
A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
9
9.1 Introduction
5G is the next phase in the evolution of mobile networks. The recent ITU‐T statistics
[1] reveal that active mobile broadband subscriptions are on the rise, and have over‑
taken both fixed broadband subscriptions and individuals connected to the Internet.
This segment is rapidly growing and expectedly the number of Internet‐connected
wireless devices will rise. The initial estimates for 5G are to handle 100 devices per
inhabitant of the world, and that data traffic will grow 1000‐fold from the years 2010 to
2020. However, besides faster mobile broadband and increased capacity, 5G will have to
support new trust models, service delivery models, use cases and withstand challenges
from an evolved threat landscape [2].
The divergent requirements of different use cases will require the ability to tailor
the network to meet the particular use‐case requirements, for example with respect
to reliability, services availability and level of security. For this, the concept of network
slicing is proposed. A network slice is a set of resources and communication nodes
handling a significant user or device segment with intended coverage area. Compared
to provisioning such communication through regular mobile broadband access, in
the slice, the network control and data planes can be enhanced with additional
( virtualized) network functions and the resources can be dimensioned in the way that
meets the requirements of the use case. To take an example of the potential of slicing,
laws on privacy protection apply to communication when at least one human is
involved. Contrary to humans, machines do not have human rights, so if needed, the
network can extensively monitor machine‐to‐machine communication for security
reasons. It seems that allowing such monitoring in the same network (or network
slice) where humans also communicate, would be a legal nightmare; however, when
suitable isolation is achieved by network slicing, arranging and controlling such
monitoring would become much easier.
Besides others, the threat landscape would evolve due to new valuable services being
carried over the network, new service delivery models and a multitude of end‐devices
Customer Edge Switching: A Security Framework for 5G
Hammad Kabir, Raimo Kantola, and Jesus Llorente Santos
Department of Communication and Networking, Aalto University, Finland