323
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.
14
14.1 Introduction
Due to the vital role of mobile operators in providing Internet services and the fast
growth of cloud computing technology, mobile operators have considered reforming
themselves as one of the cloud providers for networking services. Telecommunications
Service Providers (TSPs), especially Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), have invested
huge amounts of resources in maintenance and expansion of their infrastructures, while
cloud providers such Amazon and Google sell their services at the expense of telecom
operators. A physical mobile network can host several network operators, called Mobile
Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). Each MVNO can have its own support systems
or they may become customers of a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE). In order
to meet the growing demands of data and reduce the costs, an efficient development
method is to implement MVNE services using cloud computing.
Since November 2012, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
has hosted industry specification group for Network Function Virtualization (NFV).
The idea is to apply mainstream IT virtualization technologies to specify standardized
network elements, which can be run on a cloud service and can be used as building
blocks to create communication services [1]. This would enable cloud‐based centralized network elements, which are logically separate per each MVNO, but can share
software and still use operator specific data.
Both MNVE and NFV can be considered to run mostly on cloud layers [2].
We can also call this an applied platform for telecommunications, which provides
Telecommunication network as a Service (TaaS). TaaS is a platform for sharing physical
and virtual resources of cloud infrastructure among multiple MVNOs. TaaS is composed of software, hardware and application functions, which are also called Virtualized
Network Functions (vNFs). In TaaS, each mobile operator has interconnection with
cloud layers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software
as a Service (SaaS), depending on the type of services it provides to customers. Based on
standard security consideration, the proposed platform can be implemented with a
combination of cloud deployment model.
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) Security
Mehrnoosh Monshizadeh
1,2
and Vikramajeet Khatri
1
1 Nokia Bell Labs, Finland
2 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.
14
14.1 Introduction
Due to the vital role of mobile operators in providing Internet services and the fast
growth of cloud computing technology, mobile operators have considered reforming
themselves as one of the cloud providers for networking services. Telecommunications
Service Providers (TSPs), especially Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), have invested
huge amounts of resources in maintenance and expansion of their infrastructures, while
cloud providers such Amazon and Google sell their services at the expense of telecom
operators. A physical mobile network can host several network operators, called Mobile
Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). Each MVNO can have its own support systems
or they may become customers of a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE). In order
to meet the growing demands of data and reduce the costs, an efficient development
method is to implement MVNE services using cloud computing.
Since November 2012, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
has hosted industry specification group for Network Function Virtualization (NFV).
The idea is to apply mainstream IT virtualization technologies to specify standardized
network elements, which can be run on a cloud service and can be used as building
blocks to create communication services [1]. This would enable cloud‐based centralized network elements, which are logically separate per each MVNO, but can share
software and still use operator specific data.
Both MNVE and NFV can be considered to run mostly on cloud layers [2].
We can also call this an applied platform for telecommunications, which provides
Telecommunication network as a Service (TaaS). TaaS is a platform for sharing physical
and virtual resources of cloud infrastructure among multiple MVNOs. TaaS is composed of software, hardware and application functions, which are also called Virtualized
Network Functions (vNFs). In TaaS, each mobile operator has interconnection with
cloud layers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software
as a Service (SaaS), depending on the type of services it provides to customers. Based on
standard security consideration, the proposed platform can be implemented with a
combination of cloud deployment model.
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) Security
Mehrnoosh Monshizadeh
1,2
and Vikramajeet Khatri
1
1 Nokia Bell Labs, Finland
2 Aalto University, Finland