Cloud and MEC Security 385
● Augmented Reality: Here the MEC server uses real‐time tracking and content caching
to support augmented reality contents on mobile devices. The key driver for this use
case is reduced round‐trip‐time (RTT) and higher throughput.
● RAN‐Aware Content Optimization: By providing accurate real‐time subscriber RAN
information to the content optimizer, MEC helps providers achieve dynamic content
optimization, and improved QoE and overall network efficiency, which stirs novel
services and revenue opportunities on the network [28].
16.4 Security Challenges in 5G Cloud
With the advent of 5G networks, myriads of new businesses, trust models, new mobile
technologies and new service delivery models will gain momentum on a global scale.
5G will play active roles in almost all aspects of our day‐to‐day life. This evolution
will attract a corresponding evolution in the threat landscape and increase privacy in
concerns at different application areas, hence security and privacy will play a central
role in the evolution towards 5G.
The security and privacy concerns in 5G will span beyond technologies involving
regulation and legal frameworks. Certain use cases pose special security concerns due
to the nature of the applications they support. For instance, in online business, security
concerns are indispensable to all parties, as a breach in security can lead to major flaws
in trust among transacting parties and this could stagnate the adoption of certain novel
technologies in 5G. Moreover, one of the cardinal goals of 5G is to realize a communication network that is more user‐centric than previous generations. An indicator to this
goal is that users become more aware of the nature of services they receive and the
corresponding security vulnerabilities associated with these services. Hence, a highly
optimized service with a porous security or privacy model could easily be rejected by
users. With big data analytics, such security and privacy concerns become even more
threatening. With unification of multiple communication domains, a security breach
in one network segment could result to a ripple‐effect across other segments. In this
section, we discuss the security vulnerabilities that come with the cloudification of
services on different segments of the 5G networks.
16.4.1 Virtualization Security
As discussed in previous sections, virtualization is the main driving force to cloud computing. Obviously, cloud computing will leverage on multiple virtualized systems in
order to optimize available resources and deliver on its proposed benefits. The term
“cloud” was initially adopted in science to represent a high level of abstraction in
describing a collection of resources whose complexities are left undefined in a given
context. This interpretation still remains relevant in defining cloud computing. Users
still lack a clear understanding of the modalities to the processing and storage of their
data, the location of storage, and the security of the entire process.
Security concerns with virtualization may range from potentials for data
mis placement to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. In [30], Lindstrom outlines five
key security concerns of virtualization, which he called the five immutable laws of
virtualization security:
● Augmented Reality: Here the MEC server uses real‐time tracking and content caching
to support augmented reality contents on mobile devices. The key driver for this use
case is reduced round‐trip‐time (RTT) and higher throughput.
● RAN‐Aware Content Optimization: By providing accurate real‐time subscriber RAN
information to the content optimizer, MEC helps providers achieve dynamic content
optimization, and improved QoE and overall network efficiency, which stirs novel
services and revenue opportunities on the network [28].
16.4 Security Challenges in 5G Cloud
With the advent of 5G networks, myriads of new businesses, trust models, new mobile
technologies and new service delivery models will gain momentum on a global scale.
5G will play active roles in almost all aspects of our day‐to‐day life. This evolution
will attract a corresponding evolution in the threat landscape and increase privacy in
concerns at different application areas, hence security and privacy will play a central
role in the evolution towards 5G.
The security and privacy concerns in 5G will span beyond technologies involving
regulation and legal frameworks. Certain use cases pose special security concerns due
to the nature of the applications they support. For instance, in online business, security
concerns are indispensable to all parties, as a breach in security can lead to major flaws
in trust among transacting parties and this could stagnate the adoption of certain novel
technologies in 5G. Moreover, one of the cardinal goals of 5G is to realize a communication network that is more user‐centric than previous generations. An indicator to this
goal is that users become more aware of the nature of services they receive and the
corresponding security vulnerabilities associated with these services. Hence, a highly
optimized service with a porous security or privacy model could easily be rejected by
users. With big data analytics, such security and privacy concerns become even more
threatening. With unification of multiple communication domains, a security breach
in one network segment could result to a ripple‐effect across other segments. In this
section, we discuss the security vulnerabilities that come with the cloudification of
services on different segments of the 5G networks.
16.4.1 Virtualization Security
As discussed in previous sections, virtualization is the main driving force to cloud computing. Obviously, cloud computing will leverage on multiple virtualized systems in
order to optimize available resources and deliver on its proposed benefits. The term
“cloud” was initially adopted in science to represent a high level of abstraction in
describing a collection of resources whose complexities are left undefined in a given
context. This interpretation still remains relevant in defining cloud computing. Users
still lack a clear understanding of the modalities to the processing and storage of their
data, the location of storage, and the security of the entire process.
Security concerns with virtualization may range from potentials for data
mis placement to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. In [30], Lindstrom outlines five
key security concerns of virtualization, which he called the five immutable laws of
virtualization security: