Octopus: University of The Aegean Research & Project Outputs System

Conference

Authors:	Kambourakis G., Konstantinou E., Gritzalis S.
Title:	Revisiting WiMAX MBS Security
Conference:	FTRG ACSA 2009 International Workshop on Advances in Cryptography, Security and Applications for Future Computing
Editors:	Y. Mu, J. H. Park
Ed:	No
Eds:	Yes
Pages:	181-190
To appear:	No
Month:	December
Year:	2009
Place:	Deju, Korea
Pubisher:	IEEE Press
Link:	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898122110000052/pdfft?md5=53d61691b3ff08f80748798bfcd34fc5&pid=1-s2.0-S0898122110000052-main.pdf
File name:
Abstract:	IEEE 802.16 technology also well known as WiMax is poised to deliver the next step in the wireless evolution. This is further fostered by the 802.16e specification which, amongst other things, introduces support for mobility. The Multicast/Broadcast Service (MBS) is also an integral part of 802.16e destined to deliver next generation services to subscribers. In this paper we concentrate on the Multicast and Broadcast Rekeying Algorithm (MBRA) of 802.16e. This algorithm has been recently criticized for various vulnerabilities and security inefficiencies, as its designers are trying to balance wisely between performance and security. After surveying related work, we extensively discuss MBRA security issues and propose the use of a novel asymmetric group key agreement protocol based on the work in Wu et al. (2009) [3]. Our scheme guarantees secure delivery of keys to all the members of a given group and mandates rekeying upon join and leave events. It can prevent insider attacks since only the Base Station possesses a secret encryption key while all other members in the network acquire the transmitted data by using their secret decryption keys. We compare our scheme with related work and demonstrate that although heavier in terms of computing costs, it compensates when scalability and security come to the foreground.