Comparison Of Wireless Communication Technologies And LTE/LTE-A Network Security

Comparison of Communication Spectrum, Modulation Techniques, Medium Access Control Mechanism, Network Speed and Bandwidth Utilization of LTE, Wi-Fi, GSM and WiMax

Wireless network could be easily and specifically defined as a computer network that eventually uses wireless data connectivity between the two distinct nodes of network [5]. The significant wireless network is a method, through which various networks of telecommunication and business installation are evading the costly procedure for the introduction or installation of the cables in a building or even the connectivity between various equipment locations. All of the networks of telecommunication networks can be promptly implemented or even administered by considering radio communications. The most important or vital examples of these wireless networks can be the networks of cell phone, wireless sensors, wireless LAN, satellite communication, LTE or the Long Term Evolution and several others [10]. This particular report will be highlighting the various relevant factors regarding the various wireless networks and especially the network of LTE and LTE advanced. A distinct comparison will be done between four popular cellular networks. Moreover, various attacks on LTE network are being evaluated and the most vulnerable attack will be analyzed as well as countermeasures will be given here.

The comparison of the existing four cellular networks of LTE, Wi-Fi, GSM and WiMax is as follows:

Serial No.	Main Characteristics Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	LTE/LTE-A	Wi-Fi	GSM	WiMax
a)	Communication Spectrum	Communication spectrum of LTE/LTE A network comprises of few frequency bands of LTE allocations. The most recent bands of LTE are within 1 as well as 22 for any paired spectrum. The bands of LTE are within 33 as well as 44 for any unpaired spectrum.	The distinct communication spectrum of the Wi-Fi network is within the range of 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz [12].	There are 14 bands of frequency for GSM network. These frequency bands start from 380 MHz to 1900 MHz.	The WiMax network is divided into 11 distinct frequency bands that are EHF, SHF, UHF, VHF, HF, MF, LF, VLF, ULF, SLF and ELF [8]. The frequencies are 30GHz to 300 GHz, 3GHz to 30 GHz, 300MHz to 3000 MHz, 30MHz to 300 MHz, 3MHz to 30 MHz, 300KHz to 3000 KHz, 30KHz to 300 KHz, 3KHz to 30 KHz, 300Hz to 3000 Hz, 30Hz to 300 Hz, 3Hz to 30 Hz.
b)	Modulation Techniques	QPSK, 64QAM and 16QAM are the three modulation techniques for LTE.	QPSK and CCK are the two modulation techniques for Wi-Fi [1].	GMSK is the only one modulation technique of GSM.	QPSK, 64QAM, 16QAM and BPSK are the four modulation techniques for WiMax [9].
c)	Medium Access Control Mechanism	The medium access mechanism of the LTE network is by down linked the throughput of a cell of LTE for catering feedback schemes of CQI.	The medium access mechanism of the Wi-Fi network relies on nodes number, throughput and power consumption [7].	The medium access mechanism of the GSM network is eventually designed to maximize the utilization of spectrum by RLC and PDCP protocols.	The medium access mechanism of the WiMax network is that only those areas are covered that have higher speed of transmission.
d)	Network Speed and Bandwidth Utilization	Network speed of the LTE is about 50 Mbps and usage of bandwidth is pertaining the radio planning for accepting radio interface loads [6].	The network speed of Wi-Fi differs in actual and theoretical. This theoretical speed eventually starts from 11 Mbps to 600 Mbps; whereas actual speed is from 5.5 Mbps to 100 Mbps.	Network speed of the GSM network is about 7.2 Mega bytes per second and this bandwidth is sub divided into 124 carrier frequencies.	Network speed of the WiMax is about 40Mbps and its bandwidth is beign shared between various terminals [4].
e)	Security Techniques and Risks	The most significant risks of security for LTE network are network manipulation and the man in the middle attacks. The encryption technique is the security technique in LTE [12].	The most significant risks of security for Wi-Fi are cracking attacks and war driving. Passwords and encryption techniques are the security techniques.	The most significant risks of security for GSM network are network manipulation and DoS attacks. Authentication is the security technique.	The most significant risks of security for WiMax are man in the middle attacks and DoS attacks. Authentications as well as encryption are the two security techniques [8].

 

The LTE or the LTE A architecture is extremely simple in comparison to the other networks. Three distinct components or elements are present for any specific network. The three components of the LTE architecture are E UTRAN or evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access networks, EPC or evolved packet core and finally UE or the user equipment [7]. The respective internal architecture for this user equipment of LTE consists of three specific modules, which are MT or the mobile termination, which helps to handle communication functions, TE or terminal equipment, which helps in termination of data streams and finally UICC or Universal Integrated Circuit Card, which helps to run several applications, known as Universal Subscriber Identity Modules or USIM.

The distinct architecture for E-UTRAN or evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network is as follows:

Figure 1: Architecture of E-UTRAN

(Source: Zhang et al. 2015)

The next portion is Evolved Packet Core or EPC that has three elements of Policy Control and Charging Rules Function or PCRF, Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Systems or ETWS and finally Equipment Identity Registers or EIR [10].

Figure 2: EPC Architecture

(Source: Astely et al. 2013)

LTE or the LTE A is the most popular and advanced version of wireless network. Hence, various types of attacks are extremely common on the core network as well as access network for LTE and the advanced version of LTE [7]. The several significant attacks of LTE are as follows:

1. i) Denial of Service Attack: The first and the foremost significant attack, which is dangerous for LTE network is DoS attack. Here the perpetrator or attacker seeks into the specific machine with the major purpose of denying the access to that machine [5]. The authenticated user has no idea about this attack.
2. ii) Manipulation of Networks: The next type of nefarious attack of LTE for the core network and access network is the manipulation of network. This is very common for LTE wireless network, in which the attacker will be manipulating this network and then that data would be received by the attacker. Thus, the integrity as well as confidentiality of the data is lost [1].

LTE/LTE-A Architecture

iii) DNS Redirection Attacks: Another popular and important LTE attack for the core network and access network is the domain name server redirection attack. This particular attack redirects the various queries of the authenticated user within the DNS by the simple overridden of TCP and IP protocols in computers [6].

1. iv) Man in the Middle Attack: This type of attack occurs when the attacker is present within the intended user and the specific network. This attack relays and changes the message to be passed on between the sender and the receiver, hence losing integrity or confidentiality of data [9].

The four above mentioned attacks are vulnerable for the LTE and LTE A network. The attack, which is of highest criticality, is DNS Redirection attack, where the DNS queries are subverted and the resolution of this server is being changed. The respective IP or TCP configuration is then overridden by DNS hijacking [3]. The modification of the trusted DNS server is done by the attacker for the compilation with various internet standards. The attacker then controls the entire domain name server subsequently.

This type of attack could be easily avoided by undertaking few countermeasures [11]. The first countermeasure of this LTE attack is by enhancing the overall cyber securities for positioning of cache. The next important countermeasure for the DNS hijacking is the selection of domain registrar and offering of multi factor authentication.

Conclusion

Therefore, from this report, conclusion could be drawn that wireless network is the typical computer network that is subsequently not connected by cables or wires. There is a significant use of the wireless network for the purpose of enabling the companies to specifically avoid an expensive and unaffordable process of the installation of the cables. Long term evolution or LTE is the most important and significant example of the wireless network and is being used worldwide. The advanced version of this LTE is the LTE advanced. All of the various kinds of the wireless networks have the responsibility to provide the advanced service with higher bandwidths, better effectiveness and efficiencies of the spectrum and lower latencies. However, all of these kinds of the wireless networks often face various dangerous or nefarious attacks or risks. These types of security risks should be mitigated properly to obtain better efficiency from the network. Furthermore, the data integrity is significantly lost by these security threats. The above report has properly depicted the concise discussion on the long term evolution or LTE and LTE advanced with significant and relevant details. The comparison of few cellular networks, architecture of LTE and the various risks of this network are given here. A proper identification of the highest criticality attack is done and countermeasures are provided for it.

References

[1] Laya, Andres, Luis Alonso, and Jesus Alonso-Zarate. “Is the Random Access Channel of LTE and LTE-A Suitable for M2M Communications? A Survey of Alternatives.” IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials 16, no. 1 (2014): 4-16.

[2] Astely, David, Erik Dahlman, Gabor Fodor, Stefan Parkvall, and Joachim Sachs. “LTE release 12 and beyond [accepted from open call].” IEEE Communications Magazine 51, no. 7 (2013): 154-160.

[3] Phunchongharn, Phond, Ekram Hossain, and Dong In Kim. “Resource allocation for device-to-device communications underlaying LTE-advanced networks.” IEEE Wireless Communications 20, no. 4 (2013): 91-100.

[4] Rumney, Moray, ed. LTE and the evolution to 4G wireless: Design and measurement challenges. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

[5] Peng, Mugen, Dong Liang, Yao Wei, Jian Li, and Hsiao-Hwa Chen. “Self-configuration and self-optimization in LTE-advanced heterogeneous networks.” IEEE Communications Magazine 51, no. 5 (2013): 36-45.

[6] Almeida, Erika, André M. Cavalcante, Rafael CD Paiva, Fabiano S. Chaves, Fuad M. Abinader, Robson D. Vieira, Sayantan Choudhury, Esa Tuomaala, and Klaus Doppler. “Enabling LTE/WiFi coexistence by LTE blank subframe allocation.” In Communications (ICC), 2013 IEEE International Conference on, pp. 5083-5088. IEEE, 2013.

[7] Cavalcante, Andre M., Erika Almeida, Robson D. Vieira, Fabiano Chaves, Rafael CD Paiva, Fuad Abinader, Sayantan Choudhury, Esa Tuomaala, and Klaus Doppler. “Performance evaluation of LTE and Wi-Fi coexistence in unlicensed bands.” In Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 2013 IEEE 77th, pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2013.

[8] Huang, Junxian, Feng Qian, Yihua Guo, Yuanyuan Zhou, Qiang Xu, Z. Morley Mao, Subhabrata Sen, and Oliver Spatscheck. “An in-depth study of LTE: effect of network protocol and application behavior on performance.” ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review 43, no. 4 (2013): 363-374.

[9] Zhang, Ran, Miao Wang, Lin X. Cai, Zhongming Zheng, Xuemin Shen, and Liang-Liang Xie. “LTE-unlicensed: the future of spectrum aggregation for cellular networks.” IEEE Wireless Communications 22, no. 3 (2015): 150-159.

[10] Liu, Jiajia, Nei Kato, Jianfeng Ma, and Naoto Kadowaki. “Device-to-device communication in LTE-advanced networks: A survey.” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 17, no. 4 (2015): 1923-1940.

[11] Furht, Borko, and Syed A. Ahson, eds. Long Term Evolution: 3GPP LTE radio and cellular technology. Crc Press, 2016.

[12] L. He, Z. Yan and M. Atiquzzaman, “LTE/LTE-A Network Security Data Collection and Analysis for Security Measurement: A Survey,” in IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 4220-4242, 2018.