Securing High Speed Network : Challenges and Solutions in the era of 5g

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Abstract:

High-speed network refers to network communication infrastructure that can transmit data at higher speed than the traditional network. These networks are evolving because of growing demand for bandwidth, applications, and services. There are different technologies which are built to support the high-speed network including fiber optics, advanced modulation techniques, and efficient networking protocols.  Referring to our topic, the 5G network is one of recent example of high-speed network. 5G network is a huge jump in the field of telecommunication network because of its speed in sending and receiving data. Since this is the most powerful telecommunication network in the present context. 5G has already shown its power of speed to the world. As we know the rule, when there is more of a something there are some challenges that come with it. Since this network is powerful, the most important part is to make sure that the network is in safe hands. Otherwise, there is a chance of this network getting misused by different cyber criminals leading to vicious cybercrimes. Therefore, this report is a guideline that will closely analyze the challenges and suggest the practical solutions for getting this 5G high-speed network secured.

 

Introduction:

In the present context technology has shown its advancement at the speed of a rocket. Looking back in the past few decades the rate of technological revolution is getting faster and faster with the time. Similarly, advancement in network technology has rapidly increased in terms of their speed. Especially in telecommunication networks there has been a huge leap in the past 2 decades. It was no time we were using telephone network, 2G, 3G,4G and now the world is in the form of 5G. We can’t deny the fact that soon there will be a more powerful telecommunication high-speed network than 5G. This change has been seen due to more demand for a high-speed network. “The significant growth in wireless broadband has had a major impact on the development of 5G networks. Due to increasing high traffic volume researchers are on the verge of making more advanced network infrastructure to control that traffic” (Al-Falahy & Alani, 2017).

The invention and implementation of 5G has had played a significant role in reducing the average service creation time in wireless networks. It has enabled advanced user-controlled privacy. The goal of 5G has always been to facilitate a digital society and growing demands of devices requiring high speed network. The requirements of this digital society include high service availability and security using multiple and different sets of technologies.

 

Security Challenges & Solution in 5G Network:

Software Defined Networking (SDN) – Challenges:
As there are trillions of devices which are connected to network worldwide. With these growing devices and technologies management of networks is difficult. Especially the devices that are operates in clouds are growing in numbers. To manage these devices network flow SDN plays an important role. As SDN is designed to make network more flexible and agile it helps to manage network control and forwarding planes enabling network control to become directly programmable, and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted for applications and network services (Hussain, 2020). Even though SDN makes network management easier by enabling programmability and logically centralizing the network control panes, these features can be a security threat for the future (Ahmad et al., 2018). Generally, SDN has a controller which job is to control the network where the data is forwarded. It has authority to either update or modify the flow rules. This traffic control feature of SDN is visible to everyone which creates a security threat. There are different types of attack that the cyber attacker can operate if the network traffic is visible. One of the attacks that can be operated is DoS attack. Additionally, allowing programmability in SDN opens the door to potential harm if malicious applications gain access or critical interfaces are exposed.

Talking about the current scenario of SDN in 5G.  The Data elements are vulnerable to saturation attacks because the existing SDN configuration keeps traffic requests in storage until the controller modifies the forwarding rules. In order to guard against security risks, dependence on the controller also necessitates a secure control-data link. The idea of having multiple controllers can be thought as an option of having Multiple controllers may increase availability, but they may also cause conflicts and configuration problems that compromise network security as a whole. To put it another way, even while SDN has numerous advantages, security must be carefully considered in order to avoid possible disruptions and unwanted access.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) – Solution:

Although there are security challenges involved in the current scenario of SDN. SDN has the potential to be a useful tool for improving communication network security once the underlying security difficulties are resolved. Talking about the power of SDN we know that SDN enables centralized control, programmability, and a global network perspective that facilitate rapid threat identification and uniform network-wide security measures. This will help the network to react to those threats as soon as possible. SDN also brings the Proactive and reactive security methods, such as traffic analysis, monitoring, and fast reaction systems for network forensics, policy modifications, and security service integration, are all supported by the architecture.

Moreover, SDN has one of the unique features to offer transparency reading the data packet origin. It helps to show the us the route that the data packet has come through This capability allows the dynamic routing of traffic to intrusion detection systems or firewalls at runtime, enhancing security. This approach, where security functionalities are implemented in the application plane using software, is often referred to as software-defined security (Ahmad et al., 2018).

 

 

Privacy (Challenges):

As the growing use of smart devices and increasing connectivity. The data shared in the network is in higher amount. The power of 5G network possess such a capability that it can collect the data shared in a network extensively. They raise a question on the safety and privacy of the data. The collection and analysis of large volumes of data can eventually lead to detailed profiling of individuals, which may compromise their privacy. Talking from a user’s perspective when a user uses smartphone application there are different features that sends data to the network. Taking an example like personal data, location tracking and identity exposures are the user’s concern. In the current scenario 5G network requires more bandwidth to fulfil the growing demand to maintain the speed of the network. To meet this requirement more antennas and base stations are required in order to maintain and operate the 5G network efficiently. Referring to the location tracking when there are more antennas, it makes the attacker’s job easier to look for the antenna or the base station that the user’s device is connected to. This will eventually lead a cybercriminal to find out their victim’s location easily which will cause negative impact to the user. Unlike previous generations, 5G operators lose direct control as they rely on external actors, impacting governance over security and privacy. Shared environments, cloud-based data storage, and the use of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) features create challenges in maintaining user and data privacy. Additionally, storing user data in different countries raises concerns due to varying level (Catherine Udell, 2023).

Privacy (Solutions):

To handle the privacy issue created within the 5G network there are different approaches we can take. One of the main approaches would be the 5G architecture should follow Privacy-by-design approach and service-oriented privacy-preserving strategies. The most important thing is that the power of data handling should be provided to users. So that they can take control of the data they are sending. They should be the core factor to decide what, where and to whom the data is to share with. This process can be done if the mobile operators adopt a hybrid cloud-based approach where the sensitive data are stored in the cloud. Moreover, there should be a relation-based understanding between different parties involved throughout the network process. To elaborate, establishing mutual agreements and trust models among stakeholders, including users, network operators, service providers, application developers, and manufacturers, is crucial for defining clear guidelines on data usage and storage.

Anonymity-based strategies and systems that allow users to conceal their true identities, possibly using a pseudonym, are necessary for location-based privacy. Additionally, before sending a message to a location-based service provider, it should be encrypted. Location privacy can also be preserved by obfuscation techniques, which lower the accuracy of location data. Timing attacks have been successfully defended against by location cloaking algorithms. 

Moreover, for the issues about getting location of user there needs to be an Anonymity-based strategies and systems that allow users to hide their true identities, possibly using a false name, doing so will hide the identity of the user and the attacker trying to get to the user will have the false information which will reduce the chance of that user getting victimized from cyber-attack. These things are necessary for location-based privacy. Additionally, before sending a message to a location-based provider of services, encrypted so that the attacker will not have access to see that message and gain insight of personal information (2023 Nokia).

Conclusion:
Therefore, in conclusion with this emerging technology of 5G there are different pros and cons. As 5G has been a powerful high-speed network to fulfill the demands of users and the trillions of devices, it brings some security challenges that we need to be prepared for. Therefore, to get rid of these challenges a propound solution should be implemented so that users will be safe from different types of cyber-attacks.

References

Al-Falahy, N., & Alani, O. Y. (2017). Technologies for 5G networks: Challenges and opportunities. IT Professional, 19(1), 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1109/mitp.2017.9

Hussain, A. (2020, January 20). 5G SDN and NFV. Medium. https://medium.com/@alifyahussain/5g-sdn-and-nfv-e411dbe927b1#:~:text=5G%20AND%20SDN,between%20network%20devices%20and%20applications.

Ahmad, I., Kumar, T., Liyanage, M., Okwuibe, J., Ylianttila, M., & Gurtov, A. (2018). Overview of 5G security challenges and solutions. IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, 2(1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcomstd.2018.1700063

Catherine Udell (2023, July 31). 5G Security Concerns & Privacy Risks. MRL Recruitment. https://www.mrlcg.com/resources/blog/5g-security-concerns---privacy-risks/

Privacy challenges and Security Solutions for 5G networks. Nokia. (n.d.). https://www.nokia.com/thought-leadership/articles/privacy-challenges-security-solutions-5g-networks/#:~:text=Privacy%20solutions%20for%205G&text=Location%2Dbased%20privacy%20requires%20anonymity,a%20location%2Dbased%20service%20provider.