BCF: a blockchain-enabled function for enhancing data consistency and trust in 5GC

In order to provide an industry-grade 5G Private Network (PN) to the enterprises, the ultra-reliability communication becomes a key feature to successfully deploy 5G PNs for the future industry 4.0 applications. This paper article will use the free5GC, which is the world's first open-source 5G core (5GC) network that complies with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) R15 standards, developed in the laboratory as the base to develop a redundant transmission technique for Ultra-Reliable Communication in 5G Core Networks. We compare the its performance and reliability with the original a single protocol data unit (PDU) session in free5GC. Moreover, it confirmed that the reliability it brings would enable users to have a better user experience.

We address the problem of inferring the presence of a bottleneck from passive measurement in a 3G core network. The work is based on two weeks of packet traces collected in the core network of Mobilkom Austria AG&CoKG, the leading mobile telecommunications provider in Austria, EU. During the measurement period a bottleneck link in the 3G core network was revealed and removed, therefore the traces enable the accurate analysis and comparison of the traffic behavior in the two network conditions. The proposed diagnosis approach is based on the marginal rate distribution of the aggregate traffic. Since TCP is the dominant component in the overall traffic mix, the presence of a bottleneck strains the aggregate rate distribution, compressing it against the bottleneck capacity limit during the peak hour. The analysis of the trajectories of the first central moments (variance, skewness) can reveal such strain without any a priori knowledge of the provisioned capacity

The 5G‐standalone access architecture requires the deployment of a 5G core network connected to the next‐generation radio access network (NG‐RAN). The NG‐RAN provides both NR and LTE radio access. The NG‐RAN provides both an LTE radio interface and a 5G‐NR radio interface. The NG‐RAN node is responsible for managing radio resources, controlling the radio bearer establishment of the user plane and managing mobility during the session. The NG‐RAN node performs compression and encryption of traffic data on the radio interface. The mobile and the AMF exchange data using the non‐access stratum protocol. The AMF manages the addition and removal of the transport network layer association with the entities of the NG‐RAN node. The AMF is in charge of managing the 5G core network and services. The security architecture implemented on the 5G mobile is based on mutual authentication between the 5G core network core network and mobile.

5G networks made a first step towards increasing the core network flexibility by optimizing the interactions between the network functions with specific web-based interfaces and protocols. However, this has not extensively changed the architecture, as the allocation of roles of the 5G core network functions has remained the same as that of the classic telecom architecture. In this paper, we present a new perspective, stemming directly from webservices software architectures, on how to optimize the concept of network functions towards even more flexibility, scalability and use case adaptability. Furthermore, we present how the new concept can be applied to the current 5G core network architecture. We underline the extreme simplification of scaling, network migration, and equivalent management procedures, which make the concept an attractive option for very dynamic deployments. With this, we prove that the proposed concept highly outperforms the previous 5G one and represents a viable basis for the future 6G core network architecture.

Network function virtualization (NFV) is one of key features envisioned for the upcoming 5G core networks in order to support high flexibility in network deployment and management. However, potential performance degradations that could be caused by virtualization of network functions is still a controversial issue, especially in regards to virtualization of core network components. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of NFV on an end-to-end mobile network testbed, which is deployed in the 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) in University of Surrey. The testbed consists of indoor and outdoor LTE Radio Access Networks (RAN) equipment, as well as an enhanced Evolved Packet Core (EPC) following LTE Release 14 specifications, such as control and user plane separation (CUPS). The paper compares the performance of the softwarised core network and that of its virtualized counterpart. Measurement results show that the virtualized core network has adequately similar network performance in terms of throughput and latency, compared with the non-virtual core.

User Plane Function (UPF) is considered a bridge between User Equipment (UE) and Data Networks (DN) in the 5G core network. A UPF instance can manage multiple Packet Data Unit (PDU) sessions, and there are usually various UPF instances deployed to serve PDU session requests. One requirement is utilizing system resources effectively while ensuring stable system performance. Specifically, the need to optimize unused UPF instances to reduce system costs. The paper proposes a fractional admission controlling (FAC) mechanism and integrates it with a Markov chain-based analytical model for threshold-based scaling for UPF instances (called TSUPF-FAC), in which two additional thresholds are added to control UPF instances globally in order to optimize resource utilization. A threshold-based scaling and fractional admission controlling (TS-FAC) algorithm is developed and implemented in Kubernetes-based Open5GS. The simulation results show a similarity between the analytical and experimental results, in which the analytical model helps to determine the admission thresholds for the best performance of TSUPF-FAC, as measured by metrics such as the number of idle UPF instances and system utilization.

The paper examines the feasibility and implications of Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks on the Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) within the 5G Core Network. The study demonstrates how PFCP control messages exchanged between the Session Management Function (SMF) and the User Plane Function (UPF) can be intercepted and modified, enabling an adversary to disrupt or manipulate PDU session establishment and maintenance. Practical implementations of such attacks are presented, illustrating the potential impact on network operation and user data flows. In addition, the paper investigates methods for detecting these threats using log-based analysis. Logs collected from SMF and UPF components were processed and examined to identify anomalies indicative of protocol misuse or unexpected module behaviour. The results highlight critical security vulnerabilities resulting from insufficient PFCP signalling protection and highlight the effectiveness of log-based monitoring techniques in identifying threats in 5G core networks.

Online Social Networks (OSNs) have become integral to modern life, enabling people to communicate, share information, and stay connected over vast distances. However, the rising use of OSNs has sparked significant concerns regarding the privacy and security of user data. This paper presents an innovative method for strengthening data privacy and security in cloud-enabled OSNs utilizing an E-ABE system. The proposed solution employs flow graph analysis to verify relationships, ensuring secure user data exchange while offering fine-grained access control. This approach addresses the limitations of existing methods, which often fail to provide comprehensive privacy and security measures. By leveraging cryptographic techniques and secure communication protocols, the E-ABE model allows for the controlled sharing of sensitive information, ensuring that only authorized users can access data. The system's design includes roles for Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), Trusted Attribute Authorities (TAAs), and end-users (followers and followees), each contributing to the overall security framework. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in reducing key generation time, data encryption and decryption time, and communication costs while maintaining high levels of authorization accuracy. This research contributes to the field by providing a robust solution for protecting user data in cloud-based OSNs, highlighting its potential for broader application in other domains requiring stringent data privacy and security measures.

In the fifth generation (5G) era, the radio internet protocol capacity is expected to reach 20Gb/s per sector, and ultralarge content traffic will travel across a faster wireless/wireline access network and packet core network. Moreover, the massive and mission-critical Internet of Things is the main differentiator of 5G services. These types of real-time and large-bandwidth-consuming services require a radio latency of less than 1 ms and an end-to-end latency of less than a few milliseconds. By distributing 5G core nodes closer to cell sites, the backhaul traffic volume and latency can be significantly reduced by having mobile devices download content immediately from a closer content server. In this paper, we propose a novel solution based on software-defined network and network function virtualization technologies in order to achieve agile management of 5G core network functionalities with a proof-of-concept implementation targeted for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and describe the results of interoperability testing experiences between two core networks.

The 5G network’s commercialization has revealed challenges in providing customized and personalized deployment and services for diverse vertical industrial use cases, leading to high cost, low resource efficiency and management efficiency, and long time to market. Although the 5G core network (CN) has adopted a service-based architecture (SBA) to enhance agility and elasticity, the radio access network (RAN) keeps the traditional integrated and rigid architecture and suffers the difficulties of customizing and personalizing the functions and capabilities. Open RAN attempted to introduce cloudification, openness, and intelligence to RAN but faced limitations due to 5G RAN specifications. To address this, this paper analyzes the experience and insights from 5G SBA and conducts a systematic study on the service-based RAN, including service definition, interface protocol stacks, impact analysis on the air interface, radio capability exposure, and joint optimization with CN. Performance verification shows significant improvements of service-based user plane design in resource utilization and scalability.

With the continuous development of Internet technology, cloud storage has been widely applied and developed. Users can store data through the network anytime, anywhere. However, the frequent occurrence of a series of cloud storage data security events show that cloud storage not only provides data storage services for users, but also poses huge threats and challenges to users' data security. Aiming at the problem of user data security in cloud storage environment, the system introduces multi-cloud storage system on the basis of the traditional single cloud storage system. The system uses Erasure Code to block the original data, and encrypts the data blocks using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption technology, then stores the encrypted data blocks in different cloud storages terminals. Thus, the hidden danger of data loss or leakage due to relying on a cloud service provider is eliminated, the existing security problems of cloud storage system are improved, and the security and reliability of the multi-cloud secure storage system are improved.

Most cloud users and officialdoms have a great interest in adoption and use cloud services like cloud storage to store their data on cloud environment. With the speedy growing in cloud computing technology, user's data security and privacy in cloud computing technology is the utmost dangerous issues because data owner stores their sensitive data onto remote cloud storage. However, successful retrieval of confidential data and computation on confidential data is hard to succeed by traditional cryptographic algorithm. Hence, to warrant the cloud security we are using the cryptographic algorithms that supports for computation over encrypted data. In this, Homomorphic cryptographic algorithm is one such technique that has interested homomorphic cryptographic algorithm used to secure user data in cloud server. It performs computation on cipher texts data can be operated directly without affecting the confidentiality of the encryption algorithms. We have established a framework for security of data on a cloud storage by using fully homomorphic cryptographic algorithm. Indeed, In this study, we have evaluated complexity of three homomorphic cryptographic algorithm those are SDC FHE, Paillier and RSA with encryption time, decryption time, throughput and memory usage

With the rapid development of Internet cloud computing technology, services such as cloud storage and cloud disk become a user data storage and backup tool. But at the same time, security of user data has also been great threatened. In this condition, a security enhanced cloud storage access control system based on attributes has been designed and implemented. The system generates the access policy on the client side, implements the access control through the XACML framework, stores user data by using symmetric encryption mechanism at first. The attribute-based encryption mechanism is used to protect the small-scale data–symmetric encryption Key, the data stored in the cloud, provides cloud storage users a safe, flexible, fine-grained and scalable access control function. According to the experimental results, the system can meet the functional requirements, provide a secure access control function. It’s in line with the design expectations at security and performance.

The first phase of new radio (NR) standard, which was finalized in December 2017, is called a non‐standalone (NSA) NR as it is based on dual connectivity between an LTE radio access technology (RAT) and the NR RAT, known also as E‐UTRA – NR Dual Connectivity(EN‐DC). This chapter presents an overview of 5G core (5GC) network and functionalities by presenting the specified logical network nodes which are the standardized building blocks for the 5GC and by giving an example of a signaling flow between the nodes for connection establishment. It discusses the different dual connectivity options and related terminology. Two different protocol stacks exist in NR system: control plane protocol stack, carrying control information between user equipment (UE) and gNB or Core Network, and user plane protocol stack, carrying data between different applications in the UE and in the network.

Slicing the 5G core network involves specifying network services according to the functional and quality requirements of typical 5G use cases. In doing so, assessing the scalability and performance of network services plays a leading role, since it allows dimensioning their capacity. Since years ago, diverse approaches have proposed formal models to analyze network services' scalability, but they have not focused on the 5G core. Also, recent approaches have focused on analyzing network services' performance in the 5G core, but they have not investigated the scalability issue. In this paper, we propose a method, based on the Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA), aiming at enabling the systematic analysis of the performance and scalability of network services in the 5G core. We introduce new composite structures based on PEPA and intended to model and evaluate 5G network core procedures. We illustrate how to use our method by presenting the modeling and assessment of two services regarding scalability and performance metrics. The former corresponds to the session establishment in a 5G network slice. The latter corresponds to the user registration process in a network slice for Vehicle-to-Everything. Results show the usefulness of our method to model 5G core network services and dimension the capacity of slices that implement them. Furthermore, the validation results corroborate, in terms of accuracy, that our PEPA-based method measures performance metrics (throughput, average response time, and processor utilization) with negligible difference regarding a traditional approach like the Layered Queuing Network model.