QoS-Aware Distributed Security Architecture for 4G Multihop Wireless Networks

Vehicular communications have received a great deal of attention in recent years due to the demand for multimedia applications during travel and for improvements in safety. Safety applications often require fast message exchanges but do not use much bandwidth. On the other hand, multimedia services require high bandwidth for vehicular users. Hence, to provide mobile broadband services at a vehicular speed of up to 350 km/h, Worldwide interoperable for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) are considered the best technologies for vehicular networks. WiMAX and LTE are Fourth-Generation (4G) wireless technologies that have well-defined quality of service (QoS) and security architectures. However, some security threats, such as denial of service (DoS), an introduction of rogue node, etc., still exist in WiMAX and LTE networks, particularly in multihop networks. Therefore, strong security architecture and hasty authentication methods are needed to mitigate the existing security threats in 4G multihop wireless networks. Conversely, the network QoS should not be degraded while enhancing security. Thus, we propose QoS-aware distributed security architecture using the elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) protocol that has proven security strength and low overhead for 4G wireless networks. In this paper, we first describe the current security standards and security threats in WiMAX and LTE networks. Then, the proposed distributed security architecture for 4G multihop wireless networks is presented. Finally, we compare and analyze the proposed solution using testbed implementation and simulation approaches for WiMAX. From the simulation and testbed results for WiMAX networks, it is evident that the proposed scheme provides strong security and hasty authentication for handover users without affecting the QoS performance. For LTE networks, we present the theoretical analysis of the proposed scheme to show that similar performance can also be achieved.