Securing the backhaul for mobile and multi-homed femtocells

The evolution of femtocells in residential networks expects to accelerate dramatically in next few years. The Femto Access Points (FAPs) connect subscribers to the operator through the residential broadband access or the public Internet. The connectivity between the FAP and the core network has a high risk of being compromised. In this paper, we have discussed, how Host Identity Protocol (HIP) can be adapted in femtocell technology. This research work presents several enhancements to the femtocell technology such as strong authentication, service registration, identity verification and node multi-homing. In addition, Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) is used to provide confidentiality, data origin authentication, connectionless integrity, anti-replay service and limited traffic flow confidentiality. Moreover, enhanced mobility support by means of locator/identity separation and node multi-homing is discussed in the scope of 3GPP femtocells.