PSLP-5G: A Provably Secure and Lightweight Protocol for 5G communication

Due to the constant influx of multiple security attacks into the next generation of mobile communication technologies, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has established authentication and key agreement protocol, 5G-AKA, to securely access the 5G communication services while maintaining the integrity of the underlying network. However, some recent findings pointed out that 5G-AKA has many drawbacks, including perfect forward secrecy violations, malicious Serving Network (SN) attacks, desynchronization attacks, privacy theft, stolen device, and denial of service (DoS) attacks when the user uses roaming mobile services. Considering the drawbacks of current 5G communication protocols and the necessity to facilitate additional security, a provably secure and lightweight protocol for 5G communication (PSLP5G) is introduced. The PSLP-5G's security is guaranteed using the Scyther tool and Real-Or-Random (ROR) logic. Furthermore, performance comparisons are made to show how much lighter the PSLP-5G is than its counterparts. Additionally, the PSLP5G's suitability for use in real-time applications is demonstrated by comparing the network performance of PSLP-5G and its counterparts using the Network Simulator tool NS3.