AAA and mobile networks: security aspects and architectural efficiency

Security is a crucial factor in the provision of the network services, in both wireless and wired communications. Day by day, the number of subscribers is increased by an exponential function. Furthermore, the continued growth of network services, in addition to the available networks resources each time caused special needs for security and safety, throughout the transmission channel. Finally, billing services for network users is another crucial factor for the applied security mechanisms. AAA, or in different 3"A"s is a security standard which has lately been developed. The name of this standard (AAA) defines Authentication, Authorization and Accounting services for the network subscribers. This work deals with the technical aspects of the three main security processes of AAA. In addition, an architectural model of this standard is also presented, from a generic point of view. Finally, key management issues are examined, which are applied in AAA.