Perspective security procedures for femtocell backbone

Femtocells provide a relatively new approach, how the mobile operator can extend the cellular network, using the IP based Internet connection as the backbone link, into places where it is hard to cover the area using traditional methods. Femtocells offer also a new scope of commercial services for the customer, attractive for both the customer and the mobile operator. Currently, the security, in the untrustworthy public environment, is accomplished via IPsec tunnel between the femtocell access point and femto security gateway. This approach is not an advantage in case where an appliance using network address translation is used. Moreover, IPsec was proposed for data transport not voice packet traffic, so that can cause an involuntary data overhead, increase end-to-end delay and decrease the quality of service. In this paper we have introduced alternative femtocell IP backbone security mechanisms using other higher level security protocols (TLS, DTLS, SRTP).