Secure access to IP multimedia services using generic bootstrapping architecture (GBA) for 3G & beyond mobile networks

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) defined by Third Generation Partnership Projects (3GPP and 3GPP2) is a technology designed to provide robust multimedia services across roaming boundaries and over diverse access technologies with promising features like quality-of-service (QoS), reliability and security. The IMS defines an overlay service architecture that merges the paradigms and technologies of the Internet with the cellular and fixed telecommunication worlds. Its architecture enables the efficient provision of an open set of potentially highly integrated multimedia services, combining web browsing, email, instant messaging, presence, VoIP, video conferencing, application sharing, telephony, unified messaging, multimedia content delivery, etc. on top of possibly different network technologies. As such IMS enables various business models for providing seamless business and consumer multimedia applications. In this communication converged world, the challenging issues are security, quality of service (QoS) and management & administration. In this paper our focus is to manage secure access to multimedia services and applications based on SIP and HTTP on top of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). These services include presence, video conferencing, messaging, video broadcasting, and push to talk etc. We will utilize Generic Bootstrapping Architecture (GBA) model to authenticate multimedia applications before accessing these multimedia services offered by IMS operators. We will make enhancement in GBA model to access these services securely by introducing Authentication Proxy (AP) which is responsible to implement Transport Layer Security (TLS) for HTTP and SIP communication. This research work is part of Secure Service Provisioning (SSP) Framework for IP Multimedia System at Fokus Fraunhofer IMS 3Gb Testbed.