Security and Identity Management for Next Generation Networks (NGNs) and Future Internet (FI)

The Internet as the ubiquitous communication platform has changed rapidly in the last years. More and more services are migrated to an all-IP network (like voice and video in NGNs). With more and more services migrating, the limits of the current Internet become obvious and scientists and engineers are sketching and building the Future Internet (FI).

These completely new architectures are more complex, more distributed and ideally more secure. However, with new technologies also new security threats emerge, and it is an ongoing challenge to address yet unknown security concerns in ever-evolving new Internet architectures.

NGNI has a long record of security research in evolving Internet technologies. NGNI has successfully addressed many different topics in emerging communication technologies, like encrypted communication, Denial-of-Service protection, and unsolicited message detection. NGNI has developed monitoring and management tools to protect and survey its infrastructure, which are deployed internally and in external testbeds.

Security is an ongoing research topic. We continue our security research currently in the topics of user-centric identity management for NGNs, fraud and intrusion detection, self-protection in automatic FI and the definition of new emergency services.

Security is a wide topic and is addressed in cooperation with the Network Research (NET) and Electronic Government and Applications (ELAN) competence centers at Fraunhofer FOKUS.

NGNI Security Projects:

• EU FP6 Multinational Research Project SNOCER
  • research and development of tools for Denial-of-Service detection
  • project leadership and main R&D by NGNI
• EU FP6 Multinational Research Project SPIDER
  • research and development of tools for unsolicited message (spam) detection and prevention
  • project leadership and main R&D by NGNI
• Internal Research and testing Project VoIP/NGN Defender
  • research and development of a scalable Security framework for NGN traffic monitoring
  • available as SIPWatch, part of the Open IMS Management Console (OMACO)
• National Fraunhofer Innovation Cluster Secure Identity
  • research and development of identity enablers for NGNs and FI
  • NGNI is responsible for the topic user-centric identity management for  mobile devices
• EU FP7 Multinational Research Project EFIPSANS
  • research and development of an automatic Future Internet
  • NGNI is responsible for the security aspects of the new architecture
• EU FP7 Multinational Research Project PEACE
  • research and development of an emergency service architecture for NGNs
  • NGNI is responsible for the architecture definition and development
• EU FP7 Multinational research Project SCAMSTOP
  • research and development of tools for fraud and intrusion detection
  • project leadership and main R&D by NGNI

Selected Research Publications:

G. Zhang, Y. Rebahi, “Side Effects of Identity Management in SIP based VoIP environments”, to appear in the International Journal of Network Security and its Applications (IJNSA)

Y. Rebahi, N. T. Minh, G. Zhang, “Performance Analysis of Identity Management in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)”, The communications of the Arab Computer Society Magazine (CACS), Vol 2, No 001, 2009

S. Ehlert, Y. Rebahi, T. Magedanz: “Intrusion Detection System for Denial-of-Service Flooding Attacks in SIP Communication Networks”, International Journal of Security in Networks (to appear)

Y. Rebahi, S. Dritsas, T. Golubenko, B. Pannier, J.-F. Juell, D. Gritzalis: “A conceptual architecture for SPIT mitigation”, in IP Handbook: Services, Technologies, and Security of Session Initiation Protocol, Ilyas M., Ahson S. (Eds.), CRC Press, USA, December 2008

P. Weik, S.Wahle: “Towards a Generic Identity Enabler for Telco Networks”, 12th International Conference on Intelligence in Service Delivery Networks (ICIN) 2008, Bordeaux, France, October 20-23, (2008) - Services, Enablers and Architectures; Supporting Business Models for a New Open World. ICIN. ISBN 978-1-60702-868-0, October 2008

S. Ehlert, G. Zhang, D. Geneiatakis, G. Kambourakis, T. Dagiuklas, J. Markl, D. Sisalem: “Two Layer Denial of Service Prevention on SIP VoIP Infrastructures”, Computer Communications, 31(10):2443-2456, June 2008

M. Sher, T. Magedanz: “A Vulnerabilities Analysis and Corresponding Middleware Security Extensions for Securing NGN Applications”,  Elsevier Journal of Computer Network, Special Issue on (1) Innovation in Web Communication Infrastructure; (2) Middleware Challenges for Next Generation Networks and Services, 51(16): 4697-4709, November 2007

J. Fiedler, T. Kupka, S. Ehlert, T. Magedanz, D. Sisalem: “VoIP Defender: Highly Scalable SIP-based Security Architecture”, in Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications (ACM IPTComm 2007), New York, USA, July 2007

Y. Rebahi: “Change-Point Detection for Voice over IP Denial of Service Attacks”, in 15. ITG/GI - Fachtagung Kommunikation in Verteilten Systemen, Bern, Zurich, February 2007

D. Sisalem, J. Kuthan, S. Ehlert: “Denial of Service Attacks Targeting a SIP VoIP Infrastructure - Attack Scenarios and Prevention Mechanisms”, IEEE Network 20 (5): 26-31, September 2006