QoS and Security in 4G Networks

Future 4G mobile communication networks are expected to provide all IP-based services for heterogeneous wireless access technologies, assisted by mobile IP to provide seamless Internet access for mobile users. Two major challenges in developing such heterogeneous network infrastructure are QoS provisioning and security services for mobile users’ communication flows. This paper proposes a new architectural view and methodologies for QoS and security support in 4G networks, which integrates QoS signaling with authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) services to both guarantee the user applications’ QoS requirements and achieve efficient authentication, authorization and key exchange.