Real-world Demonstration of Secure 5G Roaming for Military Communications

Secure 5G Roaming between two private networks will be demonstrated across US and Estonia from the collaborative research in progress between Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) conducted for DoD FutureG. With the transformational New Radio-Unlicensed (NR-U), 5G network can be operated with unlicensed and shared spectrum. Private 5G networks without any licensed bands, which are both highly expensive and usually available to only large commercial wireless providers, can now be used for a whole range of new applications including smart warehouses and warehouses, connected cars and drones. The capability of a 5G user to roam securely between multiple 5G networks with the same device and subscriber identity module (SIM) extends these capabilities internationally and provides a powerful mechanism for efficient collaboration among users of multiple 5G networks including those used for military applications. While these capabilities are transformational, necessary security and reliability requirements have to be satisfied when used for mission critical communication and in critical infrastructure such as warehouses, factories, power plants, water systems, ports, and other industrial facilities. 3GPP standards for 5G have introduced significant security improvements over 4G/LTE as well as mitigation for new attack surfaces created by changes in the 5G network architecture. Specifically, vulnerabilities to adversarial attacks on roaming subscribers have been effectively addressed by 1) moving the authentication procedure to the home network; and 2) introducing a new 5G core network function (NF), called secure edge protection proxy (SEPP), that secures communication over the N32 signaling interface between the serving and home 5G networks with mutual transport layer security (TLS) authentication. This demonstration will highlight the 5G roaming security improvements with real-time transatlantic roaming connections between two private 5G networks in US and Estonia. Commercial 5G devices are used in these connections ensuring that real-world 5G calls are demonstrated which can take place between 5G networks with roaming capabilities and agreements worldwide.