threats in order to prevent future menaces in LTE.
Between the characteristics of the latest release of LTE
Advanced, a few innovations are highlighted:
Carrier aggregation, providing a flexible and more efficient
use of the spectrum.
Enhanced downlink Multiple Input/Multiple Output
(MIMO), increasing the cell throughput.
Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC),
enhancing interference management between cells.
Relay Nodes (RNs), used to cover wider areas.
Home E-UTRAN Node-B’s (HeNBs), improving indoor
data rates.
LTE-Advanced system should target peak rates of 1
Gbps/500 Mbps for the downlink/uplink respectively, according
to the theoretical expectations [1], exceeding the 300
Mbps/75 Mbps rates of LTE standard and supporting mobile
speeds up to 350 km/h.
A. Architecture
The whole system is divided in two parts: Evolved Packet
Core (EPC) in figure 1 and Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio
Access Network (E-UTRAN) in figure 2. Compatibility with
old network infrastructures is provided, based on 3GPP or
non-3GPP technologies, being them classified as trusted
or non-trusted accessing networks [2]. This classification
describes the way to authenticate the users, defines how to
migrate their security contexts during a handover process and
establishes the behaviour of the core network towards the user.