Abstract—The 4th Generation of mobile communications (4G)
has been designed to fulfil strict security requirements. However,
design shortcomings may open the door to threats, casting doubt
on the reliability of the system. Recent publications found critical
vulnerabilities, such as breach of user identity privacy, user
location tracking or inability to guarantee privacy and integrity
of communications, proposing amendments without considering
fully backward compatibility and inflicting further menaces.
This paper intends to give an in-depth insight into this issue,
analysing the latest release of Long Term Evolution (LTEAdvanced)
specifications in order to identify strengths and
deficiencies. An evaluation of the alternative solutions is made,
proposing future research on this matter with diverse approaches
to design an enhanced solution more efficient, respectful with
backward systems and similar traffic load.
Index Terms—4G, EPS, LTE-Advance, LTE Security.
I. INTRODUCTION
Mobile communications have been developed during the
last decade, reaching unexpected figures of active users
and making a reality services which nobody would ever
imagine before. Social networks, real-time navigation systems
along video-streaming services such You-tube or live music
comprise a huge list of on-line services whose use requires
high data throughput rates. In contrast with old tendency, now
the information flows in both sides, demanding vast amounts
of data traffic not only into the downlink, but also into the
uplink to share multimedia content on Internet.