The Case for Federated Identity Management in 5G Communications

The heterogeneous nature of fifth generation mobile network (5G) makes the access and provision of network services very difficult and raises security concerns. With multi-users and multi-operators, Service-Oriented Authentication (SOA) and authorization mechanisms are required to provide quick access and interaction between network services. The users require seamless access to services regardless of the domain, type of connectivity or security mechanism used. Hence a need for Identity and Access Management (IAM) mechanism to complement the improved user experience promised in 5G. Federated Identity Management (FIdM) a feature of IAM, can provide a user with use Single Sign On (SSO) to access services from multiple Service Providers (SP). This addresses security requirements such as authentication, authorization, and user's privacy from the end user perspectives, however 5G networks access lacks such solution. We propose a Network Service Federated Identity (NS-FId) model that address these security requirements and complements the 5G Service-Based Architecture (SBA). We present different scenarios and applications of the proposed model. We also discuss the benefits of identity management in 5G.