Analysis of Key Establishment Techniques for Secure D2D Communication in Emerging 5G Cellular Networks

wireless networks presents a new paradigm for enhancing the
performance of traditional cellular networks. The number of devices
connected over the internet is dramatically increasing, and cellular
operators are struggling to harness the overwhelming data traffic on
their networks. D2D communication in a cellular network allows two
cellular devices in close proximity to communicate directly with each
other without going through the base station. D2D communication
faces various challenges that include device discovery, resource
allocation, interference and security; however, the security aspects of
D2D are not sufficiently addressed. Due to limited computing
capability and energy-constrained D2D devices, effective and
lightweight security solutions are required for enabling successful
D2D capability. To secure D2D communication, session key
establishment is the most vital task. Public Key Cryptography (PKC)
is the most widely used cryptosystem and have numerous security
applications such as encryption, digital signature, and key exchange.
This work analyses the performance of three PKC protocols that are
commonly used for session key establishment and exchange, namely,
Diffie-Hellman (DH), Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic
Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), with a focus on D2D
communication. We performed extensive simulations for DH, RSA
and ECDH, in D2D communication scenarios using OMNET++
simulator and explored the effect of various network factors on key
establishment delays such as network size, the impact of interference
between D2D pairs and the effect of interference from cellular users
upon D2D users as well. The results reported in this paper can
provide significant insight in assessing the suitability of DH, RSA
and ECDH for the key establishment for D2D in 5G networks.