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5G In the internet of things era: An overview on security and privacy challenges

Research Proposal · November 2020

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36118.78408

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 Department of Information and Communication Technology
University of Sri Jayewardenepura

5G In the internet of things era:

An overview on security and privacy challenges

B.M.N.T.Hemachandra – ICT/17/821
K.G.D.S.Bandra – ICT/17/805
2020 - Octomber
Abstract
The world is rapidly expanding with 5G technology, which promise to revolutionize the
mobile wireless communications, providing faster services, very low delays, and a very
pervasive connectivity via mobile devices, but it is worth to remember the Internet of Things
(IOT) takes the major advantage of this 5G technology. The Internet of Things is a system in
which computing equipment, machinery, and digital machines are related to each other. In fast
few decades people had great encouragement about IOT which makes it possible or accessible to
be applied in various fields, including home robotics, intelligent cities and Augmented Reality
(AR). There were many recent cellular standards like long-term evolution (LTE) have been
introduced for mobile devices but are not well suited for low-power and low data rate devices
such as the IoT devices. In particularly, 5G aims to address the limitations of previous cellular
standards and be a potential key enabler for future IoT. In this paper, we are going to mainly
discuss about 5G technology technical and privacy challenges. At the middle, the role of
emerging models such as IoT and fog computing is explored a bit.

Key words
5G, Security, Privacy, IOT, Fog computing

Introduction
Evolution of the Mobile Wireless
technology provides high data rates to perform
multimedia data and communication
transmissions to end users. The diffusion of
mobile devices in this digital era enforce to the
increment of network traffic. Compared to the
actual 4G technologies, 5G is characterized by
higher bit rates, quantified in more than 10
gigabits per second, as well as by more capacity
and very low latency.

We can divide 5G technology architecture into 3 layers.

1. Macro cells and Micro cells with proper base stations or hotspots, for guaranteeing the
pervasiveness of the connectivity among end devices or end-users.
 2. The core network, composed by routers, gate- ways, etc., which is responsible for
gathering and transmitting the in- formation acquired by the base stations.
3. The final connection to the Internet, which may take place through servers, data centers,
or cloud infrastructures.
In this digital era billions of connected objects and smart devices in the context of Internet of
Things (IoT) are rapidly increasing day by day. In fact, 5G certainly enables to overcome the
current issues which is happening because of the more network devices in terms of network
response times and network resources’ management.
This article is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the introduction about IOT; section 3
gives an idea about security and privacy, Section 4 consists of Fog computing.

IOT
5G will radically change the way our world networks. It won’t be long before worldwide
society will have to adapt to the new way of technological life - across industries, markets and
regions. This new technology standard promises much more than just further developments of
existing mobile communication technologies.We have innumerable studies that are trying to
quantify and predict the material impact of Fifth Generation (5G) and the Internet of Things
(IoT). 5G IoT reaches new dimensions in all aspects.

The data throughput in the new network should reach up to 20 gigabits per second and
allow shorter response times. As a piquant comparison, the first cell phone with 1G network
connectivity is eight million times less than a 5G network. With 5G, it will also be possible to
transmit data in real time. This means that 100 billion mobile devices around the world would be
accessible at the same time.
Security and privacy
We have already discussed about features of 5G. Basically, 5G means that internet
penetration will much higher, and more operations will rely on internet connections in the future.
Thus, we will be surrounded by various networks more than ever before. However, as with most
innovations there is a flip-side too. 5G security is another important aspect we should discuss.
Here we are going to discuss some risks.

5G uses the frequency spectrum, which is similar to other remote-sensing devices. As a

result, it might interfere with satellites used by weather forecasters and in commercial aviation
and disrupt their operations. 5G can be used for surveillance. Some countries accused Chinese
vendors of using their devices with 5G connections to spy on foreign users. Snoopers can also
use 5G to gather metadata in cases of mass surveillance and 5G as insufficiently tested and claim
that it will expose a vast amount of data. The number of denial-Of-service (DoS) and other
attacks is also expected to increase. Due to 5G’s high speed and latency, more operations will
rely on internet connections. The IOT devices will also become even more widespread and more
vulnerable will be even more date travelling in the open and stored in cloud servers.

Fog computing
Security of an information is a top concern for businesses, government, and individuals in
today’s world, because millions of devices become connected to the internet. Hackers can easily
find new vulnerabilities to exploit and increasingly sophisticated attacks make it far more
difficult for systems to identify protect and react to these threats beyond stealing intelligence or
disrupting business activities.
 Fog computing and fog computing architecture is enabling innovation for IOT 5G has
emerged as a solution for mitigating such threats. Fogs distributed architecture safeguards
connected systems from cloud to device creating and additional layer of system security in which
compute control storage , networking and communications works closer to the services and the
data sources they serve and protect with fog security resides directly in the local contexts not as a
remote function.

Fog nodes protect cloud based IOT and fog based services by performing a wide range of
security functions on any number of interconnected devices. Fog computing provides a trusted
distributed platform and execution environment for applications and services, managing and
updating security credentials, malware detections, distributing timely software patches quickly
and scale and more.

Conclusion
5G will enable new use cases that aren’t available today, with huge potential benefits for
the world at large. But it will also create new opportunities for those who wish to exploit this
new technology. As potentially the most critical of critical infrastructures, it will also need to be
the safest and most secure. Understanding how enormously different 5G cybersecurity
challenges are from the traditional ones is the first step. 5G security cannot be achieved through
a one-size-fits-all approach. Different 5G system entities will have different security needs –
understanding this will be foundational to building secure network operations.
 In the era of 5G, it's important that, when we begin to conceptualize security on a system
wide level where telecom networks are an important component, In the Privacy there are
Protection of personal privacy is a critical aspect of 5G security. Challenges include access to
location information, or leakage of personal voice, health, and lifestyle data. When data
Encryption, its affecting 5G security too. And other way around. In an increasingly digital world,
encryption has become the primary mechanism for securing information.

There are some security challenges in occurs in 5G like the physical structure of the
network. Its provide low latency and localization. Another thing is network function
virtualization. In that case components are placed across distributed and centralized core clouds.
Another challenge is implementation of flexible software-based architecture technologies such as
SDN (Software Defined Networks), SDA (Software Defined Access) and SDR (Software
Defined Radio).

Discussion
5G will enable new use cases that aren’t available today, with huge potential benefits for
the world at large, But it will also create new opportunities for those who wish to exploit this
new technology. In future, 5g could enable smart city infrastructure and truly autonomous
driving with security using contribute with IOT. 5G fixed wireless will reshape the broadband
ISP and services landscape(faster smartphones, 5G NR technologies will reshape) and enable
wireless gigabit and multi gigabit internet service in our home and office without need of WIFI.
When we talk about security and privacy in 5G, we can do these little things to protect
our privacy. As the need for network protection will only grow, we should ensure security by
using a VPN (Virtual private network). A VPN encrypts your traffic, so no one can see what you
do and intercept it. Users should also prefer applications offering extensive encryption
capabilities, such as end-to-end encryption and reliable algorithms. You should also minimize
the number of connected devices you use. Moreover, protect your devices use the most up-to-
date antivirus security software and make sure to tune up its settings for maximum safety.

Bibliography/References
(Sicari, Rizzardi and Coen-Porisini, 2020)Guo, S. et al. (2017) ‘Cross stratum resources protection in fog-
computing-based radio over fiber networks for 5G services’, Optical Fiber Technology. Elsevier Inc., 37,
pp. 61–68. doi: 10.1016/j.yofte.2017.07.001.
Lv, Z., Lloret, J. and Song, H. (2020) ‘Internet of Things and augmented reality in the age of 5G’,
Computer Communications. Elsevier B.V. doi: 10.1016/j.comcom.2020.08.019.
Sicari, S., Rizzardi, A. and Coen-Porisini, A. (2020) ‘5G In the internet of things era: An overview on
security and privacy challenges’, Computer Networks. Elsevier B.V., 179(May), p. 107345. doi:
10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107345.

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