Network Security Concerns in 5G MIMO Beamforming

EasyChair Preprint 11301

Abstract

         MIMO technology is a key technology of 5G, which is widely used in next-generation scenarios such as heterogeneous networks, millimeter-wave networks, and automotive networks. How to build a large-scale MIMO system security situation assessment model for 5G has become the main topic of current concern. The broader reach of network infrastructure and transport layer cryptographic gains on 5G security tend to receive a large proportion of focus in threat modeling and mitigation, but the underlying physical layer backbone has seen significant changes with massive MIMO, beamforming, and mmWave spectrum use at the edge. Examples of the attacks against MIMO are those related to the decentralization of the RAN towards fog computing IoT technologies, the continued blurring of WLAN with Frequency Range 2 (FR2) small cells, and the perceived vulnerability to physical attacks that these spatially isolated networks exhibit further demonstrate the necessity of modeling preexisting threat profiles to be inclusive and emphatic of emerging physical layer attacks. We look at one threat for FR1 (pilot contamination) and one for FR2 (mmWave attacks), both utilizing the physical properties of beamforming and demonstrating the new concerns in the highly heterogeneous network architecture in use by 5GNR. In this paper, we focus on the security concerns related to the Massive MIMO.

Keyphrases: 5G, Massive MIMO, Privacy, RAN, Security, Trust

@booklet{EasyChair:11301,
  author    = {Mohamed A. Ismail},
  title     = {Network Security Concerns in 5G MIMO Beamforming},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 11301},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2023}}