Security Challenges and Solutions for Cloud Radio Access Networks

Millions of consumers and thousands of enterprises use cellular networks for mobile broadband services for high speed internet connectivity. This increases the immensity on various cellular network providers to afford the reliable and secure communication. The main purpose of 5G system is to become a reliable in communication standards and to provide an innovation platform for businesses and organizations to create and deploy new add-on services. Cloud radio access networks (CRAN) are an encouraging technology that will allow 5G mobile communication systems to satisfy the industry's needs and demands of end users with higher mobility and seamless connectivity. CRAN is characterized by centralized processing and control, providing collaborative access to the radio networks, and integrated with cloud based systems. Meanwhile, energy-efficient operation must be delivered together with cost savings in deployment and functioning in the network. However, CRAN technology in 5G mobile communication systems has to face multiple intrinsic security issues related with virtual system functions and cloud computing environment. This architecture allows coverage of maximum distance with fiber optic links up to 20 kilometers with low latency. Very high bandwidth collaboration between the interconnected systems in the network is possible in CRAN systems. Real time virtualization enforces the dynamic allocation of resources among the functional modules in accordance with the network capacity and the load distribution. This may obstruct the rate of successful establishment in the global market. It is critical to identify these challenges to enable C-RAN to function on its full potential and adoptive the deployment of future 5G mobile systems. This paper focuses on various security challenges and the privacy issues found in Cloud Radio Access Networks (CRAN). CRAN is characterized by centralized processing and control, providing collaborative access to the radio networks, and integrated with cloud based systems. The security issues at various levels and components are identified through several literatures and are tabulated in Table I. For this segregation, we have considered three major components of the systems as SDN, NFV and Cloud environment. We also have identified related security solutions for issues addressed and suggested some future guidelines for secure 5G systems.