Performance Comparison of EAP-GPSK, SAKE with AES-CCM and EAP-SAKE-FFX Authenticated Encryption Protocols for WiMAX Network Security

WiMAX technology is a broadband wireless data communications technology based around the IEEE 802.16 standards providing high speed data over a wide area. Developed nations desire to install a new high speed data network very cheaply to those in rural areas needing fast access where wired solutions may not be viable because of the distances and costs involved. WiMAX Network security is a measure to protect the data during the transmission between client and server. Security attack is an action that compromises the security of information over the network by the third party. The security mechanisms are designed to detect, prevent and recover the information from a security attack. Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a authorized user or a device to access the network resources and information. There is an increasing demand to provide strong authentication for users, devices and applications across all types of network. The level of security offered by passwords is very low [1]. The level of security could be increased by using two or three factor authentication. Authentication Protocol uses message formats to communicate between client and server. It supports authentication mechanisms such as smartcards, Kerberos, digital certificates, onetime passwords and others. The authentication protocol is extensible when any one of the above authentication mechanisms is encapsulated within the message formats. Secure user authentication is obtained through the encrypted exchange of the user& #039, s credentials. Authentication mechanisms are implemented in a number of ways called EAP methods such as EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, EAP-PEAP etc. We compare and analyze the performance of existed authenticated protocols EAP-GPSK, EAP-SAKE with AES-CCM encryption algorithm and the proposed hybrid protocol EAP-SAKE with AES-FFX, format preserving encryption algorithm to provide security to the base stations of WiMAX network.