CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a national phase under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/CN2016/099206 which has an international filing date of Sep. 18, 2016, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD

The application relates generally to communication networks, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to security functions in communication networks.

BACKGROUND

This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitating a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.

Fourth generation (4G) wireless mobile telecommunications technology, as governed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), was developed to provide high capacity mobile multimedia with high data rates particularly for human interaction. The next generation or fifth generation (5G) technology will be used not only for human interaction, but also for machine type communications. More than 70 use cases covering different 5G scenarios have been described in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Report (TR) 22.891, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. A major difference between 4G and 5G design requirements is the diversity of use cases that 5G networks must support as compared to 4G networks that were primarily designed for the single use case of delivering high speed mobile broadband.

5G will enable very diverse use cases, as mentioned as above. Each use case has different security requirements. For example, massive Internet of Things (IoT) applications with specifications for supporting massive numbers (e.g., about 1 million connections per square kilometer) of low capability devices (e.g. sensors, actuators and cameras) and ten plus years on battery life also require energy-efficient security solutions. Further, mission-critical IoT applications (e.g., industrial control systems, mobile health care, real-time control of vehicles, road traffic, accident prevention, wide area monitoring and control systems for smart grids, public safety communication systems, multimedia priority services, etc.) with low latency and high reliability devices require real-time adaptive and high-level security solutions. Still further, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services with improved wireless Internet access specifications for mobile devices also require improved security solutions.

However, there are significant challenges in meeting the multiple and diverse security requirements associated with the multiple and diverse use cases supported in 5G and similar networks. Existing security solutions do not adequately address the significant challenges.

SUMMARY

Illustrative embodiments provide techniques for providing unified security functions and architecture in communication networks. While such embodiments may be expected to provide, for example, improvements in performance and/or reduction of cost of relative to conventional approaches, no particular result is a requirement of any embodiment unless explicitly recited in a particular claim.

For example, in one embodiment, a method includes the following steps. A security service function chain is created including a set of security service functions. The security service function chain is created in response to instantiation of a given network partition in a communication network. The communication network supports instantiation of a plurality of network partitions for providing a respective plurality of network services. The security service function chain is utilized to perform at least one security service for an entity performing one of accessing and seeking access to a network service corresponding to the given network partition.

In another embodiment, an article of manufacture is provided which comprises a processor-readable storage medium having encoded therein executable code of one or more software programs. The one or more software programs when executed by at least one processing device implement steps of the above-described method.

In yet another embodiment, an apparatus comprises a memory and a processor configured to perform steps of the above-described method.

Advantageously, illustrative embodiments provide unified security services functions (for example, but not limited to, authentication functions) and architecture to meet different security requirements for the multiple and diverse security requirements supported by 5G and similar networks (e.g., massive IoT, mission-critical IoT, eMBB, etc.), as well as to provide key negotiation and agreement for confidentiality and integrity protection, for an entity (e.g., a subscriber (using a device with a subscriber or user identity module) or a device (with no subscriber or user identity module)) accessing or seeking access to a network partition(s), a network service(s), and/or other portions of the communication network.

These and other features and advantages of embodiments described herein will become more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description.

