Long Term Evolution (LTE) is part of the GSM evolutionary path for mobile broadband. LTE is positioned to be one of the dominant broadband wireless technologies of the next decade and is expected to be widely available in 2012. LTE will provide a viable alternative to traditional broadband technologies, with added benefit of mobility.
Features of LTE include;
- An all-IP flat network architecture
- Peak download rates nearing 300 mbps and upload rates of 75 mbps
- End-to-end QoS including provisions for low-latency communications
- The ability manage fast-moving mobiles
- Support for multi-cast and broadcast streams.
With LTE, the data capabilities of the mobile device are greatly extended and the technology is likely to have a massive impact on the services available to the smartphones and tablets of the future. LTE devices will be able to support high definition streaming video, advanced enterprise applications as well as payment and banking services.
The performance and functionality requirements of these applications require a robust, high performance security foundation, rooted in the chipset of the device. Moreover, LTE is likely to accelerate the adoption of open operating systems, which in and of itself creates additional security requirements. These security requirements apply to both platform and network security, as follows:
- Assuring the system boots from valid image (secure boot)
- Authenticating new images and revoking older ones (secure software updates and software image revocation)
- Accelerating secure packet-based communication (e.g. IPSec)
- Delivering a software image in an encrypted format and storing it encrypted in the device flash memory. The image gets decrypted only once the device boots (software update encryption)
- Featuring a flexible debug policy, differentiating OEMs, devices in field (Secure Debug)
- Securely transferring an asset to the Device or the IC (either by the OEM or the IC vendor) during the manufacturing process (provisioning)
- Applying different levels of SIM lock protection (SIM Lock)
- Protecting the IMEI from alterations
