For this round of tests, the 5G Security Test Bed set out to evaluate and verify the security components of the Third Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) technical specifications for 5G’s advanced security capabilities, along with select measures recommended by the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) VII Working Group 2 report.
Access the full technical report, highlights summary, and one-pager.
The tests represent a first-of-its-kind validation of 5G network slicing. Specifically, the tests assessed standards for network slicing found in 3GPP TS 33.401 and 33.501, by investigating the security features associated with 5G network infrastructure and the devices that can access a 5G standalone (5G SA) network.
The 5G Security Test Bed successfully tested various properties of networks partitioned through network slicing, including authentication, segmentation, security, and data integrity, validating that:
- Each user device and its data are authenticated and isolated to a specific slice.
- Additional security (IPsec encryption) can be added to individual slices.
- Overlaying two layers of encryption does not result in data loss.
The Technical Report includes the full technical details of the tests, their execution, and results. The Highlights Summary is a shorter paper highlighting the key points of the main paper and is meant for non-technical audiences who are interested in some level of detail. The One-Pager provides a very high-level summary of the test cases and their applications.