A strong smartphone authentication model to control cellular network access using blockchain

Abstract

In an era that requests facilitating access to most services by providing the online platforms, the need to own a small electronic device is increasing. The smartphone is the ideal choice for most people due to its multifunctionality. On the other hand, the rate of physical crimes on these devices raised, especially theft and counterfeiting. As a solution to mitigate these crimes, stolen or counterfeit devices are prevented from connecting to the cellular network, but is this solution effective in mitigating the problem? To answer this question, this paper conducts a comprehensive survey on the current solutions tackled the smartphone theft or counterfeit issues, and it provides a taxonomy classify the current solutions into three categories: manufacturers solutions, cellular service provider solutions, and third-party solutions. The proposed smartphone authentication model for cellular network authentication utilizes the permissioned Blockchain network and consists of three protocols, which are smartphone registration protocol, ownership transfer protocol, and cellular network authentication protocol. In order to overcome the two serious physical crimes (theft and counterfeiting), the paper identifies five main requirements that must be met in any cellular network authentication approach, namely ability to detect counterfeit IMEI, ability to identify the device owner, ability to block the service on the stolen/lost devices, less processing time, and acceptable performance. The comparisons with related solutions showed that the proposed work meets all the requirements to mitigate smartphone theft and counterfeiting crimes.