R1-2508312
LS in
LS on Early Alignment on Access Stratum security aspects
From Vodafone
Summary
Vodafone (RAN2) transmits a liaison statement to SA3 requesting early security alignment for 6G AS protocols. The document presents 1 action requesting SA3 to identify critical lower-layer control information requiring protection and to specify the protection types and overhead impacts, citing concerns from 5G MAC CE design.
Position
Vodafone proposes initiating a joint study with SA3 on security for lower layer control information in 6G, noting that 5G MAC CEs lacked encryption/integrity protection at lower layers. They express concerns about potential overhead impacts from protecting lower-layer control information, specifically citing increased message exchange/size in handover signaling and large security overhead for small messages. They also identify processing requirement concerns for time-critical lower-layer information such as BSR and PHR that have stringent UL slot timing. They request SA3 to identify only the critical subset of lower-layer control information requiring protection, rather than protecting all lower-layer control elements.
Key proposals
- Action (Sec 2): RAN2 requests SA3 to identify only the critical lower layer control information that requires protection, considering RAN2's concerns about overhead and processing requirements for small, latency-sensitive messages like BSR and PHR.
- Action (Sec 2): RAN2 requests SA3 to specify what type of protection (integrity protection and/or ciphering protection) is required for the identified critical lower layer control information.
- Action (Sec 2): RAN2 requests SA3 to indicate what kind of overhead the protection of critical lower layer control information could incur.
- Action (Sec 2): RAN2 requests SA3 to provide any other information deemed important for RAN2 to understand regarding lower layer security.