With the emergence of a more digitized world combined with the prospect of a broadband communication of 20 Gbps, the development of an Identity and Access Layer in 5G started with the vision of user’s identities in the center of a new value proposition. Identity as an abstraction layer in 5G bridges across domains, cross access technologies and between the network and Internet services focused on enhanced user experience as well as higher personalization of services that can only be achieved through a user-centric approach shifting the view from the subscriber to the user. This presentation will cover the background, including the various use case defined by multiple industry organizations, requirements, and technical development of 5G to enable this fundamental shift in next-generation cellular system to unlock the potential of what 5G can deliver. Presented at European Identity & Cloud Conference 2019 (https://www.kuppingercole.com/sessions/3080).

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Development of 5G
IAM Architecture
Transitioning to a User Centric
View
Bjorn Hjelm
May 16, 2019

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Why, What and How
2

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5G Currencies / Capabilities

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5G Core Network Key Principles and Concepts
4
Service-based interactions between Control Plane Network Functions (NF)
where authorized NFs can access any other NF services.
Separation between Control Plane and User Plane allowing for independent
scalability, evolution and flexible deployments.
Modularization of functions to enable flexible network slicing and support for
capability exposure.
1
2
3

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5G Core Network redefined as
Service-Based Architecture
(SBA)
5
UE (R)AN UPF
AF
AMF SMF
PCF UDM
DNN6
NRFNEF
N3
N2 N4
AUSF
Nausf Namf Nsmf
NpcfNnrfNnef Nudm Naf
NSSF
Nnssf
SBA entities
User Plane entities
1 3GPP TS 23.501, “System Architecture for the 5G System,” v.15.5.0, March 2019.
5G System Architecture1

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Study on a Layer for User Centric
Identifiers and Authentication followed
by User Identities and Authentication
(UIA) that introduce normative
requirements and study on the Usage
of User Identifiers in the 5G System
for architecture development.
Developed use cases focused on IoT
and generated requirements for a
service- and layer- agnostic Identity
as an Abstraction Layer in 5G as part
of the input to 3GPP.
Defined a 5G Vision around business
context based on use cases, business
models and value creation with a
user-centric view and the identity of
the entity.
Development of 5G IAM Requirements

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Identity as an Abstraction Layer in 5G
Service-
and Layer-
agnostic
Identity
An identity that bridges between network access technologies.
5G IAM architecture need to abstract from domain related identifiers and network technologies.
An identity that bridges between different services offered by one
provider.
An identity that bridges between operators and other identity
providers, providing a global identity business proposition.

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Basic Concept and Relations of 5G Identity
Management
Relationship between User, Identities, Identifiers and Attributes2
A user is an entity in the context of identity
management.
The identity can dependent on the role of the
entity in the system.
A user can have several user identities
(professional, private, etc.).
A user identity is associated with some pieces
of information generally referred to as
attributes where identifiers are one special
form of attribute.
Attributes that are not identifiers may be
associated with one or more identities.
2 3GPP TR 22.904, “Study on user centric identifiers and authentication,” v.16.1.0, Sep. 2018.

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5G User Centric Authentication Layer2
2 3GPP TR 22.904, “Study on user centric identifiers and authentication,” v.16.1.0, Sep. 2018.
Shall exist on top of the existing
subscription authentication.
Shall not replace existing subscription
credentials.
Shall support various authentication
mechanisms and interactions with
authentication system.
Identity relationship management supports
a service- and layer-agnostic identity of
the user.

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In addition...
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Authorization of 5G Network Function (NF) service access1 and 3rd-
party Application Functions (AF)3 are based on OAuth 2.0 framework.
Identity management and user authentication for 3GPP Mission
Critical (MC) services is based on OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0.4
1 3GPP TS 23.501, “System Architecture for the 5G System,” v.15.5.0, March 2019.
3 3GPP TS 33.501, “Security architecture and procedures for 5G system,” v.15.4.0, Mar. 2019.
4 3GPP TS 33.180, “Security of the mission critical service,” v.14.6.0, Mar. 2019.

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Summary
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The 5G Vision focus on business context based on use cases, business models
and value creation with a user-centric view.
The concept of User Identity in a 5G system has been defined and agreed upon
within 3GPP with architecture work in development.
Some of the basic building blocks to support 5G User Centric Authentication
Layer already exist.
1
2
3

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