Jobs

We are looking for students, who want to do an internship or write their bachelor, master or diploma thesis in the scope of the EPC. If you are interested please send a letter of application, your curriculum vitae together with a list of your experiences and interests to:

Julius Müller
julius [dot] mueller [at] fokus [dot] fraunhofer [dot] de

Marius Corici
marius-iulian [dot] corici [at] fokus [dot] fraunhofer [dot] de

Selected open thesis topics:

Design and Implementation of Policy Enhancements for the Next Generation Mobile Network Core

Although the core network for the mobile communication is already in the standardization process, a further enhancement of the policies which allow the network providers to ensure the resource reservation for each subscriber and each of its data flows has to be developed, due to the evolution from a voice dominant to a data dominant wireless communication. This topic includes the development of new mechanisms of communication in the core network, of new decision making and enforcing relying on the Fraunhofer FOKUS/TU OpenEPC platform.

The work includes:

• State of the art in policy decisions and enforcement in the operator core networks
• Understanding of the OpenEPC platform with advantages and drawbacks
• A novel concept in policy decisions and enforcement
• Design of the enhancements to the policy mechanisms for the EPC architecture
• Implementation of a minimal proof of concept demonstration using the OpenEPC platform
  

The results will be a state of the art overview, a novel concept for policy decision and enforcement and a minimal proof-of concept implementation.

Requirements: C programming, Linux know-how

Advantages(not required): Knowledge of Diameter protocol and/or Knowledge of policy enforcement mechanisms in Linux (iptables, traffic control etc.)

Design and Implementation of a security enabler for the Next Generation Mobile Networks

The Next Generation Mobile Networks encompass multiple access technologies (e.g. WiMAX, LTE, UMTS etc.) each having a different security mechanism.  In order to function as a converged all-IP core, the Next Generation Mobile Network system has to be able first to protect itself against the different attacks and to offer the security support for the services.

Due to the characteristics of the wireless networks (inherent cellular structure, heterogeneous technologies, necessity of horizontal and vertical handovers), the attackers are able to deploy new types of attacks on the system including hijacking of access network discovery and selection information and of sessions during or simulating a handover.

At this moment a security context has to be re-created on each access network, considering the specific capabilities including new credentials exchanged and the user and control planes security, which increases the delay in case of handovers.

This work includes:

• State of the art in security for wireless core networks
• Understanding of the FOKUS/TU OpenEPC platform with advantages and drawbacks
• A novel concept for a more secure Next Generation Mobile Networks
• Design of the security mechanism for the EPC architecture
• Implementation of a minimal proof of concept demonstration using the OpenEPC platform
  

Requirements: C programming, Linux know-how

Advantages(not required): Knowledge of IP security mechanisms

Design and Implementation of Dynamic Mobility anchor selection for the Next Generation Mobile Networks

The currently standardized core network architectures enabling wireless communication are based completely on IP. Therefore, for mobility, they rely on IP based mechanisms like Mobile IP which anchor all the data traffic of the mobile device in a centralized node (named Home Agent, Mobility Anchor etc.). This node can not serve the large number of subscribers of one operator; therefore a mechanism to balance the data traffic between multiple anchors is required.

The work includes:

• State of the art in mobility in the Next Generation Mobile Networks
• Understanding of the Next Generation Mobile Networks FOKUS/TU OpenEPC platform with advantages and drawbacks in regard to mobility
• A novel concept for dynamic mobility anchor selection
• Design of the enhancements to the mobility mechanisms for the EPC architecture
• Implementation of a minimal proof of concept demonstration using the OpenEPC platform
  

Requirements: C programming, Linux know-how

Advantages (but not required): knowledge of IP mobility mechanisms and/or IP routing mechanisms