Guaranteeing authenticity and integrity in signaling exchange between mobile networks

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution that guarantees authenticity and integrity on the signaling exchange between mobile roaming networks that trust each other. According to at least one example embodiment, a network element located on a sending mobile network may be configured to generate a signaling message that includes one or more protected data fields, calculate a hash value for each of the one or more protected data fields, combine each of the calculated hash values together using an exclusive OR (XOR) operation resulting in a combined hash value. The network element may be further configured to calculate an authentication code based on the combined hash value and a key, add an authentication field to the signaling message, the authentication field storing the authentication code, and send the signaling message to a transporting network.