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NAS Attach Complete message contains 2 security header type IEs and 2 protocol discriminator IEs

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Asked the same on LTE University, just repeating the same here.

I was wondering if you can help me with this issue: I don't understand why the Attach Complete and other NAS messages contain more than 1 Protocol Discriminator IEs and more than 1 Security header type IEs. Are these IEs correlated with the following ESM message container or what could it be the cause?

Here you can find the hex stream of my Attach Complete (only the NAS PDU) packet:
270000000001074300035201c2

posted Jun 23, 2014 by anonymous

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1 Answer

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When MME activates integrity and ciphering for NAS messages, it expects UE will send NAS protected message. If you see Attach Complete message content, it doesn't contain any field like MAC (message authentication code and Sequence number, MAC is used for integrity of received message. Attach Complete is a EMM message. If you see message content of "Attach default EPS bearer context accept" , it doesn't have any security related IE. So there is NAS PDU header has been defined which contains information like MAC (message authentication code) and Sequence Number.

answer Jun 24, 2014 by Ganesh
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+1 vote

I was looking into NAS header. First four bits are used for security header type. Few values I understood but one value I could not understand which was 1100 saying "security header for service request message". I could not understand why such thing is defined only for service request message not for the other messages ?

+4 votes

There are couple of procedures are defined which consist of NAS as well as RRC signalling messages exchange.
Some of the NAS message sends to an UE through RRC Connection Reconfiguration message as piggybacked and some as DL Info transfer.

I want to know, Is there any procedure exists in lte when an UE receives RRC Connection Reconfiguration along with NAS message and responds back to network with NAS message first and then Reconfiguration Complete to eNodeB.

Usually, I saw UE sends RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message first then NAS response message.

0 votes

Is nas security mandatory procedure while doing attach ?

+5 votes

Uplink NAS transport message is used between eNodeB and MME to pass NAS messages between UE and MME transparently.
Since eNodeB has already communicated TAI and E-CGI as part of "Initial UE message" and MME knows current serving (cell and tai ) of UE then why both IEs are mandatory in Uplink NAS transport. I think it should be optional and it should be included in the message when there is a change in serving (cell or tai or both).

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