20. Mobile Communication Systems and Related Security Issues

In the previous two Chaps.​ 18 and 19, we dealt with wireless communication but restricted our discussion to sensor networks, wireless communication networks, and cellular networks. We discussed a good number of communication devices and their communication protocols. We also discussed the security problems, and we propose solutions in some cases. What we did not do is actually put all these devices and technologies together to create the current phenomenal mobile communication devices, and the technology is currently driving computing and communication. We are going to do this in this chapter and more. The last two decades have witnessed a revolution of sorts in communication spearheaded by the rapidly evolving technologies in both software and hardware. A mobile communication system consists of two or more of the following devices, running specifically developed software to sustain, for a period of time, a wireless communication link between them: mobile telephone, broadly construed here to include devices based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and Wireless Personal Digital Assistants (WPDA) digital technologies and follow-ons, as well as satellite telephones and e-mail appliances. Mobile communication systems are revolutionizing the world today, shrinking the world to between two or more small handheld mobile devices. The rapid changes in communication technologies, revolutionary changes in software, and the growth of large powerful communication network technologies all have eased communication and brought it to large swaths of the globe. The high-end competition between the mobile telecommunication operators resulting in plummeting device prices, the quickly developing smartphone technology, and growing number of undersea cables and cheaper satellites technologies are bringing Internet access to almost every one of the global rural poor faster than many had anticipated.