Democratizing Measurement of Critical Mobile Infrastructure: Security and Privacy in an Increasingly Centralized Communication Ecosystem

2026-05-11

AI Summary

This study addresses the lack of open, scalable, and geographically diverse measurement methodologies for independently assessing security and privacy risks in cellular networks, Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi), and over-the-top (OTT) services. To overcome this limitation, the authors propose and publicly release the first unified and extensible measurement framework that operates without requiring carrier cooperation. By integrating wireless probing, end-to-end service testing, and an automated experimentation platform, the framework enables controlled, reproducible measurements across diverse geographic regions and multiple technological pathways—including eSIM and VoWiFi. The platform has been successfully deployed in real-world scenarios, achieving, for the first time, a coordinated analysis of these three communication paradigms and uncovering critical security and privacy vulnerabilities inherent in current architectures.

Abstract

Cellular networks serve as the backbone of global communication, providing critical access to telephony and the Internet, often in regions lacking alternatives. However, the growing complexity of these networks, driven by architectural innovations (e.g., Voice over IP, eSIMs) and commercial dynamics (e.g., roaming, virtual operators, zero-rating), remains poorly understood due to the lack of open, scalable, and geographically diverse measurement tools and independent measurement studies. Moreover, access to mobile networks today is no longer limited to the traditional radio interface. Technologies like Voice-over-WiFi (VoWiFi) offer alternative connectivity paths via third-party Internet infrastructure, extending operator reach into environments with limited cellular coverage. At the same time, over-the-top (OTT) messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal have become central to modern communication, accounting for a substantial share of global messaging and voice traffic while bypassing traditional operator-controlled channels entirely. This dissertation addresses these challenges by introducing new approaches for independent, scalable, and reproducible measurements of mobile communication systems without requiring cooperation from network or platform operators. We design, implement, and open-source measurement platforms that enable controlled experiments across cellular radio networks, operator-provided services, and OTT messaging applications.

Problem

• mobile infrastructure
• security
• privacy
• measurement
• OTT messaging

Innovation

• mobile network measurement
• independent measurement
• VoWiFi
• OTT messaging
• open-source platform