AKMA (Authentication and Key Management for Applications) support in free5GC?

Q/A
1

Hello everyone,

I’m currently working on the implementation of AKMA (Authentication and Key Management for Applications) in an open-source 5G Core as part of my PhD research.

I would like to ask the community a few questions:

  1. Has anyone implemented AKMA in free5GC?

  2. Is there any ongoing development, branch, or roadmap item related to AKMA support?

  3. Has anyone experimented with AKMA in other open-source 5G Core projects (Open5GS, OAI CN5G, etc.)?

  4. Does anyone know of any GitHub repositories, research projects, or publications with an actual AKMA implementation rather than only theoretical or architectural proposals?

From my investigation so far, I have not found any publicly available implementation. Before starting one from scratch, I wanted to ask whether the community is aware of any existing work, even if it is experimental or still under development.

What is AKMA?

AKMA (Authentication and Key Management for Applications) is a 3GPP security framework that enables application servers (Application Functions - AFs) to derive application-specific cryptographic keys from the 5G authentication process without requiring a separate authentication mechanism.

The framework introduces the AKMA Anchor Function (AAnF) inside the 5G Core, which derives and manages AKMA credentials and securely provides key material to trusted application servers. This allows applications to reuse the trust established during 5G-AKA or EAP-AKA’, reducing authentication overhead while maintaining end-to-end security.

AKMA is considered an important building block for edge computing (MEC), IoT, V2X, UAV communications, industrial automation, and other 5G service-based applications.

Further reading

For anyone interested in AKMA, the following 3GPP specifications define the architecture, procedures, interfaces, and security framework:

  • 3GPP TS 33.535 – Authentication and Key Management for Applications (AKMA) based on 3GPP credentials in the 5G System (5GS)

  • 3GPP TS 23.501 – System Architecture for the 5G System (5GS)

  • 3GPP TS 23.502 – Procedures for the 5G System (5GS)

  • 3GPP TS 29.535 – Service-Based Interfaces supporting AKMA

Useful links:

Any information, references, prototype implementations, or work-in-progress projects would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!