A Lightweight Authentication Protocol for UAV Networks Based on Security and Computational Resource Optimization

Abstract

The widespread use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) has made the security and computing resource application efficiency of UAV a hot topic in the security field of the Internet of Things. In this paper, an optimized lightweight identity security authentication protocol, Optimized Identity Authentication Protocol (ODIAP) is proposed for Internet of Drones (IoD) networks. The protocol is targeted to the security risks faced by IoD networks, and proposes the security authentication mechanism consisting of 3 phases and 7 authentication processes, which enables the protocol has both forward and backward security, and can resist mainstream network attacks. Meanwhile, this paper fully considers the computational load and proposes the identity information generation and verification method based on the Chinese residual theorem, which reduces the computational load of resource-constrained nodes and shifts the complex computational process to server nodes with abundant computational resources. Moreover, after security protocol analysis and tool verification based on the automated security verification tool Proverif, the protocol in this paper has complete security. At the same time, the performance analysis and comparison with other mainstream protocols shows that this protocol effectively optimizes the use of computing resources without compromising security. INDEX TERMSUAV, Internet of Drones, Lightweight Authentication, Proverif, Security I. INTRODUCTION A. BACKGROUND

A location‐aware physical unclonable function and Chebyshev map‐based mutual authentication mechanism for internet of surveillance drones

“…However, this method incurred higher communication cost and did not consider the physical security of drones. Lei et al 38 proposed a PUF and Chinese residual theorem‐based authentication mechanism for IoD without considering the key storage issues, insider attacks and location validation. Nyangaresi et al 39 suggested another PUF‐based mutual authentication technique, however, the protocol relies on an intermediary service provider without authenticating it.…”

A comprehensive security and performance assessment of UAV authentication schemes

“…In such scenarios, the adoption of UAV authentication mechanisms prevents malicious adversaries from compromising the flight mission. Accordingly, several studies on UAV authentication protocols have been proposed in the literature 7‐26 . Effective authentication schemes for UAVs rely on cryptographic primitives to guarantee confidentiality, integrity, and availability.…”

“…While UAV authentication protocols enable secure communication, they raise security and performance challenges that need to be addressed. In the existing literature, several UAV authentication protocols are applied in diverse applications in computing and communication technologies (e.g., computer networks, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0) 7‐26 . Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive study has contrasted UAV authentication protocols to each other in terms of security and performance.…”

A Review on Software-Based and Hardware-Based Authentication Mechanisms for the Internet of Drones

“…Although energy efficiency is a critical factor for practical IoD deployments, the majority of the authentication protocols reported in the literature have not considered the energy consumption of the network nodes. On the contrary, a lightweight identity security authentication protocol, namely Optimized Identity Authentication Protocol (ODIAP), for the IoD was presented in [68] and aimed to mitigate several security threats (e.g., impersonation and replay attacks) in an energy-efficient manner. This protocol included three separate operation phases (i.e., the initialization phase, the registration phase, and the authentication phase) and considered four network entities (i.e., the sensors, the drones, the access point, and the servers).…”