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

Abstract

During the last few years, a wide variety of Internet of Drones (IoD) applications have emerged with numerous heterogeneous aerial and ground network elements interconnected and equipped with advanced sensors, computation resources, and communication units. The evolution of IoD networks presupposes the mitigation of several security and privacy threats. Thus, robust authentication protocols should be implemented in order to attain secure operation within the IoD. However, owing to the inherent features of the IoD and the limitations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in terms of energy, computational, and memory resources, designing efficient and lightweight authentication solutions is a non-trivial and complicated process. Recently, the development of authentication mechanisms for the IoD has received unprecedented attention. In this paper, up-to-date research studies on authentication mechanisms for IoD networks are presented. To this end, the adoption of conventional technologies and methods, such as the widely used hash functions, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and Elliptic-Curve Cryptography (ECC), is discussed along with emerging technologies, including Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Machine Learning (ML), and Blockchain. Additionally, this paper provides a review of effective hardware-based solutions for the identification and authentication of network nodes within the IoD that are based on Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs), Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), and Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs). Finally, future directions in these relevant research topics are given, stimulating further work.

Secure UAV-Aided Mobile Edge Computing for IoT: A Review

“…Various security solutions for SDN-enabled UAV networks were presented in [43]. In [18], up-to-date research studies on authentication mechanisms for UAV-based networks were presented. To this end, the adoption of conventional technologies and methods, such as the widely used hash functions, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and Elliptic-Curve Cryptography (ECC), was discussed along with emerging technologies, including MEC, ML, and Blockchain.…”

“…Additionally, a review of effective hardware-based solutions for the identification and authentication of network nodes was provided and the use of Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs), Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), and Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) as effective security solutions was indicated. Nevertheless, the role of authentication was only studied in [18], whereas the use of MEC was not considered in [27] and [21], [22], [34]- [43].…”

“…Various UAV-based network architectures have been previously proposed. Apart from typical single-UAV deployments, more sophisticated network configurations have also been envisioned to provide extended scalability, reliability, survivability, efficient task distribution, and coordination, such as the Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs) that involve interconnected drones configured in groups [48] and the IoD paradigm that combines heterogeneous aerial and ground interconnected network segments [18]. Among the main benefits of the UAVs are the flexibility, the rapid deployment, and the movement on-demand.…”

“…Apart from PLS, succesfully authenticating the network nodes is also critical [18]. In such volatile and decentralized network deployments, as those studied in this paper, the aerial and ground nodes can dynamically join or leave the network.…”

“…Nevertheless, there exist various challenges and barriers to secure IoT network operation and task offloading [17], due to the wide distribution of nodes in open and remote environments, highly dynamic network topology, high possibility of short-distance Line-of-Sight (LoS) connections, and unencrypted wireless links [18]. As node authentication is a prevalent requirement for security, efficient authentication mechanisms should be also implemented.…”