Latin-Square-Based Key Negotiation Protocol for a Group of UAVs

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicle mobile ad hoc networks (UAVMANETs) formed by multi-UAV self-assembling networks have rapidly developed and been widely used in many industries in recent years. However, UAVMANETs suffer from the problems of complicated key negotiations and the difficult authentication of members’ identities during key negotiations. To address these problems, this paper simplifies the authentication process by introducing a Latin square to improve the process of signature aggregation in the Boneh–Lynn–Shacham (BLS) signature scheme and to aggregate the keys negotiated via the elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) protocol into new keys. As shown through security analysis and simulations, this scheme improves the efficiency of UAVMANET authentication and key negotiation while satisfying security requirements.