Group authentication for next generation networks

Abstract

In this thesis, it is proposed and simulated to perform handover operations as a group to decrease time latency and the number of communication. The security aspects of the authentication and handover for drone swarms are presented in the thesis. The reason to select drone swarms is to examine the authentication in a group and to raise the use of drones everywhere in daily life. The number of drones used for military or commercial applications is getting higher every day. Border security, visual shows, and cargo delivery can be some examples of drone applications. Due to their flying time and limited coverage area, a single drone cannot perform intensive tasks. While providing mobile service via aerial base stations, some UxNBs can turn back to the control station and new drones can be sent to the area to accomplish the tasks. Due to these reasons, it is preferred to use drone swarms for intensive tasks rather than a single drone. The first security problem for the drone swarm is the authentication of the new drones sent by the drone control station join to the swarm. If it is possible to include a drone in the swarm without authentication, any intruders can impersonate a drone and send it to the swarm for various attacks. In addition to the authentication, the communication inside the swarm should be encrypted and each party should use a group key. The group key may also be shared with the new authenticated drone. The next security requirement for the drone swarm is the mutual authentication of two drone swarms to perform more intensive tasks. If the authentication solution for the UAV authentication in 5G is exploited for mutual authentication, the number of communication and scalability should be taken into consideration since each party from a different swarm should perform authentication with the UAVs from another swarm. Group authentication solutions may be used to overcome scalability and the high number of communication issues. Drone swarms also have security and latency issues for the handover operations. There are two kinds of handover operations for drone swarms. One is the handover of drone swarms from serving terrestrial base station to the new base station. The next one is the handover of UxNBs if the base station is not terrestrial but an aerial. The serving UxNB may be out of flying time and drone swarm may start to receive service from new UxNB. The lightweight group authentication scheme is applied to the authentication and handover operations for the drone swarms in the thesis. 5G UAV authentication and handover methods and group-based solutions are implemented in the simulation and the results are compared. According to the results, the group authentication solutions provide better time, and less communication for the drone swarms.