Lightweight Mutual Authentication for Internet of Drones Using Radio Frequency Fingerprints and PUFs

Global: Lightweight Mutual Authentication for Internet of Drones Using Radio Frequency Fingerprints and PUFs

Researchers have introduced a new lightweight mutual authentication and key exchange protocol for the Internet of Drones (IoD) that combines radio frequency fingerprint (RFF) identification with physical unclonable function (PUF) technology to secure drone‑to‑drone and drone‑to‑ground communications without storing persistent secrets.

Background and Challenges

The IoD paradigm enables advanced applications such as aerial surveillance, delivery, and collaborative mapping, but its reliance on heterogeneous, often untrusted networks creates significant security concerns, especially for access control and the protection of sensitive data transmitted by resource‑constrained drones.

Limitations of Existing Solutions

Prior authentication schemes for IoD typically impose high computational overhead, depend on third‑party authorities, require pre‑installed secret keys, or assume tightly controlled enrollment environments, factors that hinder scalable, cross‑domain deployment.

Proposed Authentication Framework

The new protocol leverages RFF‑based device identification to achieve over‑the‑air enrollment, while a PUF embedded in each drone serves as the root of trust for establishing mutual authentication. On‑the‑fly key generation from the PUF is paired with one‑time‑pad (OTP) encryption, providing ephemeral keys and eliminating the need for permanent secret storage within the drones.

Security Evaluation

Both informal security analysis and formal verification using the ProVerif tool indicate that the scheme resists common attacks such as replay, impersonation, and man‑in‑the‑middle, confirming its robustness under the assumed threat model.

Performance Assessment

Experimental comparisons reported in the abstract suggest that the protocol reduces computation, communication, and storage overhead relative to existing IoD authentication mechanisms, while offering a broader set of security features.

Broader Impact and Future Work

By removing the dependence on third parties and secret storage, the approach may facilitate dynamic, cross‑domain drone operations in real‑time environments. The authors note that further testing on physical drone platforms and exploration of additional biometric identifiers could extend the framework’s applicability.

This report is based on information from arXiv, licensed under Academic Preprint / Open Access. Based on the abstract of the research paper. Full text available via ArXiv.