BAGAS: Blockchain-Assisted Group Authentication Scheme for Internet of Drones

Abstract

Internet of Drones (IoD), an important component of 6G air-based networks, uses drone cluster collaboration to accomplish efficient communication. A group authentication scheme (GAS) is essential for verifying members’ identities and controlling dynamic networking privileges in order to guarantee secure communication of drone clusters in an open IoD environment. However, current GAS schemes still struggle technically to balance security, functionality, and lightweight design, and they are unable to fully support security requirements in complex drone application scenarios with cross-domain interconnections and dynamic topology. In order to tackle the aforementioned issues, we propose a blockchain-assisted BAGAS scheme that supports distributed authentication and dynamic change of IoD members. The eCK model provides a rigorous proof of the scheme’s security, while the Scyther tool is used to further validate security properties. The scheme guarantees low computation, communication, and energy cost by utilizing Shamir’s secret sharing (SSS) and Chebyshev chaotic map. The total computation cost is reduced by an average of 41.6%, the total communication cost by an average of 39.8%, and the total energy consumption by an average of 54.3% in comparison to mainstream schemes of the same type, as demonstrated by experiments. For drone swarm communications, the BAGAS scheme achieves synergistic optimization of communication security and performance.