Improving the Security of Wireless Communications on High-Speed Trains by Efficient Authentication in SCN-R

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology 2019-08, Vol.68 (8), p.7283-7295
• Main Authors: Xu, Tong, Gao, Deyun, Dong, Ping, Foh, Chuan Heng, Zhang, Hongke, Leung, Victor C. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Authentication; chaos; Chaotic communication; communication system security; cyber attack; Encryption; High speed rail; IP networks; Proposals; random number generator; Random numbers; Security; Wireless communication; Wireless communications; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2019.2920988

Recently, we have witnessed the remarkable development in high-speed railways around the world. To provide a robust and fast wireless network for the onboard passengers, we have earlier proposed smart collaborative networking for railways (SCN-R). In the realization of SCN-R, its security is challenged by potential exploitation of authentication vulnerabilities since traditional authentication mechanisms are unsuitable for scenarios with fast moving objects due to their complex and relatively timely operations. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing a new efficient authentication mechanism, which is based on a new design of chaotic random number generator (RNG). Comparing with the recent proposal relying on the precise boundaries of chaotic map state spaces, our RNG uses two logistic maps to avoid the time-consuming boundary location process. The proposed authentication mechanism uses the RNG to generate and validate the one-time password (OTP). To support different authentication applications, different lengths of OTPs can be used to differentiate and identify the applications. We have implemented our proposed authentication mechanism under real-world conditions, with results showing the feasibility and effectiveness of our authentication mechanism.