Authentication of Underwater Assets

Secure digital wireless communication underwater has become a key issue as maritime operations shift towards employing a heterogeneous mix of robotic assets and as the security of digital systems becomes challenged across all domains. At the same time, a proliferation of underwater signal coding and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2022-09
Main Authors: Téglásy, Bálint Z, Wengle, Emil, Potter, John R, Katsikas, Sokratis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authentication
Command and control
Digital systems
Modems
Security
Underwater acoustics
Underwater communication
Wireless communications
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Secure digital wireless communication underwater has become a key issue as maritime operations shift towards employing a heterogeneous mix of robotic assets and as the security of digital systems becomes challenged across all domains. At the same time, a proliferation of underwater signal coding and physical layer options are delivering greater bandwidth and flexibility, but mostly without the standards necessary for interoperability. We address here an essential requirement for security, namely a confirmation of asset identities also known as authentication. We propose, implement, verify and validate an authentication protocol based on the first digital underwater communications standard. Our scheme is applicable primarily to AUVs operating around offshore oil and gas facilities, but also to other underwater devices that may in the future have acoustic modems. It makes communication including command and control significantly more secure and provides a foundation for the development of more sophisticated security mechanisms.
ISSN:2331-8422