Security in User- Assisted Communications

Today, companies called service providers enable communications and control the related infrastructures. However, with increased computing power, advanced wireless technologies and more standardized terminals, users in the future will be able to take more control of communications. In this paper, we define and discuss a disruptive communication model called User-Assisted Communications (UAC), which allows users to assist other users to establish communications, and propose a method for managing trust and security, which are the most challenging variables in UAC and must be addressed before UAC can be implemented successfully. A Social Network based Trust Establishment (SN-TE) is proposed for UAC implementation

Formal verification of authentication and service authorization protocols in 5G-enabled device-to-device communications using ProVerif

Device-to-Device (D2D) communications will be used as an underlay technology in the Fifth Generation mobile network (5G), which will make network services of multiple Service Providers (SP) available anywhere. The end users will be allowed to access and share services using their User Equipments (UEs), and thus they will require seamless and secured connectivity. At the same time, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will use the UE to offload traffic and push contents closer to users relying on D2D communications network. This raises security concerns at different levels of the system architecture and highlights the need for robust authentication and authorization mechanisms to provide secure services access and sharing between D2D users. Therefore, this paper proposes a D2D level security solution that comprises two security protocols, namely, the D2D Service security (DDSec) and the D2D Attributes and Capability security (DDACap) protocols, to provide security for access, caching and sharing data in network-assisted and non-network-assisted D2D communications scenarios. The proposed solution applies Identity-based Encryption (IBE), Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) and access control mechanisms for authentication and authorization procedures. We formally verified the proposed protocols using ProVerif and applied pi calculus. We also conducted a security analysis of the proposed protocols

Formal verification of authentication and service authorization protocols in 5G-enabled device-to-device communications using ProVerif

Device-to-Device (D2D) communications will be used as an underlay technology in the Fifth Generation mobile network (5G), which will make network services of multiple Service Providers (SP) available anywhere. The end users will be allowed to access and share services using their User Equipments (UEs), and thus they will require seamless and secured connectivity. At the same time, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will use the UE to offload traffic and push contents closer to users relying on D2D communications network. This raises security concerns at different levels of the system architecture and highlights the need for robust authentication and authorization mechanisms to provide secure services access and sharing between D2D users. Therefore, this paper proposes a D2D level security solution that comprises two security protocols, namely, the D2D Service security (DDSec) and the D2D Attributes and Capability security (DDACap) protocols, to provide security for access, caching and sharing data in network-assisted and non-network-assisted D2D communications scenarios. The proposed solution applies Identity-based Encryption (IBE), Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) and access control mechanisms for authentication and authorization procedures. We formally verified the proposed protocols using ProVerif and applied pi calculus. We also conducted a security analysis of the proposed protocols

Air-Assisted Communications Using Line-of-Sight Links

Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the use of air-assisted communications involv-ing the use of airborne platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In air-assistednetworks, the UAVs can act like base stations in a traditional cellular network as long as anappropriate backhaul is available. Alternatively, the UAVs could serve as relays, for instance,connecting two ground-based users who are within range of the UAV. UAVs have the benefitof being deployed and reconfigured rapidly and on demand.Meanwhile, there has been a trend towards the use of higher and higher frequencies,including those in millimeter-wave and terahertz bands or even free-space optical communi-cations. Such bands have the benefits of large available bandwidths, relatively little inter-ference, and enhanced security due to spatial isolation. However, such bands are also proneto blocking in the environment, with even relatively small obstacles causing the signal tobe blocked and the link unable to be closed. For such systems, successful communicationrequires a reliable line-of-sight (LoS) link.When using LoS based communications, air-assisted communications is a good solutionbecause the UAVs can be deployed sufficiently high that the ground user will likely have aline of sight or can be maneuvered to create LoS links as needed. This thesis explores theuse of air-assisted communications in cluttered environments with randomized obstructionsthat may block the LoS between the ground user and the air platform. The key challengeis identifying blockages that are taller than a position-dependent critical height that couldblock the LoS of the ground-to-air link. The approach taken is to leverage tools from stochas-tic geometry in general, and Poisson point processes in particular, to derive a closed-formanalytical expression for the probability of obtaining a LoS path in certain environmentscharacterized as Poisson forests. An inhomogeneous Poisson point Process is used to ac-count for the distance-dependence of the critical height, and the LoS probability is the voidprobability of this process. The UAV is assumed to be located at a fixed height, and itshorizontal distance to the ground user could either be fixed or random. Results are verifiedthrough simulation

Pay as You Go: A Generic Crypto Tolling Architecture

The imminent pervasive adoption of vehicular communication, based on dedicated short-range technology (ETSI ITS G5 or IEEE WAVE), 5G, or both, will foster a richer service ecosystem for vehicular applications. The appearance of new cryptography based solutions envisaging digital identity and currency exchange are set to stem new approaches for existing and future challenges. This paper presents a novel tolling architecture that harnesses the availability of 5G C-V2X connectivity for open road tolling using smartphones, IOTA as the digital currency and Hyperledger Indy for identity validation. An experimental feasibility analysis is used to validate the proposed architecture for secure, private and convenient electronic toll payment

Security in networks of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance with an agent-based approach inspired by the principles of blockchain

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can support surveillance even in areas without network infrastructure. However, UAV networks raise security challenges because of its dynamic topology. This paper proposes a technique for maintaining security in UAV networks in the context of surveillance, by corroborating information about events from different sources. In this way, UAV networks can conform peer-to-peer information inspired by the principles of blockchain, and detect compromised UAVs based on trust policies. The proposed technique uses a secure asymmetric encryption with a pre-shared list of official UAVs. Using this technique, the wrong information can be detected when an official UAV is physically hijacked. The novel agent based simulator ABS-SecurityUAV is used to validate the proposed approach. In our experiments, around 90% of UAVs were able to corroborate information about a person walking in a controlled area, while none of the UAVs corroborated fake information coming from a hijacked UAV