A novel lightweight authentication protocol for body area networks based on elliptic-curve cryptography

Abstract

To ensure the security and privacy of the Patient’s confidential and critical data transmitted in a wireless body area network (WBAN), all parties must mutually authenticate. Some existing mutual authentication schemes use bilinear pairs, which cause higher time complexity in computation. In some schemes, the use of a tree structure for revocation leads to higher space complexity. To efficiently provide revocation and reduce the complexity of the client-side, a lightweight authentication protocol for Body Area Networks based on Elliptic-Curve Cryptography is proposed. This protocol enables the user to be revoked by instantly updating the time key. The proposed protocol satisfies various security requirements, such as Unlinkability, anonymity, Forward Security, mutual authentication, and session key security. When Compared with existing solutions, The experimental analysis in AVISPA showed that the computational and storage cost the authentication protocol on the client-side was significantly reduced, which was more suitable for the resource-limited wireless body area networks. Security analysis showed that actual protocol is safe under the Dolev-Yao attack model using Game based proof and AVISPA.

Subject Classification:

• 94A62 Authentication
• Digital signatures and secret sharing

Keywords:

• Wireless Body Area Network
• Authentication Protocols
• Anonymity
• Revocability
• AVISPA