An Efficient Handover Authentication Scheme for 6G-Enabled Space-Terrestrial Integrated Networks With Mobile Edge Computing

초록

Sixth-generation (6G) services can offer unprecedented data speeds, ultra-low latency, and vast connectivity. Moreover, satellite communication has become crucial to achieving seamless global coverage for 6G networks. Space-terrestrial integrated networks (STIN) combine satellite and ground networks, ensuring continuous services via satellites even when outside terrestrial network coverage. However, existing STIN schemes rely on central ground server, which can potentially lead to bottlenecks and delays. Additionally, a lightweight handover is necessary to address frequent service changes due to the narrow communication ranges in 6G-based STIN environments. To address these challenges, we propose a novel authentication scheme to provide secure and high-speed handover process for STIN environments. The proposed scheme leverages mobile edge computing (MEC)-based low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to minimize communications with the central server. Moreover, a key feature of the proposed scheme is the structural separation of computational loads: we utilize elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for robust initial authentication, and only hash functions and exclusive-OR (XOR) operators for high-speed handover process. To prove the security of our scheme, we perform informal analysis, "Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic", "Real-Or-Random (ROR) model", "Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) simulation tool", and "Scyther tool". Furthermore, we conduct comparative study on security properties, computation, and communication costs of the proposed scheme and the existing related schemes. To verify the practical deployment of the proposed scheme, we perform a simulation study using "Network Simulator 3 (NS-3)". Our results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can provide efficient and secure communications for MEC-based STIN environments.

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