An ultralightweight and reliable authentication protocol for secure communication in UAV-assisted IoAV systems

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) enables intelligent transportation systems in the efficient management of autonomous vehicles (AVs) by enabling real-time data exchange and message communication over the Internet. Rapid advances in autonomous systems, hardware sensors, software, and the integration of artificial intelligence have enabled the development of automated services and improved convenience for users. In the IoV, heavy traffic, connectivity issues, and frequent handoffs create significant challenges. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, sometimes called drones) offer a promising solution to these issues by helping to alleviate network congestion and improving overall network performance. Because UAVs are highly mobile devices, potential security breaches pose a significant challenge for communication between UAVs and autonomous vehicles. To address this, we propose a secure and efficient ultralightweight protocol that uses UAV technology in an IoV environment. Our protocol employs elliptic-curve cryptography and cryptographic operators such as exclusive-or operations and one-way hashing. A formal security analysis of the protocol using the Scyther simulation tool reveals that it is resilient against security attacks, while an informal security analysis shows that the protocol is secure against several known security and privacy threats. The computational and communication costs of the proposed protocol are lower than those of other existing protocols, while being efficient, outperforming other solutions in terms of security features.