AUTHENTICATION OF WIRELESS SYSTEMS BASED ON A DRONE SWARM AS A COMPONENT OF THE 5G RADIO ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
Authors: Kravchuk Serhii , Kravchuk Iryna 
Published: July 2024

Background. When establishing security measures for telecommunication networks involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), characteristics such as high scalability, device diversity, and high mobility should be considered. Authentication is a fundamental property that allows a UAV network to establish secure communication between its core components. Authentication also protects the UAV network from attackers impersonating legitimate UAVs. UAV authentication can further secure the communication channel by preventing impersonation and replay attacks. The design of UAV access control schemes, such as authorization and authentication mechanisms, remains a challenging research problem in UAV networks. The network becomes even more complicated when it interacts with a multitude of UAVs, called a swarm. A swarm by its very nature has a dynamic structure, and this raises the issue of unreliable constraints on UAVs in its composition. A standardized solution for the authentication of a single drone using the new 5G radio network (NR) is known, but for a swarm of drones, this is an open field of research. Per-UAV authentication key sharing as described in 5G NR does not scale across groups of UAVs.
Objective. The purpose of this work is to conduct an analytical review and consider approaches to creating procedures for the authentication of a swarm of UAVs/drones with wireless equipment on board for the 5G NR network, taking into account the features of swarm formation and the very requirements for 5G authentication.
Methods. Analysis of factors affecting the quality of provision of telecommunication services using UAVs in fifth generation networks. Analysis of well-known publications dedicated to the implementation of 5G networks and the use of drones in them. Comparing the implementation of UAV authentication procedures with on-board wireless equipment in the 5G network.
Results. The widespread use of small UAVs, as well as the large expansion of wireless 5G networks, requires new security measures to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Identification and Authentication for a mobile operator's network using drones allows for secure communication between its main components. This makes it possible to recognize the very drones that participate in the formation of such a network. Drone authentication often protects the communication channel by preventing replay attacks. The development of drone radio access control mechanisms, such as authorization and authentication mechanisms, remain relevant researches for the construction of promising radio access networks involving UAVs.
It has been confirmed that the introduction of special group procedures for the authentication of a swarm of drones in the 5G network can significantly improve the quality of the provision of telecommunication services.
Conclusions. When working with a swarm of drones, in addition to the usual problems with encryption and authentication (within the swarm and for communication between the swarm and the ground control station), there are additional problems related to the constant change in the composition of the swarm and its hovering position: drones can join or leave a swarm.
Depending on the swarm management structure, a different method of authentication will be needed, which makes it difficult to unify such procedures for a swarm of drones. Authentication procedures for a swarm of drones in 5G can be implemented through the following approaches: individual authentication, when each drone as a member of the swarm undergoes authentication with one NR 5G ground station; you can consider such an approach as authentication of a group of IoT devices, if the traffic of the swarm is very limited; group authentication through a leader drone that communicates with swarm members and the 5G operator's network; group distributed authentication through edge drones.
Group authentication via a drone leader is presented, where authentication is performed through a mechanism based on distributed delegation to reduce the service traffic directed to the 5G operator's core network. Here, legitimate drones are authorized as proxy delegated signers to perform authentication on behalf of the underlying network.
Group distributed authentication through boundary drones is considered, which offers more solutions than the case of authentication through a leader drone. Here, a solution is possible for several cases at once, for example, authentication of new drones (entering the swarm or leaving the swarm) and merging two separate drone swarms.