Secure and Efficient Hybrid Lightweight Authentication Scheme for Unmanned Systems in Tactical Networks 


Vol. 51,  No. 3, pp. 686-694, Mar.  2026
10.7840/kics.2026.51.3.686


PDF Full-Text
  Abstract

In modern battlefields, various unmanned systems—including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs)—are being utilized as core assets for conducting real-time surveillance, reconnaissance, and command and control missions. As collaborative operation among these systems becomes essential, the need for secure and efficient authentication mechanisms to prevent data tampering, session hijacking, and man-in-the-middle attacks has grown significantly. However, traditional PKI-based authentication schemes are difficult to apply efficiently in resource-constrained unmanned platforms due to high computational overhead and message size. This paper proposes a hybrid authentication scheme in which the initial authentication is performed using digital signatures based on public key cryptography, while subsequent re-authentication is carried out using the TESLA (Time-Efficient Stream Loss-Tolerant Authentication) protocol to ensure lightweight operation. The proposed scheme provides both the security of initial authentication and the efficiency of lightweight re-authentication. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme achieves more than 100-fold improvement in authentication processing efficiency compared to RSA-based methods, while maintaining strong resistance against replay attacks and key forgery.

  Statistics
Cumulative Counts from November, 2022
Multiple requests among the same browser session are counted as one view. If you mouse over a chart, the values of data points will be shown.


  Related Articles
  Cite this article

[IEEE Style]

J. Lee and M. Lee, "Secure and Efficient Hybrid Lightweight Authentication Scheme for Unmanned Systems in Tactical Networks," The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 686-694, 2026. DOI: 10.7840/kics.2026.51.3.686.

[ACM Style]

Jongkwan Lee and Minwoo Lee. 2026. Secure and Efficient Hybrid Lightweight Authentication Scheme for Unmanned Systems in Tactical Networks. The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences, 51, 3, (2026), 686-694. DOI: 10.7840/kics.2026.51.3.686.

[KICS Style]

Jongkwan Lee and Minwoo Lee, "Secure and Efficient Hybrid Lightweight Authentication Scheme for Unmanned Systems in Tactical Networks," The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 686-694, 3. 2026. (https://doi.org/10.7840/kics.2026.51.3.686)
Vol. 51, No. 3 Index

Search
(IN TITLE, AUTHOR, ABSTRACT,KEYWORDS)

Advanced Search ▼

POPULAR KEYWORDS
(TOP 10 KEYWORDS)

Recent Publications
(LAST 3 YEARS)






pISSN : 1226 - 4717
eISSN : 2287 - 3880