Comparative analysis of authentication techniques to Secure Low Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) connection

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology that has risen to prominence over the past decade. EPCglobal Network provides a standardized way to collect, store, and distribute data among various organizations. Low-Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) is a standard interface between RFID Readers and Clients. LLRP implements Transport Layer Security (TLS) to setup a secure connection. Authentication techniques in TLS protocol are mainly based on public key cryptography. Recently TLS supports Kerberos cipher suites that provide Kerberos-based authentication. It is a symmetric key cryptography. This paper introduces RFID Access Control system (RFID-AC) as approach and assesses its security vulnerabilities. The paper experimentally implements TLS LLRP endpoints and examines different possible security solutions. Experiments focus on comparing the commonly used authentication technique; authenticated certificate-based versus Kerberos credentials-based. Analysis was done to determine the most suitable one for access control that can satisfy the security concerns and Quality of Services (QoS) issues.