An Efficient RLWE-based Privacy-Preserving Authentication Scheme based on Edge Computing in Industrial Internet of Things

An industrial network connects devices, sensors, and other physical devices through wireless networks to collect, share, and analyze data to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve product quality. Due to the accessibility of wireless channels to everyone, the number of malicious exploits of these services is increasing. Thus, confirming the validity of smart devices and servers and guaranteeing communication security are essential. Mutual authentication has become an essential security concern in wireless communication to meet this tendency. However, available techniques rely on prime factorization and discrete logarithm problems that cannot effectively resist quantum attacks. This study presents an anonymous authentication system based on edge computing for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Specifically, we devised an RLWE-based authentication method to withstand diverse attacks while improving operating efficiency. The proposed scheme achieves mutual authentication in a single-message exchange round, while ensuring user anonymity and perfect forward security. Security analysis and verification with ProVerif demonstrate that our scheme enhances privacy and reliability. Furthermore, experimental results show that our scheme outperforming existing schemes in terms of communication and computing costs