Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Path Validation for Multi-Slicing-Authority 5G Networks

Path validation assures operational integrity in 5G networks with various network infrastructures where nodes en route are operated by multiple untrusted network slicing authorities. However, in order to correctly validate a path, traditional solutions require the entire path to be revealed to all parties involved, which may potentially expose the network structure to malicious attackers. In this work, we propose a decentralized privacy-preserving path validation protocol utilizing XOR, hashing and Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof (NIZK) that guarantees security and privacy but circumvents performance compromise. We tested our protocols in a simulated multi-authority network to show how the privacy-preserving path validation can protect node privacy without significantly degrading performance.