MuSE: Novel Efficient Multi-Tier Communication Security Model for Emergency and Rescue Operations

Abstract

For efficient emergency process management in large scale disaster situations, fast and secure access to sensitive information of heterogeneous organizations is an indispensable goal. For this purpose, we propose a novel Multi-tier communication Security model for Emergency and rescue operations (MuSE) that addresses an acceptable trade-off between performance and security of information exchange in those environments. Based on in-depth user requirements analysis, MuSE deals with the communication system upon three tiers: federation, incident network and mobile client. At the federation tier, MuSE specifies an efficient Role- and Certificate-based Single Sign On solution (RC-SSO) for interorganization communication. In contrast to its counterparts such as SAML, RC-SSO does not depend on an identity provider and reduces the SSO steps to a minimum. At the incident network tier, MuSE prescribes a Position Aware Secure and Efficient Route discovery protocol (PASER). It aims to secure the network based on lightweight cryptography. PASER deals with the network in a hierarchical way and supports nodes positions' exchange, providing both satisfying level of security as well as an advanced network management. At the mobile client tier, MuSE restricts the network access to the rescue fighters' clients based on the lightweight standard EAP-PSK and a novel TETRA-based Dynamic key Distribution method (TEDDi).