Balancing Efficiency and Security for Network Access Control in Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks

In this paper, we investigate the efficiency of network access control with the co-existence of multiple network operators and propose an efficient and secure network access control architecture (ESNAC) that offers fast identity authentication and access authorization in space-air-ground integrated networks. The major challenge lies in enabling multiple independent network operators to authorize and authenticate mobile users for network access in a secure and efficient way, even they are not mutually trusted. To address this challenge, we introduce an aggregate anonymous credential mechanism to enable a mobile user to present network access authorization of a group of network operators based on the consolidated anonymous credential that is aggregated from the partial anonymous credentials of the network operators. In addition, the efficient authentication of packet delivery is provided based on a sequential aggregate signature that allows each network operator to sign network packets for authentication and sequentially aggregate signatures for communication efficiency. Finally, we discuss the desired security properties of ESNAC and demonstrate its computational and communication efficiency by comparing with the conventional scheme without aggregation.