Fortified-Edge: Secure PUF Certificate Authentication Mechanism for Edge Data Centers in Collaborative Edge Computing

Abstract

Collaborative Edge Computing (CEC) works on the distributed model, and is established at the Fog layer that consists of multiple edge devices like Edge Data Centers (EDCs), Edge Routers etc. In the CEC environment, the Edge layer has the capability of storing and processing data. Since the processing capacity is limited, many edge devices collaborate with each other to offload the processing in a scheme called Load Balancing. CEC enables applications in smart villages through task offloading/sharing, which calls for a trusted security system to make the resource sharing and information safe. Since the Edge is a resource-constrained environment where not all data centers are resourceful enough to implement computation intensive security systems. Physically Unclonable Functions (PUF) are a robust, secure, and light-weight solution for providing hard- ware security. PUFs are used to authenticate the EDCs during load balancing in a collaborative edge computingenvironment. Though PUFs are secure and difficult to remodel, the drawback lies in the storage of Challenge-Response Pairs (CRP) in a CRP database. The storage space for the CRP database becomes a concern when many EDCs participate in dynamic load balancing and each EDC needs to store a copy of the database. This research proposes a PUF based certificate Authority protocol for authentication of EDCs which will eliminate the need for CRP database storage while harnessing the security feature of the PUF. Further, in this research the effised authentication system is evaluated through oretical analysis and experimental results.