Secure and Efficient Anonymous Authentication Protocol for Global Roaming Services

Abstract

An important contribution of ubiquitous GLobal MObility NETwork (GLOMONET) is to provide global roaming services. However, the underlying strategy shows several challenges to be achieved such as user anonymity, authenticity, security and low computation cost. Several approaches have been proposed in recent research to address these issues. Unfortunately, some of them still failed to achieve desired security and design features. This article presents a secure and efficient anonymous authentication protocol for global roaming services based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). The protocol is formally verified using widely accepted AVISPA tool which ensures its ability to resist various security attacks. Additionally, the informal security analysis of the protocol is carried out based on individual features. The performance analysis section at the end of this article shows that the proposed protocol achieves low computation cost as compared to several recently proposed protocols and thus, making it more suitable for lightweight practical applications of roaming services over GLOMONET.