Nexus of 6G and Blockchain for Authentication of Aerial and IoT Devices

Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated sensors and computers to transfer data over a network. However, the sensors, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and other IoT equipment used are susceptible to different security attacks. Dumb sensors are used to collect data in hostile environments. Dumb sensors are low powered sensors that lack computational power to perform cryptological operations. These sensors are preferred over high powered sensors due to their low electrical signature, but they have negligible computing power. To overcome the loss of authentication data due to node capture and lack of sensor location verification, we propose the Nexus of 6G and Blockchain for Authentication (NBA) system. The NBA system utilizes a permissioned blockchain-based network of UAVs and smart sensors to prevent code tampering. The system enables two-way trusted data transfer between UAVs and dumb sensors through a novel Hybrid Physical Unclonable Function Hashing (HPUFH) model. The system also utilizes a novel Pattern-based Signal Strength Correlation (PbSSC) algorithm to detect any unexpected location changes in the dumb sensor field. The extensive security and performance evaluation demonstrates that the proposed system is highly efficient and secure with a linear computational cost proportional to the number of challenge-response pairs.