EAGLE: A provably and verifiably secure blockchain-enabled dual-mode authentication scheme using reconfigurable PUFs for V2I communication

The height of modernization fosters technological advancements, and as smart cities demand secure communication with infrastructure, vehicles must also be equipped to do so. Conventional vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) authentication suffices the necessitating demand. However, some vehicles on the roads make frequent trips along a specified route. For example, load-carrying trucks often travel back and forth on a specific route multiple times a day. Designing an authentication protocol for frequent vehicles makes V2I authentication efficient while supporting usual V2I authentication. In this regard, by utilizing a reconfigurable physical unclonable function, we present a novel computationally hard problem, named Modified Computational Unique Response Problem (MCURP), and use a computationally hard problem based on chaotic theory for designing the protocol. With sufficient lemmata and theorems, we show the feasibility of MCURP and other hard problems. Our protocol for V2I mode, named EAGLE, is anchored on multiple computationally hard problems, such as MCURP, problems on chaotic theory and hash functions, and an additional layer of blockchain to ensure robust security. Typically, we use a HotStuff-style consensus algorithm between RSUs and the trusted third party, instead of deploying conventional proof of work and poof of stake. Eagle is provably secure in the random oracle and ideal cipher model, and its security is verifiably secure as formal verification is carried out using the Tamarin and ProVerif tools. Compared to existing works that have the least computation and communication costs, EAGLE achieves 17% and 109% improvements in communication and computation costs, respectively. Simulation on Matlab 2024b confirms the practical efficiency of EAGLE regarding improved packet delivery ratio and throughput, and reduced end-to-end delay and power consumption. Scalability analysis confirms the feasibility of Eagle for increasing vehicles and RSUs. The feasibility of EAGLE is analyzed by considering three countries for a case study, emphasizing the applicability strengths and weaknesses. At last, we show some viable directions for future research by providing methods and suggestions.