Highly secured authentication and fast handover scheme for mobility management in 5G vehicular networks

The Fifth Generation (5 G) networks exhibit high flexibility and diversity in their design and deployment strategies. Transitions between base stations (BSs), heterogeneous networks (HetNets) and other cellular networks provide significant vulnerabilities and expose users to substantial risks associated with cybersecurity attacks. This article evaluates current handover authentication methods in the context of 5 G networks while proposing a set of security criteria for handover authentication. This study presents a novel authentication technique called SHK (Secure Handover Key) that utilizes SDNs (Software Defined networks). The proposed scheme integrates recycled lightweight dynamic key cryptography and combines security features such as perfect forward secrecy and robustness to leakages. The significance of the proposed approach is assessed in terms of computations, communications, signals, and energy costs on 5 G mobility applications and Vehicular Communication Networks (VCNs). The scheme employed in this study demonstrates enhanced security measures and improved changeover performance compared to conventional schemes.