Authentication Devices in Fog-mobile Edge Computing Environments through a Wireless Grid Resource Sharing Protocol

International Journal of Ubiquitous Computing (IJU), Vol.13, No.1/2, April 2022
DOI : 10.5121/iju.2022.13201 1
AUTHENTICATION DEVICES IN FOG-MOBILE EDGE
COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH A
WIRELESS GRID RESOURCE SHARING PROTOCOL
Tyson Brooks
Syracuse University, USA
ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, Fog computing, mobile edge computing
and wireless grids has resulted in the widespread deployment of relatively immature technology. These
technologies, which will primarily use 5G wireless communication networks, are becoming popular
because they can be deployed quickly with little infrastructure and lends themselves to environments
utilizing numerous internet connected devices (ICD). There are, however, many significant challenges
faced by security designers, engineers and implementers of these networks in ensuring that the level of
security afforded is appropriate. Because of the threat of exploitation, these networks have to be protected
by a robust security architecture due to these technologies being plagued with security problems. The
authentication of smart ICDs to IoT networks is a critical mechanism for achieving security on these new
information system platforms. This article identifies an authentication process required for these ICDs,
which will need to prove their identity to authenticate to an IoT fog-mobile edge computing (FMEC) cloud
network through a wireless grid authentication process. The purpose of this article is to hypothesize a
generic authentication methodology for these FMEC clouds uses in an IoT architecture. The proposed
methodology, called wg-IoT, must include the integration of Fog computing, wireless grids and mobile
edge computing clouds to create this new IoT architecture. An authentication process developed from the
resource sharing protocol (RSP) from a wireless grid is first developed and proposed for the
authentication of ICDs. The wireless grid core components must be embedded in IoT devices or sensors
depending on their capability to handle five primary functions: management of identification [ID] and
presence, permissions management, data transferability, application-programming interface [API] and
security.
KEYWORDS
Wireless grids, authentication, fog computing, internet of things, mobile edge computing
1. INTRODUCTION
The IoT paradigm, which consist of a network of embedded sensor connected to the Internet, is
rapidly gaining ground in wireless telecommunications (Zhang et al. 2012). However, only
recently has the IoT market begun to experience rapid growth. This is due to several factors,
which include: the extensive spread of the Internet, next generation 5G networks, high
penetrations of mobile devices usage, new cloud computing platforms, fog-mobile edge
computing (FMEC) and microbrowsers1,2
. Industry analysts predict that the global IoT market
will reach $772.5B in 2018, attaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14% through
the 2017-2021 forecast period - surpassing the $1 trillion mark in 2020 and reaching $1.1 trillion
1
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/mobile-edge-computing-market.html
2
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-browse/index.html

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in 20213
. The Fog computing market is expected to reach $617.3M by 20254
and over $5.6B
devices will utilize mobile edge computing, primarily in the manufacturing, energy, and
transportation industries5
. All of these market forces are converging, which in turn is making the
IoT market increasingly data centric.
Any cloud network is subject to becoming the target of exploitation by individuals or groups
outside of the authorized group of intended users and/or devices (Firdous et al. 2017). In addition,
the advances in wireless technology have given the common individual the ability to establish a
communications connection with anyone at any time. This ability has created a general addiction
to connectedness and has opened new opportunities for the exploitation of communications. The
exploitation of a cloud network by adversaries is conducted for four main reasons; (1) to gain
access to data flowing over the network, (2) to disrupt the flow of data on the network, (3) to
parasitically usurp the networks resources (e.g. to use a network free of charge), and (4) provide
disinformation by injecting false data into the network in order to mislead and to cause confusion
and doubt (Gupta & Gupta, 2018; Ahmed et al. 2018). However, this situation has now changed,
as ICDs will be able to perform these exploitations with limited human interactions.
With these assumptions as background, authentication of [wireless] ICDs in these FMEC clouds
must involve strong encryption to prevent eavesdropping and must involve mutual authentication
to ensure that sensitive information is transmitted only over legitimate FMEC cloud networks.
Authentication will require that ICDs prove their identity through a hardware/software token, a
challenge/response mechanism or a combination of these and other methods of identification.
Authentication should be two-way, the ICD must authenticate to the network, and the network
should authenticate to the ICD. This lets the network know that it is communicating with a valid,
non-malicious ICD. By having the network authenticate to the ICD, it is less likely that an
unauthorized ICD will be able to pose as valid in the network. The purpose of this article is to
hypothesize a generic authentication methodology for ICDs in FMEC clouds utilizing the IoT
architecture.
2. FOG COMPUTING
Cisco, Inc. defines the Fog as ‘an extension of the cloud to be closer to the things that produce
and act on IoT data, processing IoT data closer to where it is produced and needed solves the
challenges of exploding data volume, variety, and velocity and accelerating awareness and
response to IoT events by eliminating a round trip to the cloud for analysis’ (Cisco 2015b). The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (2018) recently defined Fog computing as:
A layered model for enabling ubiquitous access to a shared continuum of scalable computing
resources. The model facilitates the deployment of distributed, latency-aware applications and
services, and consists of fog nodes (physical or virtual), residing between smart end-devices and
centralized (cloud) services. The fog nodes are context aware and support a common data
management and communication system. They can be organized in clusters - either vertically (to
support isolation), horizontally (to support federation), or relative to fog nodes’ latency-distance
to the smart end-devices. Fog computing minimizes the request-response time from/to supported
applications, and provides, for the end-devices, local computing resources and, when needed,
network connectivity to centralized services.
3
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3244927/internet-of-things/new-idc-report-forecasts-huge-growth-for-iot.html
4
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-fog-computing-market
5
https://www.thorntech.com/2017/11/edge-computing-and-the-cloud-future-of-iot/

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The characteristics of the Fog (proximity and location awareness, geo-distribution, hierarchical
organization) make it the suitable platform to support both energy-constrained wireless grids
(Bonomi et al. 2012). However, this implies a number of characteristics that make the Fog a non-
trivial extension of the cloud including edge location, location awareness, and low latency (Zhu
et al. 2013). The Fog, for instance, will play an active role in delivering high quality streaming to
moving vehicles, through proxies and access points positioned along highways and tracks.
Localization of data processing is a fundamental and essential issue for operational wireless
sensor networks (WSNs) (Sheu et al. 2008).
A large number of Fog nodes, as a consequence of the wide geo-distribution, as evidenced in
sensor networks in general and the Smart Grid in particular will provide support for mobility
(Mukherjee et al. 2017; Ekanayake et al. 2018). It is essential for many Fog applications to
communicate directly with mobile devices, and therefore support mobility techniques, such as the
Locator ID Separation Protocol (LISP) 1, that decouple host identity from location identity, and
require a distributed directory system (Zhu et al. 2013). Support for on-line analytic and interplay
with the Cloud, the Fog is positioned to play a significant role in the ingestion and processing of
the data close to the source (Zhu et al. 2013). Figure 1 presents the idealized information and
computing architecture supporting the future IoT applications, and illustrates the role of Fog
computing through compute, storage, and networking resources building blocks of both the
Cloud, the Fog and the mobile edge of the network.
Figure 1. The Internet of Things and Fog Computing
(Source: Cisco 2015a; Brooks & McKnight, 2017)
3. WIRELESS GRIDS
As displayed in Figure 2, a wireless grid is an augmentation of a wired grid that facilitates the
exchange of information and the interaction between heterogeneous wireless devices (Agarwal et
al. 2004). The IoT is an integrated part of the future Internet including existing and evolving
Internet and network developments and could be conceptually defined as a dynamic global
network infrastructure with self-configuring capabilities (Vermesan et al. 2011). This is based on
standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual smart
“things/objects” (e.g. wireless sensors, actuators, radio frequency identification [RFID] tags,
smart mobile devices, mobile robots, etc.) have identities, physical attributes, and virtual
personalities, use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information
network (Vermesan et al. 2011). The application of wireless grids, FMEC and IoT architectures is

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a key objective which facilitates information sharing and provides a means for the system to get
information (whether wired or wirelessly) to individuals to satisfy their needs.
Figure 2. WIGIT Open Framework
(Source: McKnight et al. 2015)
In the IoT, smart “things/objects” (i.e., internet connected devices or ICDs) are expected to
become active participants in business, information and social processes where they are enabled
to interact and communicate among themselves and with the environment by exchanging data
and information sensed about the environment (Vermesan et al. 2011; Uckelmann et al. 2011).
Services will be able to interact with these smart ICD’s using standard interfaces that will provide
the necessary link via the Internet, to query and change their state and retrieve any information
associated with them, considering security and privacy issues (Vermesan et al. 2011). ‘Things’
can only become context aware, sense, communicate, interact, exchange data, information and
knowledge if they are suitably equipped with appropriate object-connected technologies; unless
of course they are human ‘things’ or other entities with these intrinsic capabilities (Brooks,
2017). In this vision, using intelligent decision-making algorithms in software applications,
appropriate rapid responses can be given to physical phenomena, based on the very latest
information collected about physical entities and consideration of patterns in the historical data,
either for the same entity or for similar entities (Yan et al. 2010; Vermesan et al. 2011).
However, the application of authentication of these ICD’s within this environment brings about
new and challenging problems from an information security perspective. Traditional security
mechanisms, such as identification/authentication and access control (authorization) are
complicated in these environments, requiring new standards and the development of new
products. Counter-intuitively, the more wireless grids, FMECs and IoT architectures that exist,
the more vulnerable they will towards cyber-attacks. This is because, with wireless grids, FMECs
and IoT architectures, every user/device/thing/object may have the right to access the system
causing errors and flaws. For this reason, individual user/device/thing/objects will continue to be
the primary targets of malicious software (or malware) attacks.
4. WIRELESS GRID ‘EDGEWARE’
As displayed in Figure 3, Edgeware, a new class of software applications, enables the ad hoc
connection of people, devices, software and services in a personal cloud, supported by personal
cyber infrastructure (Brooks et al. 2013, McKnight et al. 2015). Edge devices are routers,
switches, routing switches, integrated access devices (IAD), multiplexers, and a variety of
metropolitan area network (MAN)/wide area network (WAN) access devices that provide entry
points into enterprise or carrier/service provider core networks which translate between one type
of network protocol and another (McKnight et al. 2015). Edgeware applications can dynamically

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make use of content and resources present in devices - phones, laptops, PCs, cameras, printers,
screens, etc. – through connectivity via a wireless grid (McKnight et al. 2015).
Figure 3. Edgeware Grid Core
(Source: McKnight, ed. WiGiT v0.3)
The blue boxes on the right in Figure 3 represent Edgeware applications that sit on a user
interface, which in turn sits on an API [McKnight et al. 2015]. These may represent dozens or
hundreds of different sorts of mini- programs that enable different kinds of resource sharing and
functionality. Edgeware applications are typically delivered as a service; and come in 2 primary
varieties: Gridlets, that is, proprietary Edgeware applications, and Wiglets, that is, non-
proprietary open Edgeware applications (McKnight et al. 2015). Not all devices enabled on a
wireless grid need to have an Edgeware application sitting on them to be accessible and active.
The only thing that must be deployed for a wireless grid to work is for the Grid Core to be on
some intelligent machine, somewhere, with rights to control other ‘edge’ resources such as
sensors that may not have the capability to have the core components installed; which may be
facilitated by one or more Gridlets and/or Wiglets (McKnight et al. 2015). Other network
hardware, software, services, and content may be controlled and shared through the wireless grid
‘Edgeware’ as these may not be or cannot become self- aware devices on the grid; However, if
those ‘edge’ resources are in a relationship with other hardware, software, and services, which are
part of the wireless grid, they may function as if they were fully cognitive (McKnight et al. 2015)
A further differentiation in the varieties of Edgeware applications may also be drawn between
peer-to-peer implementations, and cloud to edge applications, which may appear at first glance to
be a basic client-server implementation. In both cases, however, the Edgeware application may
be able to interact dynamically with other types of Edgeware applications. Meaning, the
architecture and open specifications presented here allow for ad hoc, peer-to-peer applications
and services to interact with cloud services (McKnight et al. 2015).
The Grid Core components are represented by the green box and embedded in certain devices or
sensors depending on their capability, which makes every device a node on the wireless grid
(McKnight et al. 2015). This core is extremely ‘light’ and easy to embed on a wide range of
different kinds of equipment. McKnight et al. (2015) identified that users are allowed to share
and manage the digital resources at their fingertips through applications of the architecture’s eight
core components:

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 the authentication and authorization component [AAC]
 the billing, accounting and charging component [BAC] which provides access to the
things/objects financial information,
 the messaging and presence component [MPC] which provides scalable messaging,
manages the availability of a thing/object and the method or language of communication
with that thing/object,
 the metadata component [MC] which creates, edits, and generally manages the metadata
for an ICD, (5) the resource management component [RMC] which is responsible for
aggregating and searching metadata about things/objects within the context of
authentication and works closely with the AAC and MPC,
 the economic and legal policy component [ELP] which supports economic and legal
policies,
 the communication protocols component [CPC] which is a sub-system that manages the
interaction with specific types of resources, such as printers, files, etc. and is needed to
interact within a wireless grid, identifies and manages network and internetwork
communications including IP and other protocols (e.g. Bluetooth), provides connections
with other wireless grids and across the internet, and,
 the security component.
The wireless grid architecture core components handle four primary functions, which make the
grid-enabled ecosystem possible: management of identification (ID) and presence, permissions
management, data transfer ability, and API/interfacing (McKnight et al. 2015). The layers above
the core are comprised of the API which enables connections with other applications and
services, the User Interface (which may or may not be necessary depending on the device upon
which it sits), and finally the Edgeware applications are shown in blue in Figure 2.
Once a grid is established then resources can be published or accessed across the grid, enabling
the infinite functional possibilities of the Grid technology. There are three classes of wireless grid
applications (McKnight et al. 2015):
 Class 1: Applications aggregating information from the range of input/output interfaces
found in nomadic and mobile devices,
 Class 2: Applications utilizing the locational and contextual characteristics in which the
devices will be found and,
 Class 3: Applications leveraging the mesh network capabilities of groups of devices:
Workplace-As-A-Service (WPaaS), Compute-Infrastructure-As-A-Service (CIaaS) and
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) are reference architectures that potentially can meet the
unique requirements to satisfy enterprise-grade customers.
These wireless grid Edgeware systems give the user greater mobility and flexibility. Although
these characteristics of services provide a number of advantages especially towards its integration
into IoT architectures, they leave these wireless grids Edgeware devices vulnerable to attacks and
other security related problems (Brooks et al. 2013). It is exactly the mobile nature of the devices
that exposes it to greater risk of data loss or theft and this contrasts with the wired service, which
terminates in one location, such as in the home or office, making it more safeguarded (Brooks et
al. 2013). The trend of integrating these new complex systems with advanced computer and
communication technologies has introduced serious cyber-security concerns, especially in these
new architectures; where the environment will no longer be regarded as reliable to support
communications as before (Brooks et al. 2013). For example, due to the important role of the
smart grid as the key energy IoT infrastructure, the information infrastructure needed to route
data by providing the dynamic ad-hoc sharing of heterogonous devices and the need to protect its

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information security is an extremely important task, which can significantly contribute to security
issues given the threat of cyber-attacks (Li et al. 2012). Traditional security mechanisms, such as
identification/authentication and access control (authorization) are complicated in these new
environments, requiring new standards and the development of new security products.
Due to its physical broadcast nature, these new communication networks are generally more
vulnerable to malicious and accidental threats than their wired counterparts. As a result of this
inherent vulnerability, security is a mandatory component. While it’s more difficult and
potentially more important to secure this communication, the issues, threats and the respective
required services to adequately respond to these threats are mostly the same for wired and
wireless technology. Alternatively, the task of providing security services for these networks is
more complicated than in wired networks. Power and bandwidth limitations, often non-existent in
wired networks, impose considerable constraints on the complexity and efficiency of security
protocols.
5. FOG MOBILE EDGE COMPUTING (FMEC)
A mobile grid combines mobile computing and grid computing and develops rapidly (Zeng et al.
2008). FMEC can be mobile, portable or fixed. However, in general, the mobile user unit is a
mobile, wireless device. These user devices provide one basic function – connectivity with an
access point or a base station providing mobile services. Samimi et al. (2006) define FMECs as
clouds that support autonomic communication at the wireless edge of the Internet, defined as
those nodes that are one, at most a few, wireless hops away from the wired infrastructure. FMEC
enable dynamic instantiation, composition, configuration, and reconfiguration of services on an
overlay network to support mobile computing (Samimi et al. 2006). FMEC provides a distributed
infrastructure designed to facilitate rapid prototyping and deployment of services that enhance
communication performance, robustness, and security and include a collection of low level
facilities that can be either invoked directly by applications or used to compose more complex
services (McKinley et al. 2006).
As displayed in Figure 3, the FMECs model supports dynamic composition and reconfiguration
of services to support clients at the wireless edge and provide an infrastructure for composing
autonomic communication services (Samimi et al. 2006; Vermesan et al. 2011). FMECs (see
Figure 3) allows information systems to mirror the integrated, evolving business processes of an
enterprise to deliver specific capabilities and service levels. The ability of FMECs to change,
evolve, and manage business processes throughout an enterprise is changing the way information
technology development, integration and deployment works. Pervasive FMECs in an enterprise
will identify and highlight cross-functional dependencies and encourage cooperation and
communication between and among functional units and information technology.

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Figure 4. Fog Mobile Edge Computing
(Source: Samimi et al. 2006)
Wireless grids are infrastructure-less mobile ad-hoc networks that can intelligently and
dynamically interconnect users and stakeholders at multiple sites, transfer digital media, assume
and respond to different equipment types, and adapt to low power conditions and diminished
communications capabilities (McKnight et al. 2004). There are two modes of wireless grid
creation, user mode and machine-based mode, as displayed in Figure 5 and Figure 6, compare a
‘human-user’-centric grid with a ‘node-based’ grid (McKnight et al. 2015). In purely conceptual
terms, it is evident that in both cases the outermost frontier of what is currently possible (i.e.,
engaging the full range of user types) with device heterogeneity considered on an infinite axis
only goes so far; the promise of the wireless grid technology is the capability of ‘M2M’
communication via a virtual distributed operating system that enables the IoT (McKnight et al.
2015).
Figure 5. User View
Figure 6. Machine View
The vision of the IoT will be driven by FMEC, wireless grids, Cloud computing and other
various technologies, which also include improving information reliability and efficiency and
enhancing customer participation. Given the obvious benefits of the IoT, its introduction has also
posed severe security concerns. As a critical infrastructure, the IoT is expected to be a tempting

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target for hacking, service theft, sabotage, terrorism and other malicious attacks (Li et al. 2012).
IoT security has been widely recognized as a major issue with potentially catastrophic
implications. Due to its heavy reliance on the cyber-infrastructure for sensing and control, the IoT
will be exposed to new risk from computer network vulnerabilities as well as inherit existing
risks from physical vulnerabilities within existing systems (Li et al. 2012). Because of the
significant role of the IoT as a key infrastructure, the cyber-attacks against it pose sever threats to
the security of the architecture.
Both cascading failures and collapses are catastrophic events and will finally lead to large-scale
shutdown of wireless grids, FMECs and IoT architectures. Therefore, the authentication of ICD’s
will be key for wireless grids for the IoT architecture. An authentication model is needed to
analyze the wireless grid ICD’s for the wg-IoT architecture. In general, the framework provides a
generic process for understanding the authentication and authorization component (AAC), the
messaging and presence component (MPC) and the security component (SC) from the RSP
(McKnight et al. 2015). In this chapter, the consideration is that the proposed framework can be
easily extended to analyze a coordinated authentication cyber-attacks launched by attacker’s
trying to gain access to the overall IoT architecture.
6. CONCEPTUALIZATION OF AUTHENTICATION IN A FOG-MOBILE EDGE
COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT UTILING THE WIRELESS GRID RESOURCE
SHARING PROTOCOL
Authentication is an important issue for the security of fog computing since services are offered
to massive-scale end users by front fog nodes (Yi et al. 2015, August). Amor et al. (2017)
introduce of a mutual authentication between Fog users at the Edge of the network and the Fog
servers at the Fog layer proposing a fog user-fog server anonymous mutual authentication
scheme; in which the fog user and fog server authenticate each other and establish a session key
without disclosing user's real identity. This scheme is based on Pseudonym Based Cryptography
(PBC), Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP) and bilinear pairing to establish the
session key (Amor et al. 2017). Alharbi et al. (2017) propose a Fog Computing-based Security
(FOCUS) system, which leverages a virtual private network (VPN) to secure the access channel
to IoT devices through a challenge-response authentication process to protect the VPN server
against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Furthermore, as the emergence of biometric
authentication, such as fingerprint authentication, face authentication, touch-based or keystroke-
based authentication etc, in mobile computing and cloud computing, applying biometric-based
authentication in fog computing will be beneficial (Yi et al. 2015, June).
Authentication requires that an ICD prove its identity. Authentication will require that the ICD
authenticate to the IoT network, and the network should authenticate the ICD. The wireless grid
core components must be embedded in IoT devices or sensors depending on their capability to
handle five primary functions: (1) management of identification [ID] and presence, (2)
permissions management, (3) data transfer ability, (4) application programming interface [API]
and (4) security (McKnight et al. 2015). These are the elements that make the grid-enabled
ecosystem possible and make every ICD a node on the wireless grid. The layers above the core
are comprised of the wireless grid’s API, which enables connections with other applications and
services, the grid user interface (GUI), which may or may not be necessary depending on the
thing/object upon which it resides, and finally the wireless grid ‘Edgeware’ applications, which
are typically delivered as services (McKnight et al. 2015) of resource sharing and functionality
services and once a wireless grid is established, then resources and services can be published or
accessed across the grid, enabling the infinite functional possibilities of wireless grid technology
(McKnight et al. 2015).

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The wireless grid is made possible by the ‘Grid Core’, which is software installed on any Grid-
enabled, IoT device (McKnight et al. 2015). As identified in Figure 7, the resource sharing
protocol (RSP) is the primary Grid Core function provided by the architecture’s eight core
components: AAC, BAC, MPC, MC, RMC, ELP, CPC and SC (McKnight et al. 2015). The RSP
enables creating, joining and subscribing to a wireless grid through provision of the following
services: resource identification, resource acquisition, resource advertisement/discovery,
communication amongst wireless grids, communication with the internet, creating a wireless grid
and joining and subscribing to a wireless grid (McKnight et al. 2015).
Figure 7. Open Wireless Grid API Map
7. WIRELESS GRID INFORMATION ELEMENT (WGIE)
Due to the processing nature of wireless grids for the IoT architecture (see Figure 8), a standard
process for authentication needs to be defined that provides for a network-wide cryptographic
challenge and response mechanism. This standard should provide for the ability to uniquely
authenticate ICD’s to legitimate mobile access points. In order to provide authentication for the
ICD’s in the IoT, the system must use standard cryptographic algorithms/ciphers for wireless and
RFID systems (e.g. WPA2, Simon and Speck, AES, Skipjack, etc.) and the establishment of an
information element known only to the service provider from the RSP. This information element
is referred to as the ‘Wireless Grid Information Element [WGIE]’, should be programmed into all
mobile access points and known to the network infrastructure for the FMEC/IoT network.

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Figure 8. IoT Architecture
(Source: Eichhorn 2010)
The WGIE, as displayed in Figure 9, is a 256-bit cryptographic key variable stored in the semi-
permanent memory of the mobile access point and is known to the wireless base register
authentication center (WBRAC) of the IoT system.
Figure 9. WGIE
The WBRAC provides identification, authentication and encryption for ICD’s, provides a central
location for supporting mobile access points and is the repository for all subscriber information

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As a secured database that stores essential encrypted subscriber information, the WBRAC plays a
key role in the operation of the wg-IoT network as it manages the services to which an ICD has
subscribed. The WBRAC is constantly subjected to heavy load of traffic to identify service
providers/subscribers, route, handle data, and provide security for the IoT system. The WBRAC
is used to conduct the IoT network’s primary security functions and it contains the wg-IoT
network’s set of algorithms necessary to authenticate an ICD.
8. THE ‘WG-IOT’ AUTHENTICATION PROCESS
The wg-IoT authentication process (as displayed in Figure 10) is initiated when a mobile access
point(s) attempts to confirm the identity of an ICD. This is based on the services identified from
the Grid Core and generated in the wg-IoT system. Within the WGIE, the wg-IoT service data
(IoT_SD) is a 128-bit pattern that resides in the ICD’s semi-permanent memory. The IoT_SD is
passed wirelessly across the air between the ICD and the mobile access point. The WGIE
includes the 64-bit mobile access point’s ESN and the ICD_IN, which is also stored in the
WBRAC. The IoT_SD is subdivided into two 64-bit potions called the IoT_SD_1 and the
IoT_SD_2. The IoT_SD_1 supports the ICD’s authentication procedure and the IoT_SD_2
supports privacy and message confidentiality. When the ICD sends a secure activation signal to
the wg-IoT system, the ICD uses the WGIE (i.e. IoT_SD field, ESN, ICD_IN) to begin the
generation procedure for the security component (SC) authentication key [SC_auth-K] (e.g. the
SC_auth-K is a 128-bit long sequence that is stored in the ICD permanent security identification
memory). This information is used to execute the authenticate-signature procedure from the Grid
Core’s RSP, which will yield a 128-bit numerical value for AAC.
The ACC component handles the authentication of the ICD and the authorization of resources; in
effect, the AAC provides the protocols to identify the ICD and understands that ICD’s
relationship to a resource (i.e. what the ICD can or can’t do with a resource). The AAC is used by
all grid members and has an identity system that looks at all ICD’s and allows policies to be
made regarding the ICD’s grid profile. The ICD then combines the AAC with two more
numerical values from the Grid Core, the messaging and presence component [MPC] and the
resource management component [RMC].

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Figure 10. wg-IoT Authentication
The MPC is a scalable messaging and presence protocol that manages the availability of an ICD
and the method or language of communication with that resource. The RMC is responsible for
aggregating and searching metadata about resources within the context of authentication and
works closely with the AAC and MPC. The RMC has a scheduler to manage and coordinate
resources, such as network access, and allows for ICD‘s to be identified as being available. The
MPC and the RMC are filled in from values already residing in the ICD’s memory. The MPC is a
128-bit long value that was received by the thing/object during its last access parameter message
transmitted by the network over the wg-IoT communication channel. The MPC is periodically
generated and issued by the wg-IoT system and, it is transmitted by the network to all mobile
wireless base stations. The ICD stores and uses the most recent version of the MPC that it has in
its authentication attempts. The RMC is a 128-count field stored in the ICD and updated
whenever a parameter update order is received from the wg-IoT network on the wg-IoT secure
traffic channel. After the ICD has assembled the AAC-MPC-RMC number, called the global
unique identifier (GUID), it sends it to the mobile access point. The mobile access point
compares the information it received from the ICD with its stored value for the AAC and MPC,
along with its RMC derived from a stored service. If valid, the ICD is authenticated. If any of the
comparison fails, the mobile access point initiates a unique challenged response process or starts
an update value process.
In the update value process (see Figure 11), the wg-IoT system responds by calculating new
authentication values and challenging the ICD. First, the WBRAC in the wg-IoT system sends an
update message to the mobile access point telling it that the ICD is to be updated and it passes a
value to the mobile access point. This random number that the WBRAC has used, together with
the ICD to calculate the new value. Since the WGIE is stored in both the ICD and in the
WBRAC, the mobile access point sends the value to the ICD in an update order over the wg-IoT
secure traffic channel. When the update order arrives at the ICD, it causes the unit to execute an
IoT_SD generation procedure. In this procedure, the ICD uses the AAC, ESN and the SC_auth-K

14
to produce an IoT_SD_New value. Meanwhile, the WBRAC has also used the AAC and
SC_auth-K to generate its version of the IoT_SD_New value. Next, the ICD generates a random,
256-bit long number called the “thing-object mobile access point (TO_MAP)”. The TO_MAP
number is used to challenge the mobile access point. The mobile access point issues the challenge
via a mobile access challenge order message that is transmitted via the wg-IoT secure traffic
channel. The ICD continues on by running an authorization-signature procedure using its
IOT_SD_New and the TO_MAP (coupled with the ESN and ICD_IN). The result is a new
number called the AUTH_SIGN_MAP within the wireless grid security component.
Figure 11. Update Value for AUTH_SIGN_MAP
At the same time that the ICD is calculating the AUTH_SIGN_MAP, the mobile access point
received the TO_MAP from the ICD and has started its own authorization-signature procedure.
The mobile access point forwards the challenge order to the WBRAC and sends an
acknowledgement on receipt of the order to the ICD. The SC uses the TO_MAP (calculated by
the ICD) and the IOT_SD_New (calculated by the WBRAC) to generate its own version of the
AUTH_SIGN_MAP. The SC then sends its AUTH_SIGN_MAP to the mobile access point in a
mobile access point challenge response message. The mobile access point sends this response to
the ICD via a mobile access point challenge response order message via the wg-IoT secure traffic
channel. The mobile access point challenge confirmation order must be received by the ICD
within a timer period of 1s after it has received acknowledgement of reception of the challenge
order. If it does not receive the confirmation order within the specific time, the ICD will discard
the AUTH_SIGN_MAP and terminate the update value process.
Once the ICD has both copies of the AUTH_SIGN_MAP in its possession, it conducts a
comparison of the two. If the comparison results in a successful match, the ICD resets the
original IOT_SD_New, replacing them with the new values of the IOT_SD_1New and the
IOT_SD_2New. If the comparison results in an unsuccessful match, the ICD discards the
IOT_SD_1New and the IOT_SD_2New values and sends an update rejection message to the
mobile access point; thus, denying the wg-IoT system access and causing the authentication
procedure to begin again. With a successful match and reset, the ICD sends an update
confirmation message to the mobile access point. After it has received this message, the mobile
access point resets its IOT_SD_1 and the IOT_SD_New value using the IOT_SD_1 New and the
IOT_SD_2 New values it received from the WBRAC. The ICD has now been authenticated and
proceeds to the authorization and encryption process (see Figure 12).

15
If any of the calculated values fails a comparison made by the mobile access point during an
authentication procedure, then the mobile access point may deem the attempt unsuccessful. It can
then terminate the current authentication procedure and initiate the unique challenge response
process. This process can be carried out on the wg-IoT secure traffic channels since the mobile
access point generates a 64-bit long value called the WMAP and send it to the ICD via the
authentication challenge message. This message is sent on the wg-IoT secure traffic channel.
When the ICD receives this message, it performs an authorization-signature calculation. Its takes
the value and makes it the 64 most significant bits of the WMAP. It also takes the 16 least
significant bits of the WBRAC and makes those the 16 least significant bits of the WMAP. The
ICD then calculates the authorization-signature, which is used to fill the AUTH_SIGN_MAP
field.
The AUTH_SIGN_MAP is then sent to the mobile access point. The mobile access point then
compares the ICD AUTH_SIGN_MAP with its own version of the AUTH_SIGN_MAP. If the
two do not match, the mobile access point will drop the attempt, deny any further attempt to
access the wg-IoT network by the ICD or initiate an update process. If authentication is
successful, the mobile access point can move on to authorization and message encryption, which
involves scrambling the data signal stream within the wg-IoT network as displayed in Figure 12.
Figure 12. Validating the AUTH_SIGN_MAP
9. CONCLUSION
Unlike wired networks, wireless grids and FMECs are not limited by physical space. This
potentially opens up the network to attack from rogue ICDs and users who may spy on the
wireless transmission or gain unauthorized access to the network from the inside or outside.
Traditional thieves, hackers, high-tech criminals, government sponsored organizations, viruses,
and other types of malicious code will continue to be causes for security concerns on these
networks. The information passed on these networks is exposed to malicious attempts to obtain
the information without proper authorization. These new systems must be designed to minimize
the vulnerabilities of the networks and the information contained within them. However, as
vulnerable as wired networks are for potential attacks, these networks are even more vulnerable.

16
The intent of this article is to hypothesize a generic authentication methodology for wireless
grid/FMECs use for the IoT architecture. The proposed methodology, called wg-IoT, includes the
integration of fog computing, wireless grids and FMECs to create this new IoT architecture and
must be further researched. The authentication process developed from the wireless grid RSP still
has to be developed and proposed for modeling the authentication of ICD’s, which allows
strategies and approaches for enhancing the information security architecture for further
development. There are numerous complex considerations which must be considered when
implementing this process and without adequate forethought these new ICDs and FMECs may be
ill-advised.
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