An Incentive-Aware Lightweight Secure Data Sharing Scheme for D2D Communication in 5G Cellular Networks

Due to the explosion of smart devices, data traffic over cellular networks has seen an exponential rise in recent years. Device-to-Device(D2D) communication is a promising solution to boost the capacity of cellular networks and alleviate the heavy burden on backhaul links. However, direct wireless connections between devices in D2D communication are vulnerable to certain security threats. In this paper, we propose an incentive-aware lightweight secure data sharing scheme for D2D communication. We have considered the major security challenges of the data sharing scheme, including data confidentiality, integrity, detecting message modification, and preventing the propagation of malformed data. We have also applied the concept of “virtual check” as an incentive mechanism to motivate users’ involvement in the process of data sharing. Unlike the previous studies, our proposed protocol is a stateless protocol and does not depend on the user’s contextual information. Therefore, it can be used at any time and from anywhere. The security analysis proves that the proposed protocol resists the security attacks and meets the security requirements. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed protocol outperforms the previous works in terms of communication and computation cost. Thus, the proposed protocol is indeed an efficient and practical solution for secure data sharing in D2D communication.