A new multicast authentication protocol using erasure code functions and signcryption techniques

Multicast authentication is a challenging problem, since it requires the verification of the sender by a large number of recipients. In literature, there are many solutions to solve this problem. Some of these solutions suffer from high communication and computation overheads, others suffer from packet loss and pollution attacks. The proposed solutions are divided into two approaches: the first is to design more efficient signature schemes and the second is to amortize the cost of signature over several packets. Other solutions are based on signcryption techniques which aim to simultaneously achieve the basic goals of encryption and signature schemes, namely confidentiality, authentication and non-repudiation. Although, the use of signcryption techniques enhances communication and computation overheads, this solution suffers from the inability to resist packet loss. This is due to the fact that all the block of packets must be received by the designated recipients before performing authentication. In the present paper, we propose a protocol that is based on the idea of amortizing the signcrypted text over several packets. The new protocol uses signcryption technique to provide both authenticity and confidentiality, and to resist pollution attack. In order to resist packet loss, the proposed protocol uses erasure code functions. The proposed protocol is compared to other authentication protocols. The comparison shows that the proposed protocol can resist packet loss and pollution attacks with low communication and computation overheads, which make it suitable for real-time applications.