Blockchain-Based Trusted Avionics Authentication for Secure Ground-to-Air Communication

Abstract

In this paper, a blockchain-based trusted authentication model is proposed to secure the civil aviation ground-to-air communication. Considering the limited bandwidth and high latency of ground-air communication, the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is used to store avionics equipment information and server equipment information before the plane takes off. Through hash calculation, a unique hash value is obtained as the identity credential for each communication to authenticate. Obtain the key and address of each entity from Ethereum, and realize the registration of avionics system and server information by designing and writing Ethereum smart contracts, as well as the creation of certificates for the avionics system. During the flight, each ground-air communication needs to be signed with a private key for the sent information, and the public key is uploaded to the blockchain trusted storage. In addition, the server authenticates the signature and the result of the interplanetary file system query, and the smart contract authenticates the certificate to ensure that only avionics devices in the trusted domain with verified certificates can take up normal ground-to-air communication between the ground server and the onboard server. The simulation experimental results show that the model can achieve secure ground-to-air communication with low communication overhead and achieve trusted authentication of the avionics devices in communication.