Design and evaluation of a lightweight authentication protocol for GSM-based mobile devices using formal verification and statistical analysis

Abstract

The increasing reliance on mobile computing in GSM-based environments necessitates secure and efficient authentication protocols. Previous GSM authenticating methods, though perfectly valid, are computationally intensive to an extent that considerable waiting duration is observed. This paper attempts a lightweight authentication protocol suited for GSM-based mobile devices. The protocol is formally verified to ensure cryptographic soundness and is statistically evaluated against the existing GSM protocol using simulated data. Using a dataset of 100 observations (50 per protocol) and various methods like ANOVA, contrast testing, and estimation of marginal means for analysis, the lightweight method having demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in authentication time (p < 0.001) with lesser variance and consistent application. Violin plots and marginal means visualizations buttress the gains obtained. The results demonstrate the validity of the protocol and at the same time its deployment in a middle ground GSM environment where speed and security are both considered paramount.