Securing <scp>UAVs</scp> Assisted Ground Network Using <scp>PUF</scp> ‐Based Lightweight Authentication Protocol

ABSTRACT Security and privacy in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/drone communication are critical. This paper proposes a secure, lightweight authentication scheme for UAV‐to‐ground station communication, using a physical unclonable function (PUF) to ensure encrypted and tamper‐resistant channels. The scheme achieves a communication cost of 2176 bits and a computation cost of 1565.76 μs, balancing efficiency with strong security. It maintains an authentication success rate of 99.2% at 1% bit error rate (BER) and 98.4% at 2% BER, ensuring reliability in noisy environments. NS‐3.35 simulations show a throughput of 21.75% lower, with packet loss reduced by 5.82% and end‐to‐end delay lowered by 8.6% compared to existing methods. Formal verification using the Scyther tool confirms resistance to various attacks like replay, impersonation, physical attacks, and so on. Overall, PUF is an effective and robust solution for UAV‐assisted ground network communication.