Dual-Chain-Based Dynamic Authentication and Handover Mechanism for Air Command Aircraft in Multi-UAV Clusters

Jing Ma, Yuanbo Chen, Yanfang Fu (), Zhiqiang Du, Xiaoge Yan and Guochuang Yan
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Jing Ma: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Yuanbo Chen: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Yanfang Fu: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Zhiqiang Du: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Xiaoge Yan: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Guochuang Yan: China Ordnance Industry Testing and Research Institute, Weinan 714200, China

Mathematics, 2025, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: Cooperative multi-UAV clusters have been widely applied in complex mission scenarios due to their flexible task allocation and efficient real-time coordination capabilities. The Air Command Aircraft (ACA), as the core node within the UAV cluster, is responsible for coordinating and managing various tasks within the cluster. When the ACA undergoes fault recovery, a handover operation is required, during which the ACA must re-authenticate its identity with the UAV cluster and re-establish secure communication. However, traditional, centralized identity authentication and ACA handover mechanisms face security risks such as single points of failure and man-in-the-middle attacks. In highly dynamic network environments, single-chain blockchain architectures also suffer from throughput bottlenecks, leading to reduced handover efficiency and increased authentication latency. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a mathematically structured dual-chain framework that utilizes a distributed ledger to decouple the management of identity and authentication information. We formalize the ACA handover process using cryptographic primitives and accumulator functions and validate its security through BAN logic. Furthermore, we conduct quantitative analyses of key performance metrics, including time complexity and communication overhead. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach ensures secure handover while significantly reducing computational burden. The framework also exhibits strong scalability, making it well-suited for large-scale UAV cluster networks.

Keywords: dual-chain architecture; ACA handover; formal modeling; cryptographic accumulator; dynamic authentication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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