A server centric authentication protocol for a RFID system

Abstract

A large scale implementation of RFID technology in many practical applications including supply chain and retail stores require the resolution of the either-or dichotomy between low-cost RFID tags and secure RFID systems. This research proposes an approach in which the complexity and hence the cost of RFID tags can be drastically reduce by eliminating the security-assuring computational resources from the RFID tags and placing the security burden on the data processing server. This approach can make it possible to carry out secure transactions even with simple and inexpensive RFID tags. This research investigates a multiple ID authentication protocol based on this approach. The paper presents an empirical formula for the prediction of the performance of the protocol in terms of the number of spoofs per transaction for a given protocol configuration.