NIT Andhra Pradesh Researchers collaborate with International Researchers to Develop a Cryptographic Protocol to Address Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities in Electric Vehicles

TADEPALLIGUDEM: National Institute of Technology Andhra Pradesh Researchers working with an international team have developed a protocol to address major security and privacy vulnerabilities in dynamic charging of electric vehicles.

The Institute worked with Researchers from IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Naya Raipur, Kyungpook National University (South Korea), and University of Wollongong (Australia), to develop this protocol.

Electric vehicles are the future of transportation due to their low carbon footprint and low energy use. Electric vehicles provide clean mobility and reduce the environmental impact of conventional transportation. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2030, the worldwide fleet of electric vehicles will reach 145 million. As more people choose electric vehicles, the demand for charging infrastructure would also grow.

This research was led by Dr. Alavalapati Goutham Reddy, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT Andhra Pradesh. The Research Paper was co-authored by Mr. Raveendra Babu, Research Scholar, NIT Andhra Pradesh along with Prof. Ashok Kumar Das of IIIT Hyderabad, Dr. Ruhul Amin of IIIT Naya Raipur, Prof. Young-Ho Park of Kyungpook National University South Korea, Prof. Willy Susilo of University of Wollongong (UOW).

A group of interdisciplinary researchers led by Dr. Alavalapati Goutham Reddy and Prof. Ashok Kumar Das developed an Authentication with Key Agreement Protocol for EV Dynamic Charging Infrastructure Entities and published their findings in the reputed peer-reviewed journal IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technology. These findings demonstrate that messages exchanged between electric vehicles and dynamic charging infrastructure are secure, preventing attackers from tracking the vehicle and gaining any benefits.

Explaining the key aspects of this research, Dr. Alavalapati Goutham Reddy, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT Andhra Pradesh, said, “A lot of effort needs to be done to make charging while driving a reality. This is because there are so many communication principles and so many different types of messaging and charging infrastructure established in public places that are prone to security and privacy concerns.”

As Electric Vehicles are electric-powered, researchers have studied static, quasi-static, and dynamic charging systems. Static charging, which allows consumers to park at their homes or offices, needs the car to be immobile. It requires a connecting wire and a plug-in charger, causes range anxiety, and is unsafe in the wet. Quasi charging is used to charge vehicles that stop briefly, including at traffic lights or bus stops.

However, once dynamic charging is deployed in the selected areas, quasi-charging will be simple to execute. These challenges demand more investigation before global electric vehicle adoption. To address the aforementioned challenges, scientists have developed the most practical technique for charging electric vehicles on the go. ICPT is the most efficient method for charging electric vehicles while driving.

Elaborating further, Mr. Raveendra Babu, Research Scholar, Department of Computer Science, NIT Andhra Pradesh, said, “Authentication is the most critical step in safeguarding any data from attackers, we chose to develop secure and effective authentication protocols for multiple dynamic charging network models used by electric vehicles.”

Dynamic charging allows for on-the-go charging. This eliminates the need for large-capacity batteries and lowers battery costs. Dynamic charging allows Electric Vehicles to charge while driving by burying Charging Pads (CPs) beneath the road. This saves time for drivers who no longer need to stop at charging facilities. Dynamic charging would be a new revolution and a boon to the transportation sector.

Dynamic charging is still a work in progress because it requires precise coordination between electric vehicles, highway infrastructure, and charging stations. As a result of the wide range of communication principals involved, novel technologies employed, messages sent among communicating principals, and charging infrastructure implemented in places like homes, offices, and public stations, hint at several security issues to be considered, such as message tampering, spoofing, or delaying among others to disconcert the charging service.

The designed protocol is based on elliptic curve cryptography, hash functions and chains, concatenation, and exclusive or operations, which aids in its implementation simplicity. The protocol is immune to man-in-the-middle attacks, impersonation attacks, replay attacks, and insider assaults, while maintaining user anonymity and untrace ability. Also, the proposed protocol is more efficient than its counterparts in terms of computing and communication costs.

Prof. C. S. P. Rao, Director, NIT Andhra Pradesh has appreciated the work done by the faculty members and the scholar and encouraged the staff for such interdisciplinary based collaborative research work for emerging applications.