Efficient Implementation of RFID Mutual Authentication Protocol

Researchers have shown that the Electronic Product Code (EPC) Class-1 Generation-2 (C1G2) specification has serious security problems. To overcome these weaknesses, some authors have proposed a specially designed pad generation (PadGen) function to improve security. The PadGen function is used to produce a cover-coding pad to mask the tag´s access password before the data are transmitted. In this paper, we study the radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag-reader mutual authentication (TRMA) scheme. Two improved authentication protocols for generating the PadGen function are described. A hardware design of these RFID authentication protocols conforming to the International Standards Organization 18000-6 Type-C protocol, also known as EPC C1G2 RFID protocol, is proposed. Since tags have an extremely limited computing power and storage capacity, the PadGen function based on exclusive-or operation for low-cost hardware implementation is reported in this study. The proposed RFID TRMA protocol was simulated using Modelsim XE II and synthesized using Altera´s Quartus II software. The functionality of these strengthening protocols was successfully verified in hardware using an Altera DE2 board that included an Altera Cyclone II field-programmable gate array.