Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management, 2026, 16(4), 2026-0024
A Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Collaborative Manufacturing Systems in 5G Network Slicing
1 Associate
Professor and the Vice Dean of the School of Information Engineering,
Gansu Vocational and Technical College of Communications, please add
your address
2 General Manager, Hangzhou DPtech
Technologies Co., Ltd, please add your address, E-mail: chendcaicdc@sina.com
(corresponding author).
3 Senior Engineer and Manager, Engineering
and Technology Department, Gansu Civil Aviation Airport Group Co.
Production Management
Received April 23, 2026; revised May 8, 2026; accepted May 13, 2026
Available online June 4, 2026
Abstract: This work addresses critical security challenges in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) communication networks deployed in collaborative manufacturing systems within 5G network slicing environments by developing an efficient, lightweight security authentication protocol. This research utilizes optimized elliptic curve cryptography based on secp256r1 (also known as NIST P-256) parameters and introduces novel inter-slice authentication procedures, providing a comprehensive solution for seamless mobility across multiple network slices while maintaining security isolation. The proposed protocol supports diverse manufacturing scenarios, including real-time production control, resource planning and scheduling optimization, logistics coordination, and supply chain management. Formal verification through BAN logic analysis and automated ProVerif systems, complemented by performance analysis conducted in standard industrial communication environments with 50-200 devices per workshop area, validates the protocol’s effectiveness. Performance results demonstrate enhanced efficiency with a 67% reduction in authentication delay compared to existing lightweight protocols, achieving end-to-end authentication delays of 16.8ms (milliseconds) under standard conditions. The protocol reduces memory usage by 52% and CPU utilization to 8.2%. Message overhead is maintained at 168 bytes, substantially below the 384-724 bytes of comparable protocols, while achieving authentication success ratios above 97% across operational scenarios. The protocol meets the lightweight criteria defined in this study, including an authentication delay of sub-20ms, memory usage under 200 KB, message overhead under 200 bytes, and CPU utilization below 10%, all validated on ARM Cortex-A53-class industrial hardware. These performance characteristics reduce authentication-related constraints in production scheduling and simplify cross-domain logistics coordination. The protocol complies with 3GPP Release 16 standards and demonstrates compatibility with existing Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms.
Keywords: Collaborative manufacturing systems; 5G network slicing; lightweight authentication protocol; production scheduling; elliptic curve cryptography.
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Citation: Duan, X., Cheng, D., and Wang, Y. (2026). A Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Collaborative Manufacturing Systems in 5G Network Slicing. Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management, 16(4), 2026-0024.
