5G-Compliant Authentication Protocol for RFID

The term “Internet of Things” was originally coined when radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was being developed to refer to applications where RFID tagged objects and sensors enabled computers to achieve effective situational awareness without human intervention. Currently, this term encompasses a myriad of medium/small devices connected to the Internet. On the other hand, 5G is a key enabling technology that will support next generation wireless communications. Moreover, 5G aims to realize the “Internet of Everything”. Surprisingly, despite the expected relationship between these two technologies, RFID tags have not been properly integrated into 4G and it is not clear if this will change in 5G. RFID is considered as a parallel technology where, at best, it has connection to the core network using back-end servers as gateways between the two technologies. With the aim of overcoming this problem, this paper proposes a 5G compliant RFID protocol that allows RFID tags to act as fully fledged 5G subscribers while taking into account the main characteristics of RFID systems. This proposal leverages the separation between USIM and mobile equipment within the user equipment to implement a 5G compliant protocol where tags accomplish the authentication part, as 5G subscribers, while readers assume the mobile equipment role, carrying out the 5G communication and most of the resource consuming tasks.