A Comparison of Authentication Protocols for Multi-access Edge Computing

Abstract

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) extends cloud computing capabilities to the network edge to reduce latency and enhance user experience. However, the constrained resources of edge devices and their exposure to cyber attacks make secure and efficient authentication a critical challenge. Although numerous authentication protocols have been proposed for MEC, the absence of standardized evaluation frameworks has hindered systematic comparison among existing solutions. Based on prior literature, this paper presents a comparative analysis of representative authentication protocols for MEC in an organized manner, evaluating and contrasting them according to their cryptographic foundations, computational and communication overhead, support for features such as mutual authentication and single sign-on, and resilience against established attack models. Our findings reveal that more recent protocols based on elliptic-curve cryptography generally offer improved security and performance compared to earlier approaches. Nevertheless, several protocols continue to exhibit weaknesses, including susceptibility to impersonation attacks, lack of perfect forward secrecy, and reliance on centralized authentication entities. Furthermore, our study also exposes significant inconsistencies in experimental setups and performance metrics across prior studies, which complicate fair and reproducible comparisons. Ultimately, our study concludes by identifying key gaps and research directions for the development of more robust and lightweight authentication mechanisms, as well as the establishment of standardized criteria for comparative evaluation in MEC environments.