Title: Secure mobile agent-based English auction protocol using identity-based signature scheme

Authors: Abubaker Wahaballa; Hu Xiong; Fagen Li; Zhen Qin; Zhiguang Qin

Addresses: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611371, China ' State Key Laboratory of Cryptology, P.O. Box 5159, Beijing, 100878, China ' University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611371, China ' University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611371, China ' University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611371, China

Abstract: In this paper, we present a mobile English auction agent model (MoEAAM), a next generation E-Auction that allows mobile agents to navigate on E-Auction houses and participate in auctions on the user's behalf even when the user is disconnected from the network. This reduces network latency and bandwidth consumption. Furthermore, MoEAAM provides many significant benefits. These include: mobility, high reactivity, anonymity and privacy for buyers; on-shelf mechanism for seller; high revenue and dispute protocol for auction houses. MoEAAM is designed based on identity-based signature scheme, which allows mobile agents to participate anonymously, and to ensure their privacy and confidentiality. MoEAAM offers strong security without sacrificing efficiency. Indeed, the analyses demonstrate that the computational costs and communication overheads in our protocol are reduced significantly while ensuring system security.

Keywords: agent-based systems; multi-agent systems; MAS; English auction protocol; anonymity; IBS; identity-based signatures; mobile agents; e-auctions; electronic auctions; online auctions; network latency; bandwidth consumption; auction security; privacy; confidentiality; mobility; reactivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSN.2016.079281

International Journal of Security and Networks, 2016 Vol.11 No.4, pp.175 - 187

Received: 17 Feb 2015
Accepted: 24 Oct 2015
Published online: 26 Sep 2016 *

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