A Secure Communication Protocol for Remote Keyless Entry System with Adaptive Adjustment of Transmission Parameters

TL;DR

This paper tackles replay, impersonation, and interference threats in BLE-based remote keyless entry (RKE) systems by introducing an adaptive communication framework and a lightweight Vehicle-Key authentication protocol. The core approach combines real-time channel-quality assessment with adaptive frequency hopping, PHY mode selection, and transmission power control, along with an ECDSA-AES based authentication scheme to enable secure, bidirectional interactions between the vehicle and the key fob. The authors implement a prototype using nRF52840 devices and demonstrate significant improvements in packet delivery rate (PDR) under mild and strong interference, while showing modest memory and power overheads and strong defenses against replay and impersonation attacks. The results indicate that adaptive channel management plus lightweight cryptographic authentication can substantially enhance RKE security and reliability in real-world interference environments, with practical deployment feasibility. Future work will focus on optimizing key management, exploring alternative protocols, and integrating hardware security modules to further boost efficiency and robustness.

Abstract

Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) systems have become a standard feature in modern vehicles, yet their unidirectional fixed-frequency radio communication renders them vulnerable to replay attacks, impersonation attacks, cryptanalysis, and intentional interference. Existing cryptographic authentication methods enhance security but often fail to address real-world constraints such as computational efficiency and radio interference. To mitigate these threats, we designed the Adaptive Frequency-Hopping Algorithm and the Adaptive TXP and PHY Mode Control Algorithm that can dynamically optimize channel selection, transmission power, and PHY modes based on real-time channel quality assessment. To enhance the security and reliability of RKE systems, we propose the Lightweight Vehicle-Key Authentication Protocol. In addition, a prototype of the proposed scheme was implemented to verify its effectiveness in mitigating interference and preventing unauthorized access.Experimental results show that our scheme significantly enhances communication security and reliability while maintaining low computational overhead. Under mild interference conditions, the packet delivery rate (PDR) of the adaptive scheme increases from 93% to 99.23%, and under strong interference, it improves from 85% to 99.01%. Additionally, the scheme effectively prevents replay and impersonation attacks, ensuring secure vehicle access control by dynamically optimizing communication parameters to maintain stable and reliable transmission.

Figures (19)

• Figure 1: System Work Model
• Figure 2: System work flow chart
• Figure 3: Channel transmission record quality matrix
• Figure 4: Schematic of the window length of the data record
• Figure 5: Effect of Transmit Power $TXP$ on $PDR$ of $BLE$ Channel Quality