REACT: An RFID-based privacy-preserving children tracking scheme for large amusement parks

1389-1286/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2010.05.005 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (X. Lin), ca (R. Lu), [email protected] (D. Kwan), xshe (Xuemin (Sherman) Shen). In this paper, we propose an RFID-based privacy-preserving children tracking (REACT) scheme for helping locate missing children in large amusement parks and other public venues. The scheme is characterized by the cooperation among RFID readers, storage nodes and control center, which are strategically deployed across the amusement park, as well as employees and visitors in the park. When a passive RFID tag, physically attached on a child, approaches an RFID reader, the reader will process the tag information. The reader then forwards the information to a storage node through a pocket switched network formed by employees and visitors in the park. When locating a lost child is requested, the system is able to track the missing child by querying the tag information stored in the storage nodes. Detailed security analysis shows that the proposed REACT scheme achieves child’s identity privacy, unlinkable location privacy and forward security. In addition, extensive simulations demonstrate that as more visitors participate in the pocket switched network, the performance of our proposed REACT scheme increases which directly improves the efficiency for the locating lost children. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.