Privacy-Preserving Cloud Navigation via Segmented Two-Party Computation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current secure multi-party computation techniques are impractical for large numbers of parties due to high communication and computation overhead, and existing navigation systems are vulnerable to flooding attacks and rely heavily on tamper-proof hardware, making them inefficient for privacy-preserving navigation in a multi-party setting.

Innovation Solution

A cloud-based system that performs two-party computation between a party and the cloud, followed by multi-party computation among multiple parties, allowing for privacy-preserving navigation by updating public data without revealing individual party inputs, using secure two-party computation (2PC) and multi-party computation (MPC) techniques to maintain privacy and efficiency.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If secure multi-party computation (MPC) is used to preserve privacy among multiple parties, then privacy is improved, but communication and computation overhead increases significantly making it impractical for large numbers of parties

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprivacy preservationVSAvoidcommunication and computation overhead
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the multi-party computation problem into two distinct phases: (1) a two-party computation phase between each client and the cloud server that handles the computationally intensive garbled circuit evaluation, and (2) a lightweight multi-party phase where clients only perform simple oblivious transfers to share results. This segmentation allows the heavy computational burden to be distributed to individual client-server pairs rather than requiring all parties to communicate with each other, making the system scalable to large numbers of parties.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Ease of operation

If existing navigation systems use RSUs to broadcast route information, then navigation service is provided, but the system becomes vulnerable to flooding attacks and requires tamper-proof hardware

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenavigation service availabilityVSAvoidflooding attacks and hardware requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces the cloud server as an intermediary that maintains a centralized database of route information and traffic conditions. Instead of RSUs broadcasting to all vehicles, the cloud server acts as a mediator that receives route requests from clients, computes optimal routes using garbled circuits that preserve client privacy, and returns results. This intermediary approach eliminates the need for RSUs to broadcast to all parties, preventing flooding attacks while maintaining navigation service availability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If two-party computation is performed between each party and the cloud, then privacy of individual inputs is preserved, but the system needs to coordinate multiple 2PC sessions for multi-party scenarios

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinput data privacyVSAvoidcoordination of multiple computation sessions
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by having all clients prepare their garbled circuits and cryptographic materials in advance before the actual route computation. The cloud server pre-processes the route database and prepares evaluation circuits. This preliminary preparation allows the actual multi-party computation to proceed efficiently with minimal coordination overhead during the critical computation phase, as most of the complex setup work has already been completed beforehand.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3662615B1Privacy-preserving multi-client and cloud computation with application to secure navigation
Publication Date: 2023.01.11 HRL LAB
  • EP3662615B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3662615B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3662615B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Described is a system for cloud-based privacy-preserving navigation operations between multiple parties. The system performs a two-party computation (2PC) between input data related to a current location of a first party and public data stored on a cloud computing infrastructure. Each party individually performs a 2PC on the public data while maintaining privacy of their input data. The system then performs multi-party computations (MPC) between multiple parties and the cloud computing infrastructure. The multiple parties privately update the public data with a result obtained from the 2PC. For the first party, a privacy-preserved navigation result is generated using results obtained from the 2PC and the MPC. The first party is caused to perform a navigation operation based on the privacy-preserved navigation result.