Appl. Math. Inf. Sci. 8, No. 1L, 97-106 (2014) 97 Applied Mathematics & Information Sciences An International Journal http://dx.doi.org/10.12785/amis/081L13 An Improvement on the Self-Veriﬁcation Authentication Mechanism for A Mobile Satellite Communication System Chin-Ling Chen 1,∗ , Kai-Wen Cheng 1 , Young-Long Chen 2 , Ing-Chau Chang 3 and Cheng-Chi Lee 4 1 Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chaoyang University, 168 Jifeng E. Road, Wufeng District, Taichung, 41349, Taiwan, R.O.C. 2 Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taichung, 404, Taiwan, R.O.C. 3 Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, 500, Taiwan, R.O.C. 4 Department of Library and Information Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, 24205, Taiwan, R.O.C. Received: 19 Apr. 2013, Revised: 14 Aug. 2013, Accepted: 15 Aug. 2013 Published online: 1 Apr. 2014 Abstract: In 2009, Chen et al. proposed a satellite communication system for mobile devices to achieve wide communication. In this scheme, there are some security loopholes that need to be ﬁxed since the mobile device was stolen. Since a malicious attacker intercepts the mobile user’s information they can proceed with different attacks. Hence, we propose a novel scheme to improve the mobile user’s communication protocol to enhance security. In this paper, the mobile satellite communication system achieves low computation and increases the system’s security. The mobile user need not worry about sensitive information being revealed or stolen by malicious attacks, so that the mobile satellite communication system can be widely promoted in real life. Keywords: Satellite Communication System, Mutual Authentication, Impersonation Attack, Mobile Device, Wireless Communication 1 Introduction In recent years, information technology has developed very fast and network usage has become more popular. A satellite communication system is composed of a wireless network and satellite. A satellite communication system offers many conveniences such as permitting the user to communicate with others at any time. The traditional satellite communication system uses a Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) satellite that operates simultaneously with the Earth’s equator. Since the GEO’s transmission signal suffers from a delay problem, a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite gradually experiences problems. To reduce the signal reduction and transmission delay, using an LEO satellite to construct a communication system has become popular. In 1996, Cruickshank [1] proposed a satellite communication system based on the Public Key Cryptosystem (PKC), but in Cruickshank’s scheme, the computation cost of the satellite communication system was too high. Therefore, Cruickshank’s scheme is not suitable for mobile devices. In 2003, Hwang et al. [2] proposed a satellite communication system based on the Secret Key Cryptosystem (SKC) to solve Cruickshank’s problems. Hwang et al.’s scheme reduces the computation cost of a satellite communication system so that the satellite communication system can integrate a mobile device to make it more convenient. Hwang et al.’s scheme improved the high computation cost but the scheme does not reduce the communication cost. To reduce computation and communication costs, Chen et al. [3] proposed a self-veriﬁcation authentication mechanism for a mobile satellite communication system in 2009. Chen et al.’s scheme was based on session key agreement and reduced the communication cost and computation cost proposing a lightweight communication protocol. ∗ Corresponding author e-mail: clc@mail.cyut.edu.tw c  2014 NSP Natural Sciences Publishing Cor.