Integrating VGG16 with the ACIMD Protocol to Enhance Security and Reliability in ECG-Based Remote Authentication Systems

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Mathematics, Tafresh University, Iran.

2 Electrical Engineering Department, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Iran.

Abstract

The security of Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) is of paramount importance, as unauthorized access can lead to life-threatening consequences. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals present a promising biometric modality for authentication due to their inherent uniqueness and capability for liveness detection capability. However, wireless ECG-based systems are vulnerable to relay attacks, necessitating robust proximity verification. This study proposes a novel, integrated authentication framework that addresses both user identification and physical proximity. We enhance the established Access Control for Implantable Medical Devices (ACIMD) distance-bounding protocol by incorporating a fine-tuned VGG16 deep convolutional neural network to achieve high-accuracy ECG biometric verification. The system was rigorously evaluated using the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database. The integrated model achieved an overall authentication accuracy of 99.45%, surpassing the baseline ACIMD protocol accuracy of 97.82%. This represents an average improvement of 1.63% across various physical distance thresholds. Although integrating VGG16 increased the total authentication time from 0.0113 s to 0.0437 s, this remains well within acceptable limits for real-time medical applications. Crucially, we provide new evidence for improved system reliability, demonstrating superior robustness against signal noise compared to the baseline. The proposed system effectively balances high biometric fidelity with stringent physical-layer security, offering a comprehensive solution for secure remote authentication in critical applications such as IMDs.

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Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 18 June 2025
  • Revise Date: 27 December 2025
  • Accept Date: 15 February 2026

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