Characterization of (k, n) multi-receiver authentication

Abstract

In the model of (k, n) multi-receiver authentication codes there are n receivers. An opponent and any k-1 receivers cannot cheat any other receiver. Here we show tight lower bounds on the size of messages and the size of keys for given cheating probabilities. We also show a necessary and sufficient condition for the optimum scheme, which is given by a combinatorial characterization between the transmitter’s keys and the keys of each receiver.