The significance of the Internet of Drones (IoD) is increasing steadily and now IoD is being practiced in many military and civilian-based applications. IoD facilitates real-time data access to the users especially the surveillance data in smart cities using the current cellular networks. However, due to the openness of communication channel and battery operations, the drones and the sensitive data collected through drones are subject to many security threats. To cope the security challenges, recently, Srinivas et al. proposed a temporal credential based anonymous lightweight authentication scheme (TCALAS) for IoD networks. Contrary to the IoD monitoring framework proposed by Srinivas et al., their own scheme can work only when there is one and only one cluster/flying zone and is not scalable. Moreover, despite their claim of robustness, the investigation in this paper reveals that Srinivas et al.’s scheme cannot resist traceability and stolen verifier attacks. Using the lightweight symmetric key primitives and temporal credentials, an improved scheme (iTCALAS) is then proposed. The proposed scheme while maintaining the lightweightness provides security against many known attacks including traceability and stolen verifier. The proposed iTCALAS extends scalability and can work when there are several flying zone/clusters in the IoD environment. The formal security proof along with automated verification using ProVerif show robustness of proposed iTCALAS. Moreover, the security discussion and performance comparisons show that the iTCALAS provides the known security features and completes authentication in just 2.295 ms.

The theory of complex spherical fuzzy sets (CSFSs) is a mixture of two theories, i.e., complex fuzzy sets (CFSs) and spherical fuzzy sets (SFSs), to cope with uncertain and unreliable information in realistic decision-making situations. CSFSs contain three grades in the form of polar coordinates, e.g., truth, abstinence, and falsity, belonging to a unit disc in a complex plane, with a condition that the sum of squares of the real part of the truth, abstinence, and falsity grades is not exceeded by a unit interval. In this paper, we first consider some properties and their operational laws of CSFSs. Additionally, based on CSFSs, the complex spherical fuzzy Bonferroni mean (CSFBM) and complex spherical fuzzy weighted Bonferroni mean (CSFWBM) operators are proposed. The special cases of the proposed operators are also discussed. A multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problem was chosen to be resolved based on the proposed CSFBM and CSFWBM operators. We then propose the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method based on CSFSs (CSFS-TOPSIS). An application example is given to delineate the proposed methods and a close examination is undertaken. The advantages and comparative analysis of the proposed approaches are also presented.

In this paper, the novel approach of complex T-spherical fuzzy sets (CTSFSs) and their operational laws are explored and also verified with the help of examples. CTSFS composes the grade of truth, abstinence, and falsity with a condition that the sum of q-power of the real part (also for imaginary part) of the truth, abstinence, and falsity grades cannot be exceeded from a unit interval. Additionally, to examine the interrelationships among the complex T-spherical fuzzy numbers (CTSFNs), we propose two aggregation operators, called complex T-spherical fuzzy weighted averaging (CTSFWA) and complex T-spherical fuzzy weighted geometric (CTSFWG) operators. A multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problem is resolved based on CTSFNs by using the proposed CTSFWA and CTSFWG operators. To examine the proficiency and reliability of the explored works, we use an example to make comparisons between the proposed operators and some existing operators. Based on the comparison results, the proposed CTSFWA and CTSFWG operators are well suited in the fuzzy environment with legitimacy and prevalence by contrasting other existing operators.

The aim of this paper is to present the novel concept of Complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy set (Cq-ROFS) which is a useful tool to cope with unresolved and complicated information. It is characterized by a complex-valued membership grade and a complex-valued non-membership grade, the distinction of which is that the sum of q-powers of the real parts (imaginary parts) of the membership and non-membership grades is less than or equal to one. To explore the study, we present some basic operational laws, score and accuracy functions and investigate their properties. Further, to aggregate the given information of Cq-ROFS, we present several weighted averaging and geometric power aggregation operators named as complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy (Cq-ROF) power averaging operator, Cq-ROF power geometric operator, Cq-ROF power weighted averaging operator, Cq-ROF power weighted geometric operator, Cq-ROF hybrid averaging operator and Cq-ROF power hybrid geometric operator. Properties and special cases of the proposed approaches are discussed in detail. Moreover, the VIKOR (“VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje”) method for Cq-ROFSs is introduced and its aspects discussed. Furthermore, the above mentioned approaches apply to multi-attribute decision-making problems and VIKOR methods, in which experts state their preferences in the Cq-ROF environment to demonstrate the feasibility, reliability and effectiveness of the proposed approaches. Finally, the proposed approach is compared with existing methods through numerical examples.