scholarly journals Secure LoRa Firmware Update with Adaptive Data Rate Techniques

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2384
Author(s):  
Derek Heeger ◽  
Maeve Garigan ◽  
Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou ◽  
Jim Plusquellic
Keyword(s):  
Data Rate ◽  
Maximum Speed ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Data Rates ◽  
Significant Burden ◽  
Embedded Algorithms ◽  
Energy Constrained ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Update Process

Internet of Things (IoT) devices rely upon remote firmware updates to fix bugs, update embedded algorithms, and make security enhancements. Remote firmware updates are a significant burden to wireless IoT devices that operate using low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies due to slow data rates. One LPWAN technology, Long Range (LoRa), has the ability to increase the data rate at the expense of range and noise immunity. The optimization of communications for maximum speed is known as adaptive data rate (ADR) techniques, which can be applied to accelerate the firmware update process for any LoRa-enabled IoT device. In this paper, we investigate ADR techniques in an application that provides remote monitoring of cattle using small, battery-powered devices that transmit data on cattle location and health using LoRa. In addition to issues related to firmware update speed, there are significant concerns regarding reliability and security when updating firmware on mobile, energy-constrained devices. A malicious actor could attempt to steal the firmware to gain access to embedded algorithms or enable faulty behavior by injecting their own code into the device. A firmware update could be subverted due to cattle moving out of the LPWAN range or the device battery not being sufficiently charged to complete the update process. To address these concerns, we propose a secure and reliable firmware update process using ADR techniques that is applicable to any mobile or energy-constrained LoRa device. The proposed system is simulated and then implemented to evaluate its performance and security properties.

scholarly journals Exploratory approach for network behavior clustering in LoRaWAN

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Domenico Garlisi ◽  
Alessio Martino ◽  
Jad Zouwayhed ◽  
Reza Pourrahim ◽  
Francesca Cuomo
Keyword(s):  
Smart Cities ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Network Behavior ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Network Efficiency ◽  
Exploratory Approach ◽  
Wireless Interface ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Set Up

AbstractThe interest in the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing both as for research and market perspectives. Worldwide, we are witnessing the deployment of several IoT networks for different applications, spanning from home automation to smart cities. The majority of these IoT deployments were quickly set up with the aim of providing connectivity without deeply engineering the infrastructure to optimize the network efficiency and scalability. The interest is now moving towards the analysis of the behavior of such systems in order to characterize and improve their functionality. In these IoT systems, many data related to device and human interactions are stored in databases, as well as IoT information related to the network level (wireless or wired) is gathered by the network operators. In this paper, we provide a systematic approach to process network data gathered from a wide area IoT wireless platform based on LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network). Our study can be used for profiling IoT devices, in order to group them according to their characteristics, as well as detecting network anomalies. Specifically, we use the k-means algorithm to group LoRaWAN packets according to their radio and network behavior. We tested our approach on a real LoRaWAN network where the entire captured traffic is stored in a proprietary database. Quite important is the fact that LoRaWAN captures, via the wireless interface, packets of multiple operators. Indeed our analysis was performed on 997, 183 packets with 2169 devices involved and only a subset of them were known by the considered operator, meaning that an operator cannot control the whole behavior of the system but on the contrary has to observe it. We were able to analyze clusters’ contents, revealing results both in line with the current network behavior and alerts on malfunctioning devices, remarking the reliability of the proposed approach.

scholarly journals Blockchain-Based Security Model for LoRaWAN Firmware Updates

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Njabulo Sakhile Mtetwa ◽  
Paul Tarwireyi ◽  
Cecilia Nombuso Sibeko ◽  
Adnan Abu-Mahfouz ◽  
Matthew Adigun
Keyword(s):  
Use Cases ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Security Model ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Attack Surface ◽  
Iot Devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way consumers, businesses, and governments interact with the physical and cyber worlds. More often than not, IoT devices are designed for specific functional requirements or use cases without paying too much attention to security. Consequently, attackers usually compromise IoT devices with lax security to retrieve sensitive information such as encryption keys, user passwords, and sensitive URLs. Moreover, expanding IoT use cases and the exponential growth in connected smart devices significantly widen the attack surface. Despite efforts to deal with security problems, the security of IoT devices and the privacy of the data they collect and process are still areas of concern in research. Whenever vulnerabilities are discovered, device manufacturers are expected to release patches or new firmware to fix the vulnerabilities. There is a need to prioritize firmware attacks, because they enable the most high-impact threats that go beyond what is possible with traditional attacks. In IoT, delivering and deploying new firmware securely to affected devices remains a challenge. This study aims to develop a security model that employs Blockchain and the InterPlanentary File System (IPFS) to secure firmware transmission over a low data rate, constrained Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN). The proposed security model ensures integrity, confidentiality, availability, and authentication and focuses on resource-constrained low-powered devices. To demonstrate the utility and applicability of the proposed model, a proof of concept was implemented and evaluated using low-powered devices. The experimental results show that the proposed model is feasible for constrained and low-powered LoRaWAN devices.

A Survey on Attacks and Defences on LoRaWAN Gateways

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-38
Author(s):  
Olof Magnusson ◽  
Rikard Teodorsson ◽  
Joakim Wennerberg ◽  
Stig Arne Knoph
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Replay Attacks ◽  
Radio Signals ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Set Up

LoRaWAN (long-range wide-area network) is an emerging technology for the connection of internet of things (IoT) devices to the internet and can as such be an important part of decision support systems. In this technology, IoT devices are connected to the internet through gateways by using long-range radio signals. However, because LoRaWAN is an open network, anyone has the ability to connect an end device or set up a gateway. Thus, it is important that gateways are designed in such a way that their ability to be used maliciously is limited. This chapter covers relevant attacks against gateways and potential countermeasures against them. A number of different attacks were found in literature, including radio jamming, eavesdropping, replay attacks, and attacks against the implementation of what is called beacons in LoRaWAN. Countermeasures against these attacks are discussed, and a suggestion to improve the security of LoRaWAN is also included.

scholarly journals An Adaptive Spreading Factor Selection Scheme for a Single Channel LoRa Modem

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seungku Kim ◽  
Heonkook Lee ◽  
Sungho Jeon
Keyword(s):  
Low Power ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Maximum Throughput ◽  
Spreading Factor ◽  
Selection Scheme ◽  
Data Rates

When the low power wide area network (LPWAN) was developed for the internet of things (IoT), it attracted significant attention. LoRa, which is one of the LPWAN technologies, provides low-power and long-range wireless communication using a frequency band under 1 GHz. A long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) provides a simple star topology network that is not scalable; it supports multi-data rates by adjusting the spreading factor, code rate, and bandwidth. This paper proposes an adaptive spreading factor selection scheme for corresponding spreading factors (SFs) between a transmitter and receiver. The scheme enables the maximum throughput and minimum network cost, using cheap single channel LoRa modules. It provides iterative SF inspection and an SF selection algorithm that allows each link to communicate at independent data rates. We implemented a multi-hop LoRa network and evaluated the performance of experiments in various network topologies. The adaptive spreading factor selection (ASFS) scheme showed outstanding end-to-end throughput, peaking at three times the performance of standalone modems. We expect the ASFS scheme will be a suitable technology for applications requiring high throughput on a multi-hop network.

scholarly journals City Scale Particulate Matter Monitoring Using LoRaWAN Based Air Quality IoT Devices

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Johnston ◽  
Philip J. Basford ◽  
Florentin M. J. Bulot ◽  
Mihaela Apetroaie-Cristea ◽  
Natasha H. C. Easton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Sensor Coverage ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The City

Air Quality (AQ) is a very topical issue for many cities and has a direct impact on citizen health. The AQ of a large UK city is being investigated using low-cost Particulate Matter (PM) sensors, and the results obtained by these sensors have been compared with government operated AQ stations. In the first pilot deployment, six AQ Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been designed and built, each with four different low-cost PM sensors, and they have been deployed at two locations within the city. These devices are equipped with LoRaWAN wireless network transceivers to test city scale Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) coverage. The study concludes that (i) the physical device developed can operate at a city scale; (ii) some low-cost PM sensors are viable for monitoring AQ and for detecting PM trends; (iii) LoRaWAN is suitable for city scale sensor coverage where connectivity is an issue. Based on the findings from this first pilot project, a larger LoRaWAN enabled AQ sensor network is being deployed across the city of Southampton in the UK.

scholarly journals Analysis of Bidirectional ADR-Enabled Class B LoRaWAN Networks in Industrial Scenarios

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (22) ◽  
pp. 7964
Author(s):  
David Todoli-Ferrandis ◽  
Javier Silvestre-Blanes ◽  
Víctor Sempere-Payá ◽  
Ana Planes-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Packet Loss ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Data Rate ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Class B

Low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies are becoming a widespread solution for wireless deployments in many applications, such as smart cities or Industry 4.0. However, there are still challenges to be addressed, such as energy consumption and robustness. To characterize and optimize these types of networks, the authors have developed an optimized use of the adaptative data rate (ADR) mechanism for uplink, proposed its use also for downlink based on the simulator ns-3, and then defined an industrial scenario to test and validate the proposed solution in terms of packet loss and energy.

scholarly journals Optimization of LoRaWAN Access control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajer Tounsi ◽  
Norhane Benkahla ◽  
Ye-Qiong Song ◽  
Mounir Frikha
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Duty Cycle ◽  
Network Capacity ◽  
Data Rate ◽  
Battery Life ◽  
Delivery Ratio ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Mobile Environment ◽  
Access Technique

Abstract Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) enables flexible long-range communication with low power consumption which is suitable for IoT applications. LoRaWAN’s performance is due on the one hand to its spreading factor modulation allowing the spread out of communication between end-devices and gateways on different frequency channels and data rates. And on the other hand, to the ability to manage for each node its data rate and its transmission power thanks to the adaptive data rate (ADR) scheme in order to increase the overall network capacity and to maximize the battery life of end devices. However, because of the Aloha access technique adopted by LoRaWAN, the risk of using the same data rate on the same channel is not negligible. Despite the limitation of the duty cycle for each node, the risk of collision is high with the increase of the number of end devices which degrades the LoRaWAN’s performance. In this context, our paper proposes different approaches to improve the performance of LoRaWAN. The first contribution consists in improving the ADR technique to meet the characteristics of a mobile environment. The new mechanism proposed, called VHMM-based E-ADR, consists of adapting the data rate of the end-device according to its position. The second contribution consists in better managing the use of the duty cycle by proposing a dynamic sharing mechanism (Dynamic Duty-Cycle). The last contribution consists in proposing a deterministic access technique to replace Aloha. Our experimental study has shown that our proposals give better results in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and energy consumption than basic LoRaWAN in a mobile environment.

scholarly journals Enhancing Extensive and Remote LoRa Deployments through MEC-Powered Drone Gateways

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 4109
Author(s):  
Jorge Gallego-Madrid ◽  
Alejandro Molina-Zarca ◽  
Ramon Sanchez-Iborra ◽  
Jorge Bernal-Bernabe ◽  
José Santa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Communication Link ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Multi Access ◽  
Link Availability ◽  
Memory Resources ◽  
Back Office

The distribution of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in remote areas and the need for network resilience in such deployments is increasingly important in smart spaces covering scenarios, such as agriculture, forest, coast preservation, and connectivity survival against disasters. Although Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies, like LoRa, support high connectivity ranges, communication paths can suffer from obstruction due to orography or buildings, and large areas are still difficult to cover with wired gateways, due to the lack of network or power infrastructure. The proposal presented herein proposes to mount LPWAN gateways in drones in order to generate airborne network segments providing enhanced connectivity to sensor nodes wherever needed. Our LoRa-drone gateways can be used either to collect data and then report them to the back-office directly, or store-carry-and-forward data until a proper communication link with the infrastructure network is available. The proposed architecture relies on Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities to host a virtualization platform on-board the drone, aiming at providing an intermediate processing layer that runs Virtualized Networking Functions (VNF). This way, both preprocessing or intelligent analytics can be locally performed, saving communications and memory resources. The contribution includes a system architecture that has been successfully validated through experimentation with a real test-bed and comprehensively evaluated through computer simulation. The results show significant communication improvements employing LoRa-drone gateways when compared to traditional fixed LoRa deployments in terms of link availability and covered areas, especially in vast monitored extensions, or at points with difficult access, such as rugged zones.

scholarly journals Low Power Wide Area Network, Cognitive Radio and the Internet of Things: Potentials for Integration

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 6837
Author(s):  
Adeiza J. Onumanyi ◽  
Adnan M. Abu-Mahfouz ◽  
Gerhard P. Hancke
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Radio ◽  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Data Rates ◽  
Phy Layer ◽  
The Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm that enables many beneficial and prospective application areas, such as smart metering, smart homes, smart industries, and smart city architectures, to name but a few. These application areas typically comprise end nodes and gateways that are often interconnected by low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies, which provide low power consumption rates to elongate the battery lifetimes of end nodes, low IoT device development/purchasing costs, long transmission range, and increased scalability, albeit at low data rates. However, most LPWAN technologies are often confronted with a number of physical (PHY) layer challenges, including increased interference, spectral inefficiency, and/or low data rates for which cognitive radio (CR), being a predominantly PHY layer solution, suffices as a potential solution. Consequently, in this article, we survey the potentials of integrating CR in LPWAN for IoT-based applications. First, we present and discuss a detailed list of different state-of-the-art LPWAN technologies; we summarize the most recent LPWAN standardization bodies, alliances, and consortia while emphasizing their disposition towards the integration of CR in LPWAN. We then highlight the concept of CR in LPWAN via a PHY-layer front-end model and discuss the benefits of CR-LPWAN for IoT applications. A number of research challenges and future directions are also presented. This article aims to provide a unique and holistic overview of CR in LPWAN with the intention of emphasizing its potential benefits.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document