A Key Management Protocol Based on the Hash Chain Key Generation for Securing LoRaWAN Networks

Recently, many Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) protocols have been proposed for securing resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices with negligible power consumption. The Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) is a low power communication protocol that supports message authentication, integrity, and encryption using two-session preshared secret keys. However, although the LoRaWAN supports some security functions, it suffers from session key generation and key update problems. This motivates us to introduce a new key management protocol that resolves the LoRaWAN problems and supports key updates. The proposed protocol is based on hash chain generation using a one-way hash function. Network entities share a common hash chain of n key elements to allow using a unique signing key per message. We also propose a salt hashing algorithm that encrypts the original keys into a different form to avoid the physical attacks at the end device side. We analyzed the proposed key generation performance in terms of the computation time, the required storage, and the communication overhead. We implemented and tested the proposed key generation protocol using the NS-3 network simulator. The proposed lightweight key generation protocol significantly enhances the security of the original LoRaWAN at a negligible overhead. The proposed protocol reduces the power consumption and transmission time by two times compared with some previous protocols. In addition, the proposed key generation protocol can resist attacks, such as key compromising attacks and replay attacks, and it supports the Perfect Forward Secrecy, which was not supported by LoRaWAN.

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Smart Monitoring and Controlling of Appliances Using LoRa Based IoT System

Designs ◽

10.3390/designs5010017 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 17

Author(s):

Nur-A-Alam ◽

Mominul Ahsan ◽

Md. Abdul Based ◽

Julfikar Haider ◽

Eduardo M. G. Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Power Consumption ◽

Low Power ◽

Modular Design ◽

Real Life ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Automation System ◽

Area Network ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Long Distance ◽

At Home

In the era of Industry 4.0, remote monitoring and controlling appliance/equipment at home, institute, or industry from a long distance with low power consumption remains challenging. At present, some smart phones are being actively used to control appliances at home or institute using Internet of Things (IoT) systems. This paper presents a novel smart automation system using long range (LoRa) technology. The proposed LoRa based system consists of wireless communication system and different types of sensors, operated by a smart phone application and powered by a low-power battery, with an operating range of 3–12 km distance. The system established a connection between an android phone and a microprocessor (ESP32) through Wi-Fi at the sender end. The ESP32 module was connected to a LoRa module. At the receiver end, an ESP32 module and LoRa module without Wi-Fi was employed. Wide Area Network (WAN) communication protocol was used on the LoRa module to provide switching functionality of the targeted area. The performance of the system was evaluated by three real-life case studies through measuring environmental temperature and humidity, detecting fire, and controlling the switching functionality of appliances. Obtaining correct environmental data, fire detection with 90% accuracy, and switching functionality with 92.33% accuracy at a distance up to 12 km demonstrated the high performance of the system. The proposed smart system with modular design proved to be highly effective in controlling and monitoring home appliances from a longer distance with relatively lower power consumption.

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A Secure and Efficient Group Key Management Protocol with Cooperative Sensor Association in WBANs

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18113930 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 3930 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Haowen Tan ◽

Ilyong Chung

Keyword(s):

Key Management ◽

Data Exchange ◽

Chinese Remainder Theorem ◽

Wireless Body Area Network ◽

Group Key Management ◽

Area Network ◽

Group Key ◽

Management Protocol ◽

Power Capability ◽

Key Management Protocol

The wireless body area network (WBAN) is considered as one of the emerging wireless techniques in the healthcare system. Typical WBAN sensors, especially implantable sensors, have limited power capability, which restricts their wide applications in the medical environment. In addition, it is necessary for the healthcare center (HC) to broadcast significant notifications to different patient groups. Considering the above issues, in this paper, the novel practical WBAN system model with group message broadcasting is built. Subsequently, a secure and efficient group key management protocol with cooperative sensor association is proposed. In the proposed protocol, the Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) is employed for group key management between HC and the personal controller (PC), which also supports batch key updating. The proposed sensor association scheme is motivated by coded cooperative data exchange (CCDE). The formal security proofs are presented, indicating that the proposed protocol can achieve the desired security properties. Moreover, performance analysis demonstrates that the proposed protocol is efficient compared with state-of-the-art group key management protocols.

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Worldwide Connectivity for the Internet of Things Through LoRaWAN

Future Internet ◽

10.3390/fi11030057 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 57 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lorenzo Vangelista ◽

Marco Centenaro

Keyword(s):

Internet Of Things ◽

Low Power ◽

Cellular Network ◽

Wide Area ◽

The Internet ◽

Area Network ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Frequency Bands ◽

The Moment ◽

The Internet Of Things

The low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) paradigm is gradually gaining market acceptance. In particular, three prominent LPWAN technologies are emerging at the moment: LoRaWAN™ and SigFox™, which operate on unlicensed frequency bands, and NB-IoT, operating on licensed frequency bands. This paper deals with LoRaWAN™, and has the aim of describing a particularly interesting feature provided by the latest LoRaWAN™ specification—often neglected in the literature—i.e., the roaming capability between different operators of LoRaWAN™ networks, across the same country or even different countries. Recalling that LoRaWAN™ devices do not have a subscriber identification module (SIM) like cellular network terminals, at a first glance the implementation of roaming in LoRaWAN™ networks could seem intricate. The contribution of this paper consists in explaining the principles behind the implementation of a global LoRaWAN network, with particular focus on how to cope with the lack of the SIM in the architecture and how to realize roaming.

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