An Enhanced LoRaWAN Security Protocol for Privacy Preservation in IoT with a Case Study on a Smart Factory-Enabled...

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Network Security
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) enable smart-urban projects but face challenges with low bit rates and security.
• LoRaWAN, a popular LPWAN protocol, lacks robust end-to-end security and is vulnerable to attacks, limiting its use in security-critical applications.
• Battery-operated devices in IoT necessitate efficient, low-power communication solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an enhanced LoRaWAN security protocol addressing limitations in end-to-end security and replay attacks.
• To introduce two options: Default Option (DO) and Security-Enhanced Option (SEO) for improved LoRaWAN security.
• To validate the proposed protocol's security and performance against existing methods.

Main Methods:

• Developed an enhanced LoRaWAN security protocol with Default Option (DO) and Security-Enhanced Option (SEO).
• Validated the protocol using Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic and the AVISPA tool.
• Evaluated protocol overheads through system and low-power device testing, comparing with DTLS (PSK and ECC).

Main Results:

• The proposed protocol successfully enhances LoRaWAN security, mitigating vulnerabilities like replay attacks.
• Validation through BAN logic and AVISPA confirmed the protocol's security integrity.
• Overhead analysis demonstrated significant improvements in network latency and signaling overheads compared to DTLS options.

Conclusions:

• The enhanced LoRaWAN protocol provides a secure and efficient communication solution for IoT applications, especially in smart-urban environments.
• The Security-Enhanced Option (SEO) offers a robust alternative for applications demanding high security.
• The protocol's performance improvements make it suitable for practical deployment in systems like smart factories.