ECDH Based Key Management for LoRaWAN Considering Sensor Node Limitations.

Abstract

LoRaWAN is Low Power Wide Area Network which uses LoRa radio technology as its sensor node level communication. LPWANs select LoRa as radio technology because of its long-distance communication ability with lower power consumption. Sensor networks have sensitive data and they should transfer to Application servers securely. Cryptographic algorithms need more computational power and memory space for their cryptographic calculations. These battery powered sensor devices have limited memory, limited processing power, limited battery power, and lower bandwidth with LoRa. Hence, all these limitations should consider while implementing security solutions. LoRaWAN has already implemented a security mechanism to send sensor data securely to end points, but still it has some security vulnerabilities. Literature review shows the need for a new key distribution and management mechanism for the LoRaWAN system. LoRa Alliance and other researchers have suggested improvements to the LoRaWAN existing joining mechanism and root key based key distribution mechanism. This research identifies the capability of running Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman based key distribution and management mechanism, considering the limitations of the LoRaWAN End Nodes. Capability of running an existing implementation of ECDH has shown using the literature and experiments that have done in this work. The calculated power consumption percentage has shown that the power overhead for key distribution and management is bearable with the proposed mechanism by this research.