Efficient Key Generation Techniques for Securing IoT Communication Protocols

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT) is getting bigger as communication infrastructure and device capabilities are getting improved day-by-day, creating a huge market for IoT devices for commercial as well as personal usage. This paper sheds light on the compromises done by vendors on the grounds of security, resources and flexibility to lure customers with low prices, smaller and fancier designs of IoT device and its consequences. Most of the IoT devices are resource-constrained and hence standardization bodies such as IEEE and IETF gave many protocols for IoT devices which are defined over IoT protocol stack. The degree of security in each layer of IoT protocol stack is discussed and it is found that NFC protocol which operates on physical-data link layer and 6LoWPAN, a network layer protocol, lack proper key management while encrypting the data. A most important part of key management in cryptographic algorithms is key generation and storage (if needed). Different types and methods of key generation techniques are also discussed which might give a solution over a variety of situations combining the level of security requirement and resources available in strengthening the abovementioned communication protocols.

KEYWORDS:

• 6LoWPAN
• Cryptographic algorithms
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• IoT Protocol stack
• Key generations
• NFC
• PUF
• RNG

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amol K. Boke

Amol K Boke received his Bachelor of Engineering in electronics and communication engineering from R T M Nagpur University (MH, India) in 2010, Master of Technology in embedded systems and technology from SRM University, Chennai (TN, India) in 2013 and currently pursuing PhD from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal (MP, India). His area of interest is in securing h/w development for IoT devices. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Sangeeta Nakhate

Dr Sangeeta Nakhate is working as an assistant professor in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (M A N I T), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. She has twenty-one years of teaching experience. She is a Member of Technical Committee of IEEE Consumer Society, MP and Bombay section. She received awards such as “IETE Best Research Award” in 2018, “Bharat Vikas Award” for contribution towards the development of Bharat (India) in the fields of electronics and communication engineering on 19 Nov 2017 on the occasion of “Citizen’s Day”, “Young Scientist Award” by Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology in the discipline of engineering science and technology in 2005. She published several research papers in SCI and Scopus-indexed international journals and proceedings. Email: [email protected]

Arvind Rajawat

Arvind Rajawat received his Bachelor of Engineering in electronics and communication engineering from Government Engineering College Ujjain (MP, India) in 1989, Master of Engineering in computer engineering from SGSITS Indore (MP, India) in 1991 and PhD from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal (MP, India) in 2009. He is currently working as a Professor of electronics and communication engineering with the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at MANIT Bhopal (MP, India). His areas of interest are hardware software co-design, embedded system design, and digital system design. Email: [email protected]