A Scalable Key Pre-distribution Scheme based on the Unital Design for the Internet of Things Security

Abstract

In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has swept through most aspects of people lives, where all objects are connected to a common network. Therefore, the security of IoT devices is naturally crucial. As for the constrained resources of IoT devices, we need to have lightweight encryption algorithms. Accordingly, the symmetric key establishment is a favourite paradigm for securing IoT. In this study, a key pre-distribution scheme (KPS) has been proposed based on the combinatorial design for IoT. The proposed KPS has been created to increase network scalability. Therefore, a combinatorial design called the unital design has been applied for the establishment of keys. In the present scheme, a kind of mapping has been proposed from the unital design to the key establishment, which yields a network with high scalability. The results indicate that the present scheme increases network scalability considerably with high resilience.

Keywords:

• Combinatorial designs
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Key management
• Key pre-distribution
• Sensor network
• Unital design

Additional information

Notes on contributors

V. Chegeni

Vahid Chegeni has been a PhD student in the Department of Computer Engineering, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran since 2015. His PhD advisor is Professor Hamid Haj Seyyed Javadi. He got a MSc degree from Department of Computer Science at Amir Kabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2009. His research areas include IoT, cryptography, security. Email: [email protected]

H. Haj Seyyed Javadi

Hamid Haj Seyyed Javadi received the MS and PhD degrees in Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 1996 and 2003, respectively. He has been working as a full-time faculty member and professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of Shahed University, Tehran, Iran. His research interests are wireless sensor networks, IoT, computer algebra, cryptography and security. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

M.R. Moazami Goudarzi

Mohammad Reza Moazami Goudarzi is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran. He received his PhD degree in the Department of Mathematics, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Tehran, Iran in 2011. His research areas include operations research and data envelopment analysis. Email: [email protected]

A. Rezakhani

Afshin Rezakhani is currently working as assistant professor in the Department of Computer Engineering, University of Ayatollah Borujerdi, Borujerd, Iran. He got his PhD from Information, Communications and Security Technologies Complex, Malek-Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2017. His research interest includes network security, information security, authentication and computer networks. Email: [email protected]