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Securing the LoRaWAN join procedure using blockchains

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Abstract

LoRaWAN, part of the long range Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, is a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) protocol that enables communication between the battery operated resource constrained devices. Although LoRaWAN provides system-level security, these networks are based on a basic assumption of trust between the network server and the user, which as a result empowers a network server with undue authorities. Moreover, the nature of the LoRaWAN join procedure, which is a key component for ensuring network operation, is highly susceptible to jamming and replay attacks through slight packet manipulation, thus making the network vulnerable. In order to address these deficiencies, we present a blockchain-based distributed framework for the LoRaWAN join procedure, in order to provide a secure and trusted authentication system within LoRaWAN networks. Our proposed solution eliminates the jamming and replay attack threats against the LoRaWAN join procedure and in addition builds trust among LoRa end devices and network servers. The framework is endorsed by a Proof of Concept (PoC) implementation using the Ethereum blockchain which is used to evaluate the proposed system in realistic LoRaWAN network scenarios. The simulations results indicate that the proposed solution achieves efficient system performance up to an upper bound on the load level which involves 30 join requests from 1000 concurrent clients.

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Notes

  1. https://remix.ethereum.org

  2. https://ethgasstation.info/calculatorTxV.php

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecole de Technologie Superieure (ETS), Montreal, Canada

    Syed Muhammad Danish & Kaiwen Zhang

  2. Frederick University, Limassol, Cyprus

    Marios Lestas

  3. National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan

    Hassaan Khaliq Qureshi

  4. City, University of London, London, UK

    Waqar Asif & Muttukrishnan Rajarajan

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  1. Syed Muhammad Danish
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  2. Marios Lestas
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  3. Hassaan Khaliq Qureshi
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  4. Kaiwen Zhang
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  5. Waqar Asif
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  6. Muttukrishnan Rajarajan
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Correspondence to Syed Muhammad Danish.

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Danish, S.M., Lestas, M., Qureshi, H.K. et al. Securing the LoRaWAN join procedure using blockchains. Cluster Comput 23, 2123–2138 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-020-03064-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-020-03064-8

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