TPAL: A protocol for node authentication in IoT

Abstract

Secure communication in Low power and Lossy Network (LLN) requires the authentication of the identities of nodes for that node to join the network. Since LLN may consist of many different nodes, where some nodes may contain sensitive and subtle information such as military data, monitoring data, or health data, that node needs to be authenticated before it can deliver any data packet. Even though LLN uses an Internet connection, current authentication for Internet protocols cannot be adopted directly into LLN due to LLN's limited resources. LLN relies on the authentication provided by Routing Protocol for LLN (RPL), which is based on symmetric cryptography. Nevertheless, RPL reserves a mode for future work in terms of public cryptography. In this study, we propose an authentication protocol for LLN that utilizes Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) called as TPAL.