PIONEER—a prototype for the internet of things based on an extendable EPC gen2 RFID tag

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) envisions an autonomous network between everyday objects to create real-life services. This enables new applications that necessarily require a high level of security and privacy. In this paper, we present PIONEER—a Prototype for the Internet of Things based on an Extendable EPC Gen2 RFID tag. It is the first prototype that integrates the Internet Protocol Security suite (IPsec) into the new EPC Gen2 Version 2 standard. Furthermore, it integrates all mandatory cryptographic primitives to support IPsec on an RFID tag, i.e., AES-128 for encryption/decryption, 192-bit Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) for key agreement, and a True Random Number Generator (TRNG). To keep the flexibility high, we further integrated an 8-bit microcontroller that implements the new security features of the EPC Gen2 standard in C code. The entire design was synthesized for a 130nm CMOS process technology. It requires about 52 kGEs including all necessary components to establish a secure IPsec tunnel between the RFID tag and a client on the Internet. The prototype is fully compliant with already existing Internet and RFID standards and allows first cost estimations for a practical realization of high-security IoT applications.