Date Approved
2-1-2021
Embargo Period
2-2-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. Computer Science
Department
Computer Science
College
College of Science & Mathematics
Advisor
Heydari, Vahid
Committee Member 1
Baliga, Ganesh
Committee Member 2
Qiu, Chenxi
Keywords
Internet of things, power efficiency, cybersecurity, LoRaWAN devices
Subject(s)
Computer networks--security measures; Computers--energy consumption
Disciplines
Computer Sciences
Abstract
Resource-constrained devices are commonly connected to a network and become "things" that make up the Internet of Things (IoT). Many industries are interested in cost-effective, reliable, and cyber secure sensor networks due to the ever-increasing connectivity and benefits of IoT devices. The full advantages of IoT devices are seen in a long-range and remote context. However, current IoT platforms show many obstacles to achieve a balance between power efficiency and cybersecurity. Battery-powered sensor nodes can reliably send data over long distances with minimal power draw by adopting Long-Range (LoRa) wireless radio frequency technology. With LoRa, these devices can stay active for many years due to a low data bit rate and low power draw during device sleep states. An improvement built on top of LoRa wireless technology, Long-Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWAN), introduces integrity and confidentiality of the data sent within the IoT network. Although data sent from a LoRaWAN device is encrypted, protocol and implementation vulnerabilities still exist within the network, resulting in security risks to the whole system. In this research, solutions to these vulnerabilities are proposed and implemented on a LoRaWAN testbed environment that contains devices, gateways, and servers. Configurations that involve the transmission of data using AES Round Reduction, Join Scheduling, and Metadata Hiding are proposed in this work. A power consumption analysis is performed on the implemented configurations, resulting in a LoRaWAN system that balances cybersecurity and battery life. The resulting configurations may be harnessed for usage in the safe, secure, and efficient provisioning of LoRaWAN devices in technologies such as Smart-Industry, Smart-Environment, Smart-Agriculture, Smart-Universities, Smart-Cities, etc
Recommended Citation
Stranahan, John A. Jr., "LoRaWAN device security and energy optimization" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 2870.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/2870