TRIFECTA: Security, Energy Efficiency, and Communication Capacity Comparison for Wireless IoT Devices

The widespread proliferation of sensor nodes in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), coupled with increasing sensor fidelity and data acquisition modality, is expected to generate 30+ Exabytes of data per month by 2020. Since most of these IoT devices will be wirelessly connected at the last few feet, wireless communication is an integral part of the future IoT scenario. The ever-shrinking size of unit computation (Moores law) and continued improvements in efficient communication (Shannons law) are expected to harness the true potential of the IoT revolution and produce a dramatic societal impact. However, reducing the size of IoT nodes and the slow improvement in energy storage density leads to reduced energy availability. Moreover, smaller size and less energy means fewer resources available for securing IoT nodes, making the energy-sparse low-cost leaf nodes of the network prime targets for attackers. In this article, we survey six prominent wireless technologies with respect to three dimensions: security, energy efficiency, and communication capacity. We point out the state of the art, open issues, and the road ahead for promising research directions.