Enabling Secure Multicast Group Communications in IP Wireless Networks for the Internet of Things

Internet-based networks face technical challenges establishing efficient communications infrastructure while keeping inter-application message exchange secure. Group communications based on transport or network layer security is a way to reduce the number of required transmissions for common message exchanges. In this work, we study secure multicast protocols for group communications in IP wireless networks for the Internet of Things (IoT) with focus on two protocols: Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Internet Protocol Security (IPsec). We review the performance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) in wireless sensor nodes with the TelosB mote to address the feasibility of the underlying cryptosystem. Then, we review the performance of unicast and multicast as transmission modes. Later, we introduce our implementation of a DTLS-based multicast security that shows 3x to 4x reductions in application payload transmissions for the largest group sizes. Finally, a comparison between the DTLS-based multicast security and IPsec for application payload is presented, where we argue for DTLS.