Implementing an Embedded MAC address counter for IoT

Radio signals or packets transmitted through the Industry, Scientific, Medical (ISM) band are more susceptible to sniffing because of available devices and open source code. Despite privacy and security issues, these technologies can be useful for data gathering purposes, specially for analysis of mobility. This work proposes a system for automatically recording MAC addresses through sniffing Probe Request packets using a Raspberry Pi. Project uses easy to install open source software and “off-the-shelf” hardware. Obtained data is reported to a web server for querying and reports using well-known protocols like OCG-Sensor Observation Service. Evaluation compares capture results with those obtained by a specialized but cumbersome device such as MikroTik RouterBOARD 951Ui2HnD. Results show that the implementation in the embedded device achieves the same or better results than the MikroTik router using its default configuration. Additionally, reporting strategy is analyzed through compression and plain text in the transmission of data.