Security Bootstrapping for Secure Join and Binding on the IEEE 802.15.4-Based LoWPAN

The IEEE 802.15.4-based low-data rate wireless personal area network (LoWPAN) is a basic building block of the Internet of Things. When the sensor devices are deployed on the LoWPAN, each of the devices should first join the LoWPAN, allowing for the binding of two or more devices with each other for cooperation; therefore, the join-and-binding protocol should be secured against malicious effects as part of the normal operation of the LoWPAN. Security bootstrapping for the join and binding involves the establishment of a trust relationship so that the devices are joined or bound securely. In this paper, a new, secure join-and-binding protocol is proposed for the IEEE 802.15.4-based LoWPAN. The proposed protocol is different from the previous works in terms of security and efficiency, as it is based on a new security bootstrapping scheme for which device identifiers that are constructed from an elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman public key and a media access control address are used. The proposed protocol is extensively analyzed and compared with previous schemes in terms of security and performance.