Two Phases Authentication Level (TPAL) protocol for nodes authentication in internet of things

Abstract

Nodes are required to be authenticated in order for them to join the network nodes especially for Low power and Lossy Network (LLN). The purpose of authentication is to verify the claimant is really what it claims to be. Since LLN made up from many nodes, some of the node may contain sensitive informations such as military data and monitoring data. Therefore, any packets forwarded by a node may need authentication at the source and destination nodes. LLN is a kind of Internet of Things (IoT) network with limited power source due to the fact they running on battery, low processing capability, have high data loss and low data rate. Current authentication Internet protocols cannot be adopted directly into LLN due to its characteristics. For now, LLN rely on the authentication provided by Routing Protocol for LLN (RPL) which is based on symmetric cryptography. However, RPL specification stated thatany node that wants to act properly as a router by using the authenticated mode in RPL should not be based on symmetric cryptography. A two phase authentication level (TPAL) is proposed in this paper to improve the authentication mode used in RPL. The proposed protocol contains two parts mainly for system initialization and node authentication phase with the help from a trusted party. The authentication takes place during node discovery which is guided by the routing protocol thus only those nodes in the data path will be authenticated.

Keywords: LLN, RPL, verification, ECC, lightweight, scheme