A secure authentication mechanism for resource constrained devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) is formed by smart objects and services to interact in real time, and that are deployed in various applications such as home monitoring, healthcare, and smart cities. However, security concerns should not be overlooked since an adversary could exploit the vulnerabilities in the design of some secure protocols. To this aim, in this paper we focus in particular on broadcast authentication in resource constrained devices. This security service is still in its infancy when devices are deployed in unattended environments. We propose a new authentication mechanism based on the state of the art protocol μTESLA, that aims to reduce the delay of forged packets in the receivers buffer, by efficiently computing the key disclosure delay. Then, we integrate this mechanism to two protocols of state of the art LEAP and LEAP++. Furthermore, we assess the feasibility of our solution with a thorough simulation study, taking into account the energy consumption, the delay of forged packets, and the authentication delay.