Lightweight Security for MQTT-SN

  • Authors

    • M. H. Amaran
    • M. S. Rohmad
    • L. H. Adnan
    • N. N. Mohamed
    • H. Hashim
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.11.21389

    Received date: October 9, 2018

    Accepted date: May 9, 2026

    Published date: October 2, 2018

  • MQTT-SN, MQTT, Internet of Things, Lightweight Security, Encryption, LBLOCK, UDP, Block Cipher.
  • Abstract

    This study discusses a method to secure Message Queuing Telemetry Transport-Sensor network (MQTT-SN). MQTT-SN is a popular data communication protocol used in developing IoT applications and can be secured by augmenting it with a security scheme. In this work, several lightweight encryption schemes to be used in tandem with MQTT-SN were tested and analysed. The best algorithm is identified based on the speed of encryption and overall power consumption when implemented in IoT environment. It was found that L-BLOCK is the overall performer in securing MQTT-SN and should be highly considered when developing IoT applications.

  • References

    1. Almeida, V. A., Doneda, D., & de Souza Abreu, J. Cyberwarfare and digital governance. IEEE Internet Computing, 2017, 21(2), 17–20.
    2. Hennebert C., and Dos Santos J. Security protocols and privacy is-sues into 6LoWPAN stack: A synthesis. IEEE Internet Things J., 2014, 1(5), 384–398.
    3. Amaran M. H, Noh N. A. M, Rohmad M. S, and Hashim H. A comparison of lightweight communication protocols in robotic ap-plications. Procedia Comput. Sci., 2015, 76, 400–405.
    4. International Business Machines (IBM). MQTT for sensor networks (MQTT-SN) protocol specification. IBM Corporation, 2013.
    5. Wu W and Zhang L. LBlock: A lightweight block cipher. Proceed-ings of the International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security, 2011, pp. 327–344.
    6. Bogdanov A, Knudsen L. R, Leander G, Paar C, Poschmann A, Robshaw M. J, Seurin Y, and Vikkelsoe C. PRESENT: An ultra-lightweight block cipher. Proceedings of the International Work-shop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, 2007, pp. 450–466.
    7. Gong Z, Nikova S, and Law Y. W. KLEIN: A new family of lightweight block ciphers. Proceedings of the International Work-shop on Radio Frequency Identification: Security and Privacy Is-sues, 2012, pp. 1–18.
    8. Kaliski B, PKCS# 7: Cryptographic message syntax version 1.5. 1998, http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc2315.txt.pdf.
    9. O ’neill M. E. A PCG: A family of simple fast space-efficient statis-tically good algorithms for random number generation. ACM Trans-actions on Mathematical Software, 1988, 1–46.
  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    H. Amaran, M., S. Rohmad, M., H. Adnan, L., N. Mohamed, N., & Hashim, H. (2018). Lightweight Security for MQTT-SN. International Journal of Engineering and Technology, 7(4.11), 262-265. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.11.21389