A Novel 6LoWPAN-ND Extension to Enhance Privacy in IEEE 802.15.4 Networks

Abstract

With the increasing use of Wireless Sensor Networks, the privacy of the user is of main concern. The sensors maintain a layer 2 address that lasts for the node lifetime. As a consequence, an eavesdropper can easy trace the user and his activities, even in case the nodes send ciphered traffic.We propose a 6LoWPAN-ND extension to improve privacy and overcome the traceability of the user. With our method all the nodes change periodically all their addresses, both at layer 2 and 3. The method requires a small overhead and leverages on existing 6LoWPAN messages. The security is analyzed to show the effectiveness of our work and its energy requirements.