A Survey on Access Control in IoT: Models, Architectures and Research Opportunities

Abstract

The rapid growth of smart devices and sensors industry has revolutionised many fields such as smart cities, healthcare, etc. Nowadays, the internet of things (IoT) interconnects theses devices making them able to exchange data which improves the delivery of various services. Although IoT represents a promising paradigm in almost all fields, the security of users' data is still a significant issue that should be thoroughly addressed. This is mainly required where sensitive information is being used such as in healthcare or military sectors. Access control is a fundamental security mechanism that has to be provided for IoT-based applications in order to limit access to users data to only authorised individuals. However, due to the high mobility and huge number of devices, controlling access is challenging. In particular, using cloud data centres inevitably leads to high delays and network overhead. This research examines the growing literature on access control for IoT with respect to security requirements.