Implementation of Elliptical Curve Cryptography Based Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange Mechanism in Contiki Operating System for Internet of Things

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks have gradually upgraded to Internet of Things (IoT) of embedded devices wherein the constrained devices have been connected directly onto the Internet. This transformation has not only facilitated the expansion in connectivity and accessibility of the sensor network but has also enabled one sensor network to interact with other through Internet. Security of IoT devices has been researched extensively. The challenge to transform the complex cryptographic algorithms into lighter and faster has kept researchers on their toes. Contiki-OS is one of the purest implementations of 6LoWPAN and IEEE 802.15.4. That makes Contiki-OS lightest and therefore preferred OS for implementation on ultra-low power sensor nodes. Elliptical Cryptography has proved to be the choice of most of the security researchers for constrained devices. However, there is very limited literature available on implementation of Elliptical Cryptography on Contiki-OS. The open-source libraries available for security implementation have not found to be supporting Cooja simulator of Contiki-OS. In this research work we demonstrate improved results in processing the Elliptical Cryptography Based implementation of Diffie-Hellman Key exchange mechanism in Contiki-OS using Cooja simulator. SECP160K1 curve has been implemented and the results in terms of ECDH computational time have been compared with previously published research works. This research demonstrates improved results in Cooja simulator than previous known results on hardware providing a leap ahead in efficiency of implementation.