A Network Performance Analysis of MQTT Security Protocols with Constrained Hardware in the Dark Net for DMS

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 14; no. 18; p. 8501
• Main Authors: Gentile, Antonio Francesco, Macrì, Davide, Carnì, Domenico Luca, Greco, Emilio, Lamonaca, Francesco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Automation; Brokers; Communication; Computer network protocols; Confidential communications; Cybersecurity; Internet; Internet of Things; IoT; linux; Market entry; mosquitto; MQTT; OpenWrt; Privacy; Privacy, Right of; raspberry 4 gen
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app14188501

In the context of the internet of things, and particularly within distributed measurement systems that are subject to high privacy risks, it is essential to emphasize the need for increasingly effective privacy protections. The idea presented in this work involves managing critical traffic through an architectural proposal aimed at solving the problem of communications between nodes by optimizing both the confidentiality to be guaranteed to the payload and the transmission speed. Specifically, data such as a typical sensor on/off signal could be sent via a standard encrypted channel, while a sensitive aggregate could be transmitted through a dedicated private channel. Additionally, this work emphasizes the critical importance of optimizing message sizes to 5 k-bytes (small payload messages) for transmission over the reserve channel, enhancing both privacy and system responsiveness, a mandatory requirement in distributed measurement systems. By focusing on small, encrypted payloads, the study facilitates secure, timely updates and summaries of network conditions, maintaining the integrity and privacy of communications in even the most challenging and privacy-sensitive environments. This study provides a comprehensive performance analysis of IoT networks using Dark Net technologies and MQTT protocols, with a focus on privacy and anonymity. It highlights the trade-offs between enhanced security and performance, noting increased latency, reduced bandwidth, and network instability when using TOR, particularly with cipher suites like AES256-GCM-SHA384 and DHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305. The research emphasizes the need for further exploration of alternative protocols like LWM2M in secure IoT environments and calls for optimization to balance privacy with performance in Dark-Net-based IoT deployments.