A Survey on the Security of Low Power Wide Area Networks: Threats, Challenges, and Potential Solutions

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 20; no. 20; p. 5800
• Main Authors: Adefemi Alimi, Kuburat Oyeranti, Ouahada, Khmaies, Abu-Mahfouz, Adnan M., Rimer, Suvendi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 14.10.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: attacks; Blockchain; CIA triad; Communication; Confidentiality; Connectivity; Consumption; Denial of service attacks; Eavesdropping; Internet of Things; Internet of Things (IoT); low power wide area network; Privacy; Review; security; Security management; sigfox; Wide area networks
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s20205800

Low power wide area network (LPWAN) is among the fastest growing networks in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Owing to varieties of outstanding features which include long range communication and low power consumption, LPWANs are fast becoming the most widely deployed connectivity standards in IoT domain. However, this promising network are exposed to various security and privacy threats and challenges. For reliable connectivity within networks, the security and privacy challenges need to be effectively addressed with proper mitigation protocol in place. In this paper, a comprehensive review on the security feature of LPWAN is presented. The paper mainly focuses on analyzing LPWAN’s key cybersecurity architecture and it present a significant emphasis on how the LPWAN is highly attractive to intruders and attackers. This paper aims at summarizing recent research works on key LPWAN security challenges such as replay attack, denial-of-service attack, worm hole attack, and eavesdropping attack, the effect of the attacks, and most importantly the various approaches proposed in the literature for the attacks’ mitigation. The paper concludes by highlighting major research gaps and future directions for the successful deployment of LPWAN.