Identity-based authentication scheme for the Internet of Things

Security and privacy are among the most pressing concerns that have evolved with the Internet. As networks expanded and became more open, security practices shifted to ensure protection of the ever growing Internet, its users, and data. Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as a new type of network that connects everything to everyone, everywhere. Consequently, the margin of tolerance for security and privacy becomes narrower because a breach may lead to large-scale irreversible damage. One feature that helps alleviate the security concerns is authentication. While different authentication schemes are used in vertical network silos, a common identity and authentication scheme is needed to address the heterogeneity in IoT and to integrate the different protocols present in IoT. We propose in this paper an identity-based authentication scheme for heterogeneous IoT. The correctness of the proposed scheme is tested with the AVISPA tool and results showed that our scheme is immune to masquerade, man-in-the-middle, and replay attacks.