The Internet of Things (IoT) has made human activities more productive and efficient by minimizing the need for human labor. LoRa, an IoT communication technology, has recently become popular because it can connect low-power devices over long distances using LPWAN. However, the static key mechanism in LoRaWAN v1.1 poses many security risks. The use of static keys poses a security risk if they are compromised, and the involvement of the join server in message transmission can increase latency and network load. The static keys have a long lifetime, increasing the risk of exposure. Hence, this paper proposes a solution to the static key problems in LoRaWAN v1.1 by providing a dynamic session key establishment method. The proposed method uses an elliptic curve cryptosystem to establish a secret session key in LoRaWAN during over-the-air activation. A new session key is generated for each session to provide forward and backward secrecy. The scheme improves the operational cost of session key establishment by not requiring the join server to be involved in message transmission. The session keys are generated at each node and expire after each session. This makes the nodes more resource-efficient, energy-efficient, and cost-effective when running critical applications on a LoRa-powered IoT network. Security analysis using the Scyther tool and random oracle model (ROM) gives additional strength to the proposed scheme.

Low power wide area network (LPWAN) communication protocols are used in IoT (Internet of Things) devices to reduce energy consumption. LoRaWAN (Long range Wide Area Network) is one of the LPWAN technology that uses the LoRa modulation technique. The end devices (ED) can maintain a connection to the network even when they leave the range of their home network by using roaming in LoRaWAN version 1.1. However, there are also some limitations to LoRaWAN roaming. The major challenge is the security risk of data processing in an energy-efficient manner. This is because the visiting network server (vNS) needs to have access to the session information for the ED. This information is shared by the roaming ED to vNS through a plain text message and which is verified at the home network server (hNS). The chance of sniffing, replay, and impersonation attacks makes the existing system vulnerable. Also, the communication to hNS can be reduced if an ED verification mechanism exists at vNS. This paper presents an access authentication mechanism, SEC-ROAM, for vNS that enables secure data transmission between the end device and vNS and reduces the computation and communication cost of the network, enhancing the energy-efficient operation in LPWAN.

Offline payment solutions exist today to enable customers to avail themselves of the privileges of the cashless economy. Financial inclusion is visualized as a key factor in encouraging digital transactions in rural and semi-urban regions. Recently, the Government of India, along with the Reserve Bank of India, announced a framework that allows offline payments with finite transaction limits. This aims at providing access to formal financial services in an affordable manner to deepen financial inclusion. However, the remote population rarely access their digital bank accounts due to intermittent network connectivity issues. Hence, the majority of these accounts are in a dormant state, which demeans the impact of financial inclusion. The aim of this research is to design and develop a sustainable, low-cost, highly efficient offline payment solution using a LoRa-enabled IoT ecosystem to connect with Space Information Network (SIN). A novel offline payment system is designed with features of a) recharge and b) payment with offline wallet technology, which can be availed of in the absence of Internet or telecommunication services. The proposed solution, LIO-PAY, allows merchants and end users across the ecosystem to run seamless transactions. We developed a proof of concept and tested it in a lab setup with volunteers to analyze the usability of the application for initiating transactions. We examined 46 customer-initiated transactions and found that 16 (around 34.8%) failed due to merchant data entry errors, likely typos. In a separate analysis of these transactions, 4 customers (approximately 11.5%) incorrectly entered their PIN. The average time to complete a transaction was 35.42 s. Bringing satellite payments to life faces hurdles but holds immense promise for the unbanked. Getting the green light from banking authorities and the satellite network provider is no easy feat. Even if approved, launching a whole new satellite network just for low-value transactions might be too expensive. A more realistic approach could be using existing telecom satellites to bounce transaction data to banks. Regulatory approval is needed from both banking authorities and the satellite network provider. Hence, we simulated the SIN environment with seven LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites using the Matlab tool. These simulations revealed a transmission time range of 2 min to 1 h, indicating a reasonable timeframe for delivering information to a ground station via SIN. Despite terrestrial networks expanding their reach, satellite-based solutions hold promise for areas with no or weak internet connectivity. This becomes even more attractive if launch costs go down or if banking authorities help subsidize the service to bring financial inclusion to remote regions. Thus, we hope this approach may help researchers and policymakers visualize the possibilities of bridging the gap in financial inclusion.

The digital revolution in finance has bypassed many in rural areas due to limited access to technology and infrastructure. While real-time Internet banking is not feasible, a new approach is needed to create a secure, low-cost banking ecosystem for these unconnected populations. Existing offline payment mechanisms, prevalent in countries like India, offer some solutions but may still be expensive for rural communities. Researchers are exploring cost-effective solutions based on the Internet of Things (IoT). This study explores various IoT and non-IoT-based offline digital banking solutions to identify potential ways to provide digital payment options for the unconnected rural population.

Blockchain technology has become increasingly popular in recent years to implement a wide range of services, including trade finance, supply chain management, cloud computing, cryptocurrency, and IoT (Internet of Things). Blockchain technology is classified into two types: permissioned blockchain and permissionless blockchain. In the permissionless blockchain, there is no central authority, whereas in the permissioned blockchain, a single organization has authority over the network. However, permissioned blockchain platforms such as hyperledger fabric (HLF) face challenges such as private data leakage, compromised endorsers, and fine-grained data access control. This paper proposes ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) based access control for blockchain. The proposed scheme uses a more efficient and expressive cryptographic approach that does not rely on pairings, but instead uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and a linear secret sharing scheme (LSSS) with a more flexible access structure. The selection of endorsers for the hyperledger fabric has been made by the CP ABE policies defined, thus keeping endorser's identities a secret. The proposed scheme ensures data confidentiality and lowers overhead compared to existing schemes.

Space Information Networks (SIN) allow terrestrial mobile nodes to gain access to the Internet anywhere and at any time. Due to its dynamic network coverage, it has been gaining wider attention from researchers and network service providers. In comparison to terrestrial networks, the majority of data transmission in SIN is through air interface, which makes it vulnerable to adversarial attacks such as illegal data access, eavesdropping attack, etc. To prevent unauthorized user access, this research work focuses on designing a secure and lightweight access authentication mechanism using extended Chebyshev chaotic maps for resource-constrained mobile nodes as an act of the first line of defense. The proposed scheme achieves several security functionalities, including resistance to impersonation attack, session key secrecy, mutual authentication, and key leakage attack. Furthermore, the soundness of the proposed scheme is validated using the ProVerif tool. Finally, the performance analysis depicts that the proposed scheme is highly efficient compared to existing methods.

Wireless Sensor Networks have a great impact in day to day life of a human being because of its self-learning and processing capability. Every system is changing to autonomous due to the introduction of such networks. Real time monitoring of agricultural system, hospital system, healthcare, vehicular system etc. become very easy and could reduce the interference of human beings to such systems due to the evolution of Wireless Sensor Networks. Nodes in these networks have limited power to operate and we need to reduce the power consumption and maximize the lifetime. Formation of clusters in such networks can help each node to operate and communicate in an energy efficient manner. There are several clustering techniques are available in such networks, according to the applications.