A new approach of ZigBee MAC layer design based on security enhancement

ZigBee is a wireless standard based on IEEE 802.15.4 specification for a set of communication protocols. It is intended for remote control and sensor applications. ZigBee is designed to use low power digital radio signals for personal area networks which require secure networking. The use of the ZigBee protocol accommodates and facilitates for carrying out secure communications, ciphering frames and controlling devices, protecting establishment and transport of cryptographic keys. This paper presents a security enhancement technique for ZigBee by modifying the MAC layer. This work also serves enhanced security processing in Network and Application layer of ZigBee protocol. The improved security mechanism of Network and Application layer has been developed using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and proxy firewall techniques respectively. Riverbed v17.5 is used to simulate and scrutinize different ZigBee layers to enrich security. The result of this study provides reliable and stable ZigBee protocol scheme to end users. Furthermore, the paper shows security adoption in MAC, Network, and Application layers of ineligible nodes, packets, and data blocks. The benefits of the work include end-to-end security with confidentiality, data packet integrity, message and device authentication.