Analytical study of security aspects in 6LoWPAN networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a flagship project that aims to connect objects to the Internet to extend their use. For that, it was needed to find a solution to combine between the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol for Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (LoWPANs) and IPv6 network protocol that its large address space will allow million devices to integrate the internet. The development of 6LoWPAN technology was an appropriate solution to deal with this challenge and enable the IoT concept becoming a reality. But this was only the beginning of several challenges and problems like the case of how to secure this new type of networks, especially since it includes two major protocols so the combination of their problems too, over and above new problems specific to that network. In this paper, we analyze the security challenges in 6LoWPAN, we studied the various countermeasures to address these needs, their advantages and disadvantages, and we offer some recommendations to achieve a reliable security scheme for a powerful 6LoWPAN networks.