Selective privacy in IoT smart-farms for battery-powered device longevity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a tailored payload security model for IoT smart-farms that maintains TLS standards while significantly extending device battery life, demonstrated through aquaponics edge devices.

Contribution

A novel payload security model that reduces energy consumption and extends battery life of constrained IoT devices while preserving TLS security standards.

Findings

Battery life extended by up to 81% using the new model

Model maintains TLS security standards

Applicable across various IoT protocols

Abstract

This paper presents a payload security model to maintain the standards of TLS whilst removing obstacles associated with constrained devices and IoT network protocols. The domain of aquaponics as a smart-farming environment was used to test the novelty with ESP32 edge devices. The impact of privacy on message content illustrated the most appropriate security attribute configurations, followed by time and power analysis to calculate energy consumptions of each scenario. It was concluded that using this tailored payload security model rather than TLS was capable of extending the battery life of constrained devices by up to 81%, whilst maintaining TLS security standards, and applicable to various protocols.