Group Communication Security for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs)

CoAP unicast and group communication for low-power and lossy networks (LLNs) are foreseen to be used for building and lighting control systems. Although unicast CoAP communication mandates DTLS for security, no similar existing security mechanisms exist to secure CoAP group communication. The draft, DTLS multicast security [I-D.keoh- dice-multicast-security], proposes a solution based on reusing the DTLS record layer to also secure CoAP group communication. Although that solution has advantages in terms of code reuse, it does not ensure source authentication within the group. This draft presents alternative CoAP group communication security solutions based on public key cryptographic signatures to also ensure source authentication within the group.