Secure CoAP Using Enhanced DTLS forInternet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is next generation technology that is intended to improve and optimize daily life by operating intelligent sensors and smart objects together. At application layer, communication of resourceconstrained devices is expected to use constrained application protocol (CoAP).Communication security is an important aspect of IoT environment. However closed source security solutions do not help in formulating security in IoT so that devices can communicate securely with each other. To protect the transmission of confidential information secure CoAP uses datagram transport layer security (DTLS) as the security protocol for communication and authentication of communicating devices. DTLS was initially designed for powerful devices that are connected through reliable and high bandwidth link. This paper proposes a collaboration of DTLS and CoAP for IoT. Additionally proposed DTLS header compression scheme that helps to reduce packet size, energy consumption and avoids fragmentation by complying the 6LoWPAN standards. Also proposed DTLS header compression scheme does not compromises the point-to-point security provided by DTLS. Since DTLS has chosen as security protocol underneath the CoAP, enhancement to the existing DTLS also provided by introducing the use of raw public key in DTLS.