BLE-OTP Authorization Mechanism for iBeacon Network Security

Hyunhee Jung, Dongryeol Shin, Kwangsu Cho, Choonsung Nam

http://doi.org/

Machine to Machine (M2M) technology has gained attention due to the fast diffusion of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and smart devices. Most wireless network experts believe that Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Communications technology in an iBeacon network has amazing advantages in terms of providing communication services at a low cost in smartphone applications. Specifically, BLE does not require any pairing process during its communication phases, so it is possible to send a message to any node without incurring additional transmissions costs if they are within the BLE communication range. However, BLE does not require any security verification during communication, so it has weak security. Therefore, a security authorization process would be necessary to obtain customer confidence. To provide security functions for iBeacon, we think that the iBeacon Message Encryption process and a Decryption (Authorization) process should be designed and implemented. We therefore propose the BLE message Authorization Mechanism based on a One Time Password Algorithm (BLE-OTP). The effectiveness of our mechanism is evaluated by conducting a performance test on an attendance system based on BLE-OTP.