Decentralized LPWAN infrastructure using blockchain and digital signatures

Abstract

Summary This paper introduces a fully decentralized low‐power wide‐area network (LPWAN) infrastructure for the Internet of Things (IoT) using the LoRa protocol. While global LPWANs typically require roaming agreements between network providers and a trusted third party for server resolution, we propose a trustless model where the network servers are resolved using a blockchain application. Since LoRaWAN relies on symmetric cryptography, we also propose a new security model that adds non‐repudiation using digital signatures. This paves the way for linking devices to decentralized applications. We finally analyze the impact of this new model on message size and energy requirements.