Investigating secure and distributed control in IoT: improving BLE security and strengthening LoRaWAN with blockchain

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to the widespread deployment of low-power wireless communication technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and LoRaWAN, each designed to meet the connectivity and efficiency demands of IoT devices. BLE has emerged as a key technology for short-range communication, enabling applications such as proximity sensing, wearables, and asset tracking, while LoRaWAN supports long-range communication with low power consumption, ideal for wide-area networks in smart cities and rural areas. However, as the number of connected devices grows, so do the security and privacy concerns associated with these networks. Simultaneously, the advent of edge computing and distributed network paradigms offers potential solutions to some of these challenges, providing enhanced computational power and network decentralization, which are critical for scalable and secure IoT systems. In BLE networks, Medium Access Control (MAC) address randomization is a key privacy feature, designed to prevent device tracking by periodically changing the device’s MAC address. However, by leveraging edge computing, mesh networks of BLE sensors can be deployed to circumvent this feature, enabling large-scale tracking despite randomization. On the Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) side, LoRaWAN typically operates under a centralized architecture, where a Network Server manages key security tasks like authentication and routing. This centralization introduces risks such as single points of failure and insider threats. To address these issues, edge computing can be applied to decentralize LoRaWAN, with edge nodes handling local processes to reduce dependency on the central server. Integrating a permissioned blockchain removes the need for centralized control, ensuring secure, transparent device authentication and key management without relying on a single authority. This work explores the dual role of edge computing and distributed networks in IoT technologies like BLE and LoRaWAN, examining both the opportunities and risks associated with decentralized approaches. For BLE, the power of edge computing used to circumvent privacy features such as MAC address randomization is investigated. For LoRaWAN, edge computing and permissioned blockchain are proposed as mechanisms to decentralize the network, removing central points of control and improving security against internal and external threats. As IoT continues to expand into various domains, from smart cities to industrial automation, understanding the interplay between edge computing, distributed networks, and low-power communication technologies will be crucial in building scalable, secure, and efficient IoT ecosystems.