A Survey on the Security Challenges of Low-Power Wireless Communication Protocols for Communicating Concrete in Civil Engineerings

Abstract

With the increase in low-power wireless communication solutions, the deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks is becoming usual, especially to implement Cyber-Physical Systems. These latter can be used for Structural Health Monitoring applications in critical environments. To ensure a long-term deployment, battery-free and energy-autonomous wireless sensors are designed and can be powered by ambient energy harvesting or Wireless Power Transfer. Because of the criticality of the applications and the limited resources of the nodes, the security is generally relegated to the background, which leads to vulnerabilities in the entire system. In this paper, a security analysis based on an example: the implementation of a communicating reinforced concrete using a network of battery-free nodes; is presented. First, the employed wireless communication protocols are presented in regard of their native security features, main vulnerabilities, and most usual attacks. Then, the security analysis is carried out for the targeted implementation, especially by defining the main hypothesis of the attack and its consequences. Finally, solutions to secure the data and the network are compared. From a global point-of-view, this security analysis must be initiated from the project definition and must be continued throughout the deployment to allow the use of adapted, updatable and upgradable solutions.

Keywords

• Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)
• Cyber-Physical System (CPS)
• cyber-security
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)
• data integrity