Self-sovereign Identity Management in Wireless Ad Hoc Mesh Networks

Verifying the identity of nodes within a wireless ad hoc mesh network and the authenticity of their messages in sufficiently secure, yet power-efficient ways is a long-standing challenge. This paper shows how the more recent concepts of self-sovereign identity management can be applied to Internet-of-Things mesh networks, using LoRaWAN as an example and applying Sovrin’s decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials in combination with Schnorr signatures for securing the communication with a focus on simplex and broadcast connections. Besides the concept and system architecture, the paper discusses an ESP32-based implementation using SX1276/SX1278 LoRa chips, adaptations made to the lmic- and MbedTLS-based software stack, and practically evaluates performance aspects in terms of data overhead, time-on-air impact, and power consumption.