A comprehensive survey on RPL routing-based attacks, defences and future directions in Internet of Things
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Jan 18, 2025
Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of digital devices like sensors,
processors, embedded and communication devices that can connect to and exchange
data with other devices and systems over the internet. IoT devices have
limitations on power, memory, and computational resources. Researchers have
developed the IPv6 Over Low-power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN)
protocols to provide wireless connectivity among these devices while overcoming
the constraints on resources. 6LoWPAN has been approved subsequently by the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF Routing Over Low-power and
Lossy Networks (ROLL) standardized the Routing Protocol for LLNs known as RPL
(IETF RFC 6550), which is part of the 6LoWPAN stack. However, IoT devices are
vulnerable to various attacks on RPL-based routing. This survey provides an in
depth study of existing RPL-based attacks and defense published from year 2011
to 2024 from highly reputed journals and conferences. By thematic analysis of
existing routing attacks on RPL, we developed a novel attack taxonomy which
focuses on the nature of routing attacks and classifies them into 12 major
categories. Subsequently, the impact of each attack on the network is analyzed
and discussed real life scenarios of these attacks. Another contribution of
this survey proposed a novel taxonomy for classification of defense mechanisms
into 8 major categories against routing attacks based on type of defense
strategy. The detailed analysis of each defense mechanism with real life
applicability is explained. Furthermore, evaluation tools such as testbeds and
simulators for RPL-based attack and defense are discussed and critically
analyzed in terms of real world applicability. Finally, open research
challenges are presented on the basis of research gaps of existing literature
along with research directions for practitioners and researchers.
