Authentication Protocols for Internet of Things: A Comprehensive Survey

In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of authentication protocols for Internet of Things (IoT). Specifically, we select and in-detail examine more than forty authentication protocols developed for or applied in the context of the IoT under four environments, including: (1) Machine to machine communications (M2M), (2) Internet of Vehicles (IoV), (3) Internet of Energy (IoE), and (4) Internet of Sensors (IoS). We start by reviewing all survey articles published in the recent years that focusing on different aspects of the IoT idea. Then, we review threat models, countermeasures, and formal security verification techniques used in authentication protocols for the IoT. In addition, we provide a taxonomy and comparison of authentication protocols for the IoT in form of tables in five terms, namely, network model, goals, main processes, computation complexity, and communication overhead. Based on the current survey, we identify open issues and suggest hints for future research.