Machine Learning and Deep Learning-Based Multi-Attribute Physical-Layer Authentication for Spoofing Detection in LoRaWAN

Azita Pourghasem, Raimund Kirner, Athanasios Tsokanos, Iosif Mporas, Alexios Mylonas

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in critical applications such as environmental monitoring, smart agriculture, and industrial automation has created significant security concerns, particularly due to the broadcasting nature of wireless communication. The absence of physical-layer authentication mechanisms exposes these networks to threats like spoofing, compromising data authenticity. This paper introduces a multi-attribute physical layer authentication (PLA) scheme to enhance WSN security by using physical attributes such as received signal strength indicator (RSSI), battery level (BL), and altitude. The LoRaWAN join procedure, a key risk due to plain text transmission without encryption during initial communication, is addressed in this study. To evaluate the proposed approach, a partially synthesized dataset was developed. Real-world RSSI values were sourced from the LoRa at the Edge Dataset, while BL and altitude columns were added to simulate realistic sensor behavior in a forest fire detection scenario. Machine learning (ML) models, including Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), were compared with deep learning (DL) models, such as Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). The results showed that RF achieved the highest accuracy among machine learning models, while MLP and CNN delivered competitive performance with higher resource demands.