P33 - Securing Custom IEEE 802.11 Based Mesh Networks on ESP32 IoT Modules
- Event
- iCCC2026 - iCampus Cottbus Conference
2026-05-05 - 2026-05-07
Cottbus - Band
- Poster
- Chapter
- Kommunikation
- Author(s)
- P. Mykytyn, R. Rotta - BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus
- Pages
- 252 - 255
- DOI
- 10.5162/iCCC2026/P33
- ISBN
- 978-3-910600-10-2
- Price
- free
Abstract
ESP₃₂-based wireless modules have become a popular and low-cost platform for prototyping IoT and distributed sensing applications. The integrated radios for IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi, BLE, and IEEE 802.15.4 communication offer a flexible foundation for ad-hoc networking. Existing mesh network implementations for the ESP₃₂ that support encryption for security are limited to an inflexible tree topology of access points. Meanwhile, mesh protocols like B.A.T.M.A.N. for ESP₃₂, which offer fast route repair and throughput optimized route selection, lack implementation of security mechanisms. To close this gap, we first implemented and evaluated a software-based encryption scheme utilizing ECC and AES-GCM for the ESP₃₂ B.A.T.M.A.N mesh. However, the software implementation revealed significant performance limitations, motivating the reverse engineering of the ESP₃₂ radio driver to enable and implement on-the-fly hardware encryption/decryption. This approach makes it possible to secure custom mesh protocols without impairing throughput and processor load.