Identity Management in M2M Networks

Abstract

Evolving communication technologies stimulate a rapid growth in utilisation of communication-capable devices and therefore amount of transmitted data. This imposes new requirements for automatic device and data management necessary for successful exploitation of new opportunities. Unfortunately, currently developed systems, including Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine communications, mainly focus on industrial applications that involve fixed users, proprietary environments as well as ad-hoc devices and things, whereas regular users along with possibilities and challenges created by growing sets of personal user equipment remain ignored.

This thesis addresses the defined problem by analysing currently developed and utilised communication technologies and identity management systems as well as proposing an advanced identity management system that considers user-related needs and enables user-aware automatic device-to-device communications. Our system is unique compared to other automatic communication systems in that it enables global communication of devices owned or used by different parties and supports dynamic connection and relationship establishment based on data administered in a sophisticated identity management infrastructure. Unlike existing identity management mechanisms, our system extends the notion of an identified and authenticated entity to a combination of both user and device. Furthermore, the system introduces an original Single Device Sign-On feature that simplifies user login procedure when accessing a service with multiple devices. As a consequence, this thesis suggests a new direction for evolution of communication technologies as well as user-targeted Internet-based services and applications.