PERIDOT Codes: Replacing Identifiers, Sequence Numbers and Nonces with Permutations

Abstract: Identifiers and sequence numbers make up a large part of the protocol overhead in certain low-power wide-area networks. The requirement for cryptographic nonces in authentication and encryption schemes often demands excessively long sequence numbers, which leads to an increase in energy consumption per transmitted packet. In this paper, the novel PERIDOT coding scheme is proposed. It replaces identifiers and sequence numbers with a code, based on which receivers can identify transmitters with high confidence. PERIDOT is based on specially constructed integer permutations assigned to transmitters. An upper bound on the performance of PERIDOT codes is provided and methods for constructing particularly suitable permutations are presented. In practice, PERIDOT can significantly increase intervals between nonce reuses and, at the same time, reduce power consumption.