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IJEETC 2026 Vol.15(2): 146-158
doi: 10.18178/ijeetc.15.2.146-158

A Lightweight Layered Security Scheme for Secure RSSI-Based Indoor Localization

Rafina Destiarti Ainul* and Djuwari
Electrical Engineering Department, Universitas Surabaya (UBAYA), Indonesia
Email: rafina@staff.ubaya.ac.id (R.D.A.); djuwari@staff.ubaya.ac.id (D.J.)
*Corresponding author

Manuscript received November 17, 2025; revised January 21, 2026; accepted February 5, 2026

Abstract—Indoor localization is a key application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for tracking objects, where secure communication is essential to protect sensitive location data. This paper proposes a lightweight, layered security scheme for indoor localization systems deployed on resource constrained WSN devices. The scheme integrates multiple cryptographic algorithms: Ascon-Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) for authenticated encryption, X25519 for key exchange, ED25519 digital signatures over a SHA-256 hash of the encrypted payload to ensure strong source authentication, data provenance, and non-repudiation of localization data and timestamp-based replay protection. Raspberry Pi devices serve as Anchor (AN) and Unknown Nodes (UN), where AN transmits encrypted data containing estimated position parameters, including Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Pathloss Exponent (PLE) values. UN then decrypt data from the three nearest AN. Experimental results show the system requires only 17.82 ms processing time at AN and 6.48 ms at UN using Raspberry Pi 3B devices and using Wi-Fi File Transmission Protocol (FTP) transmission averaging 3.12 ms per packet. This approach provides enhanced security assurance for indoor localization data, outperforming traditional cryptographic combinations methods such as Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and Message Digest 5 (MD5) in terms of efficiency and suitability for WSN environments.

 
Index Terms—Ascon-Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD), lightweight layered security, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)-based indoor localization, raspberry Pi, Wi-Fi

Cite: Rafina Destiarti Ainul and Djuwari, "A Lightweight Layered Security Scheme for Secure RSSI-Based Indoor Localization," International Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering & Telecommunications, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 146-158, 2026. doi: 10.18178/ijeetc.15.2.146-158

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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