eSIM and blockchain integrated secure zero-touch provisioning for autonomous cellular-IoTs in 5G networks

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has resulted in a proliferation of connected devices and their applications. Autonomous IoT (AIoT) refers to a network of interconnected devices that operate without human intervention, making decisions and performing tasks autonomously. Traditional methods of provisioning IoT devices, such as manual configuration and over-the-air updates, are error-prone and insecure. The emergence of eSIMs (embedded SIMs) provides a viable solution for secure and flexible identity management in IoT devices. This work implements a low-cost, zero-touch remote provisioning system using GSMA standard Over-The-Air (OTA) IoT-SAFE protocol. This research predicts that future IoT devices will be eSIM-enabled, which are simple to configure, provision, validate profiles, and check security policies remotely. IoT onboarding processes are designed where blockchains are used to verify immutable repositories to store this network manifests, verifiable by Ethereum smart contracts. The integrated framework combines blockchain contracts, eSIM-based remote SIM provisioning through IoT-SAFE protocol, and SDN to manage IoT ecosystems' security. The proposed solution is evaluated using simulations and security analysis, and it demonstrates its feasibility at scale and resilience to attacks even under insecure environments. When compared with the baseline IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, our SDNbased Remote-SIM provisioning system (SIeSIM) reduces overhead to about 240 ms Time-To-Provision (TTP), outperforming manual provisioning by nearly 320 % and 210 % compared to expert provisioning in terms of TTP performances, respectively.