Prototype Industrial Internet of Things data chains with embedded security reference design

Mouser Electronics is now stocking the MAXREFDES143 embedded security reference design from Maxim Integrated. The MAXREFDES143 addresses the many issues related to system security in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) installations, providing protection against counterfeit sensor data, guaranteeing its authenticity and integrity along the entire data chain, from transducer to the cloud.

Maxim’s MAXREFDES143 reference design, available from Mouser Electronics, features sophisticated architecture and components, an Arduino-compatible hardware interface, and downloadable ARM mbed libraries to simplify development of secure, uncorrupted, and authenticated sensor-to-web data. The reference design's two-stage hierarchical architecture consists of a shield that communicates to a web server and a protected sensor node for data acquisition and authentication. The shield includes a Wi-Fi module; a DS2465 secure coprocessor for offloading SHA-256 cryptographic computation; 1-Wire and I²C interfaces; user-interface LCD, LEDs, and pushbuttons; and alarm and logging functions. The sensor node contains a DS28E15 secure authenticator, DS7505 temperature sensor, and MAX44009 light sensor.

The reference design significantly reduces development time using the provided hardware and available source code to implement an authenticated node solution and web server interface in factory automation and industrial processing applications. The MAXREFDES143 is equipped with a standard shield connector for immediate testing using an mbed board (such as the MAX32600MBED). The simplicity of the reference design enables rapid integration into any star-topology IoT network that requires the heightened security with low overhead provided by the SHA-256 symmetric-key algorithm.