Development of an ESP32-Based Tracker with XTEA-Encrypted Coordinates

• Main Authors: Sendjaya, Daven Darmawan, Shabira, Fathiya Amani, Humaira, Maritza, Elfazri, Muhammad Raihan, Hasanuddin, Muhammad Ogin
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrical engineering; Encryption; ESP32 (Resource Constraint Device); Lightweight Cryptography; Memory management; Microcontrollers; MQTT; Protocols; Quality of service; Servers; Vehicle Theft Alarm; XTEA
• ISSN: 2155-6830
• DOI: 10.1109/ICEEI59426.2023.10346711

This research was aimed at developing a distance detection device that used the ESP32 and GPS modules, and applying the XTEA cryptography algorithm to increase the security of the data transmitted over MQTT protocol. The method used in the development of this device was to design an electronic circuit consisting of two ESP32s with GPS modules connected to respective ESP32s. Location data from first ESP32 were received from the GPS module, which were directly encrypted with XTEA cryptography before being sent to the MQTT server. Furthermore, the data was received by the second ESP32 from MQTT, which also directly decrypted by XTEA cryptography. Then the decrypted location data was used to calculate the distance between both ESP32s with the Haversine formula. The system took 25.3 \mu{s} to encrypt and 34 \mu{s} to decrypt the coordinates data. Also it took only 0.6% difference on memory resource usage compared to procedures without encryption and 0.01% for the decryption. These data showed that this device is able to detect distances and provide an adequate level of data security with XTEA cryptography that ran very cheap and efficient. Thus, this device can be used in various applications that require distance measurement and data security.