Internet of Things and Access Control: Sensing, Monitoring and Controlling Access in IoT-Enabled Healthcare Systems

In connected healthcare, secure access is not just a matter of keeping outsiders out: devices, services and authorized users need carefully defined ways to interact. Shantanu Pal’s Internet of Things and Access Control studies that challenge through the design and evaluation of access-control systems for IoT-enabled healthcare.

Grounded in doctoral research, the book moves from core concepts to proposed architectures and system evaluation, then turns to identity, delegated access rights and trust. Its focus is technical and research-oriented, with particular attention to the constraints and uncertainty of large-scale IoT environments.

Designing fine-grained access for the IoT

The book develops a policy-based approach intended to give authorized users appropriate access to services while protecting resources from unauthorized use. It explains a hybrid authorization design that brings together attributes, roles and capabilities—a way to connect user characteristics and role membership with specific permissions.

Identity beyond a single identifier

Pal considers how identity can be represented and managed across IoT systems. The book’s attribute-based approach explores identifying and validating entities through their attributes rather than relying only on a unique concrete identity.

Delegation, blockchain and trust

Access rights sometimes need to be passed between parties. The text examines an asynchronous, decentralized delegation model that uses blockchain technology, alongside a trust model shaped by uncertainty in IoT settings. Together, these topics address how authorization can be managed when systems are distributed and participants or devices may change.

From architecture to evaluation

Readers will find background and related work, a formal development of the proposed access-control architecture, implementation and performance analysis, and comparisons with existing approaches. The later chapters bring identity management, delegated rights and trust into the wider design.

Who may find it useful?

This technical monograph is suited to researchers, engineers and advanced students working in IoT security, access-control management or wireless sensor networks. Its healthcare focus also offers relevant context for readers investigating secure connected systems in health settings.