Solana Networks Develops AI-Powered Solution for IoT Device Discovery

Under a contract with Public Safety Canada, Solana Networks has developed an AI-based solution designed to detect, discover, and classify IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

Deployment of IoT devices is on the rise and set to accelerate as 5G wireless deployment increases. In many cases, network owners do not have complete visibility into the full set of IoT assets that they have. In some cases, malicious installation of IoT devices go undetected. Automated discovery and detection of IoT devices thus becomes an essential part of ensuring cyber security.

Traditional network discovery of such devices is a challenge due to the heterogeneity and proprietary nature of protocols used for IoT as well as the stealthy nature of some IoT devices.

In this project, Solana utilized an AI-based approach to discover IoT devices by analyzing the network traffic generated by the devices. The proposed approach utilizes Machine Learning (ML) and can successfully detect IoT devices even when their network traffic is encrypted or when they do not respond to active interrogation. The proof-of-concept solution was deployed and demonstrated to work on a network with 31 IoT devices including cameras, doorbells, environmental sensors and smart lightbulbs among others.

AI-powered network discovery is playing an increasingly important role in ensuring that networks of the future remain secure. Solana Networks is a leading provider of innovative AI-based network traffic analysis visibility solutions which are complementary to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).