PacketZapper: A Scalable and Automated Platform for IoT Traffic Collection and Analysis

Mathias Fredrik Hedberg, Jia-Chun Lin, Ming-Chang Lee

2025

Abstract

The increasing adoption of IoT devices in home environments has raised significant concerns about security and privacy. Analyzing real IoT traffic is essential for understanding these implications, yet the process poses challenges for researchers, requiring expertise in hardware selection, data collection, storage, and analysis. To address these challenges, we introduce PacketZapper, an automated and scalable platform for IoT traffic collection, processing, and analysis. PacketZapper combines existing open-source tools with custom components to streamline research workflows. It follows a four-stage solution structure—collect, parse, store, and process—ensuring modularity and future extensibility. The platform supports the collection of Zigbee and 433MHz traffic using commercial USB dongles, with the potential to integrate additional IoT protocols. Data is stored in Elasticsearch, enabling efficient querying and exploration, while Apache Airflow automates task orchestration through Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). A case study evaluation demonstrated PacketZapper’s capability to infer devices in a smart home and to facilitate effective data exploration. The platform provides a robust foundation for reproducible IoT traffic research, addressing critical gaps in IoT traffic analysis. It offers researchers an extensible, automated, and scalable solution for conducting diverse experiments.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Hedberg M., Lin J. and Lee M. (2025). PacketZapper: A Scalable and Automated Platform for IoT Traffic Collection and Analysis. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security - Volume 1: IoTBDS; ISBN 978-989-758-750-4, SciTePress, pages 370-377. DOI: 10.5220/0013426400003944

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iotbds25,
author={Mathias Hedberg and Jia-Chun Lin and Ming-Chang Lee},
title={PacketZapper: A Scalable and Automated Platform for IoT Traffic Collection and Analysis},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security - Volume 1: IoTBDS},
year={2025},
pages={370-377},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013426400003944},
isbn={978-989-758-750-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security - Volume 1: IoTBDS
TI - PacketZapper: A Scalable and Automated Platform for IoT Traffic Collection and Analysis
SN - 978-989-758-750-4
AU - Hedberg M.
AU - Lin J.
AU - Lee M.
PY - 2025
SP - 370
EP - 377
DO - 10.5220/0013426400003944
PB - SciTePress