Zero Trust for Multi-RAT IoT: Trust Boundary Management in Heterogeneous Wireless Network Environments

Abstract

The proliferation of Multi-Radio Access Technology, Internet of Things devices, particularly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles operating across LoRaWAN, 5G/4G cellular, Meshtastic mesh, proprietary protocols such as DJI OcuSync, MAVLink telemetry links, Wi-Fi, and satellite, creates a fundamental and hitherto unexamined challenge for Zero Trust Architecture adoption. Each transition between radio access technologies constitutes a trust boundary crossing: the device exits one network trust domain and enters another, potentially invalidating authentication state, device attestation, and contextual trust signals. Current ZTA frameworks assume relatively stable network environments and do not address the trust implications of frequent, dynamic RAT switching in mobile IoT deployments.