OSCORE vs DTLS: Securing Constrained IoT Links (2D)

Constrained IoT sensors have to choose how they secure the link back to a server, and once real proxy hops enter the path the choice has a very different byte-and-latency cost. This 2D simulator lays the sensor, an adjustable number of intermediate proxies, and the server out on a single line and animates messages moving hop by hop: DTLS packets visibly unwrap and re-wrap at every proxy because transport security only covers one hop at a time, while OSCORE packets pass straight through untouched because the security lives in the message itself. A live chart plots total bytes transmitted against hop count for both protocols and marks the real crossover point where OSCORE's flat, hop-independent overhead overtakes DTLS's cheaper-but-repeated per-segment cost.