A Cost-Effective Key Agreement Encryption Protocol for Securing IIoT-Enabled WSN Communication

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), pivotal in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), encompass resource-limited sensor nodes, users, and gateways. Advancements in Internet technologies have substantially facilitated remote data access, rendering WSNs indispensable across various sectors, such as defense, agriculture, disaster management, and healthcare, where they serve as pivotal components for remote monitoring and control mechanisms. Within the IIoT framework, the transmission of critical and sensitive information over public channels presents significant security challenges. Such challenges disrupt operations and compromise the integrity and reliability of industrial processes. The system must include an authentication mechanism to tackle this critical issue that resists potential security threats. Consequently, this article introduced a reliable and secure the three-factor authentication protocol tailored for IIoT environments. The proposed protocol aims to mitigate unauthorized access and safeguard the integrity of industrial operations. We comprehensively evaluated the protocol’s robustness and security efficiency by employing informal and formal security analysis techniques, highlighting its effectiveness in resisting potential threats. This proposed protocol fortifies the network against potential security threats, ensuring security and system reliability in industrial applications. This protocol assists only legitimate users in accessing the sensing devices remotely. Moreover, the statistical results endorse the resource efficiency of the devised protocol as it achieves 43.2% and 35.8% efficiency in terms of communication and computational costs, respectively.