Resilient 6TiSCH IoT Network Joining: Detecting and Mitigating Malicious Proxy Nodes

The 6TiSCH protocol is extensively utilized in Industrial IoT applications due to its support for reliable, low-power, and time-synchronized communication. However, the network joining process within 6TiSCH, governed by the Constrained Join Protocol, is vulnerable to attacks from malicious proxy nodes, posing significant risks to the network's integrity and security. This paper introduces a novel detection mechanism designed to enhance the security of the network joining process through systematic monitoring and evaluation of proxy node behavior. At the core of this mechanism is the Join Registrar/Coordinator, which dynamically adjusts trust scores for proxy nodes based on their actions during the joining phase. The proposed mechanism has been implemented and rigorously tested within a simulated 6TiSCH network environment. The results demonstrate that this approach effectively detects and mitigates threats posed by malicious proxy nodes, with a True Positive Rate of 62.58% and a False Positive Rate of 7.69 %, surpassing the performance of existing methods. Additionally, the mechanism incurs a moderate increase in energy consumption, recorded at 1895.45 Joules over 1 hour for 20 nodes, and exhibits efficient memory usage, ensuring minimal overhead while maintaining network efficiency. These findings suggest that the proposed method significantly enhances the overall security and reliability of 6TiSCH networks, making it a robust solution for Industrial IoT environments.