This paper provides the complete details of current challenges and solutions in the cybersecurity of cyber-physical systems (CPS) within the context of the IIoT and its integration with edge computing (IIoT–edge computing). We systematically collected and analyzed the relevant literature from the past five years, applying a rigorous methodology to identify key sources. Our study highlights the prevalent IIoT layer attacks, common intrusion methods, and critical threats facing IIoT–edge computing environments. Additionally, we examine various types of cyberattacks targeting CPS, outlining their significant impact on industrial operations. A detailed taxonomy of primary security mechanisms for CPS within IIoT–edge computing is developed, followed by a comparative analysis of our approach against existing research. The findings underscore the widespread vulnerabilities across the IIoT architecture, particularly in relation to DoS, ransomware, malware, and MITM attacks. The review emphasizes the integration of advanced security technologies, including machine learning (ML), federated learning (FL), blockchain, blockchain–ML, deep learning (DL), encryption, cryptography, IT/OT convergence, and digital twins, as essential for enhancing the security and real-time data protection of CPS in IIoT–edge computing. Finally, the paper outlines potential future research directions aimed at advancing cybersecurity in this rapidly evolving domain.

Nowadays, network technologies are developing very rapidly. The growing volume of transmitted information (video, data, VoIP, etc.), the physical growth of networks, and inter-network traffic are forcing manufacturers to produce more powerful and “smart” devices that use new methods of transferring and sorting data. Such connected smart devices (IoT) are used in intelligently controlled traffic for self-driving vehicles in Vehicle Adhoc Networks (VANET), in electricity and water in smart cities, and in-home automation in smart homes. These types of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices are used to leverage different types of network structures. Such IoT sensor devices can be deployed as a wireless sensor network (WSN) in a mesh topology. Both WSNs and Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are easy to organize as well as to deploy. In this case, there are many reasons for combining these different types of networks. In particular, the detailed sensory capabilities of sensor networks may be improved by increasing bandwidth, reliability and power consumption in the mesh topology. However, there are currently only a handful of studies devoting to integrate these two different types of networks. In addition, there is no systematic review of existing interconnection methods. That is why in this article we explore the existing methods of these two networks and provide an analytical basis for their relationship. We introduce the definition of WSN and WMN and then look at some case studies. Afterward, we present several challenges and opportunities in the area of combined Wireless Mesh Sensor Network (WMSN) followed by a discussion on this interconnection through literature review and hope that this document will attract the attention of the community and inspire further research in this direction.

Smart grids are transforming the generation, distribution, and consumption of power, marking a revolutionary step forward for contemporary energy systems. Communication in smart grid environments is majorly performed through Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The WSNs enable real-time monitoring and management inside smart grids. However, the integration of digital technologies and automation in smart grids introduces cybersecurity challenges, including unauthorized access, data breaches, and denial of service attacks. To address these difficulties and maintain the reliability of smart grid infrastructure, this study proposes a comprehensive architecture for strengthening cybersecurity within WSNs operating in smart grid environments. By integrating traffic analysis, node categorization, and machine learning algorithms, the framework intends to effectively detect and prevent cyber threats. Extensive evaluation reveals that traffic analysis using the Random Forest model successfully predicts traffic load within WSNs, achieving a mean squared error (MSE) of 2.772350, a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 1.665038, a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.099080, and a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.717982. In intrusion detection, the Random Forest model outperforms Decision Trees and Logistic Regression, with higher precision (0.99), recall (0.99), and F1 scores (0.98) across various attack types. Specifically, Random Forest achieves perfect recall (1.00) in identifying Flooding attacks, underscoring its capability to detect all instances of such intrusions. Leveraging the insights gathered from the WSNBFSF dataset, this study gives significant findings into proactive cybersecurity tactics, stressing the necessity of securing key infrastructure for the reliable and secure distribution of power to consumers.

Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) environments need to implement reliable security measures because of the growth in network traffic and overall connectivity. Accordingly, this work provides the architecture of network traffic analysis and the detection of intrusions in a network with the help of edge computing and using machine-learning methods. The study uses k-means and DBSCAN techniques to examine the flow of traffic in a network and to discover several groups of behavior and possible anomalies. An assessment of the two clustering methods shows that K-means achieves a silhouette score of 0.612, while DBSCAN achieves 0.473. For intrusion detection, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), random forest (RF), and logistic regression (LR) were used and evaluated. The analysis revealed that both KNN and RF yielded seamless results in terms of precision, recall, and F1 score, close to the maximum possible value of 1.00, as demonstrated by both ROC and precision–recall curves. Accuracy matrices show that RF had better precision and recall for both benign and attacks, while KNN and LR had good detection with slight fluctuations. With the integration of edge computing, the framework is improved by real-time data processing, which means a lower latency of the security system. This work enriches the knowledge of the IIOT by offering a detailed solution to the issue of cybersecurity in IoT systems, based on well-grounded performance assessments and the right implementation of current technologies. The results thus support the effectiveness of the proposed framework to improve security and provide tangible improvements over current approaches by identifying potential threats within a network.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are networks of thousands of nodes installed in a defined physical environment to sense and monitor its state condition. The viability of such a network is directly dependent and limited by the power of batteries supplying the nodes of these networks, which represents a disadvantage of such a network. To improve and extend the life of WSNs, scientists around the world regularly develop various routing protocols that minimize and optimize the energy consumption of sensor network nodes. This article, introduces a new heterogeneous-aware routing protocol well known as Extended Z-SEP Routing Protocol with Hierarchical Clustering Approach for Wireless Heterogeneous Sensor Network or EZ-SEP, where the connection of nodes to a base station (BS) is done via a hybrid method, i.e., a certain amount of nodes communicate with the base station directly, while the remaining ones form a cluster to transfer data. Parameters of the field are unknown, and the field is partitioned into zones depending on the node energy. We reviewed the Z-SEP protocol concerning the election of the cluster head (CH) and its communication with BS and presented a novel extended mechanism for the selection of the CH based on remaining residual energy. In addition, EZ-SEP is weighted up using various estimation schemes such as base station repositioning, altering the field density, and variable nodes energy for comparison with the previous parent algorithm. EZ-SEP was executed and compared to routing protocols such as Z-SEP, SEP, and LEACH. The proposed algorithm performed using the MATLAB R2016b simulator. Simulation results show that our proposed extended version performs better than Z-SEP in the stability period due to an increase in the number of active nodes by 48%, in efficiency of network by the high packet delivery coefficient by 16% and optimizes the average power consumption compared to by 34.

Information networks organized according to Internet of Things (IoT) mesh topology have received great recognition over the past one and a half to two decades of years. The scale of projects grows from millions of users connected to hundreds of thousands of access points. IoT mesh nodes offer more fascinating regulations linking a variety of networks and radio technologies and therefore fully meet the ever-growing requirements of subscribers as mobility, quality of service (QoS) and the security. The possibility of organizing local or metropolitan networks using a mesh network topology, desegregating into wide area networks without any difficulty or effort, is considered a tempting condition for urban and individual users. This article, introduces optimal routing protocol for IoT Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) by optimizing the channel and frequency resources of the network based on mathematical calculations for resource allocation. We propose an approach to the synthesis of mesh networks, which allows determining the required number of connections between network nodes, as well as their channel width for a given frequency range while ensuring the minimum data transmission delay time. Optimization results show that the function value is improved for more than 16% and the proposed algorithm provides the most rational use of the allocated frequency range.