Efficient unpaired data validation and aggregation protocol in industrial Internet of things

As a cornerstone technology of smart manufacturing, the industrial Internet of things (IIoT) harnesses efficient data sharing to propel the networking, digitization, and intellectualization of industrial production, thereby assisting manufacturing enterprises in cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and bolstering their core competitiveness. Nevertheless, the limited resources inherent in industrial production field devices have posed significant hurdles to IIoT’s development, primarily due to the high computational costs of maintaining system security and vulnerabilities that render it susceptible to various attacks. To address these challenges and enhance the robustness, security, and efficiency of industrial systems, an efficient unpaired verification and aggregation (EUVA) protocol was proposed. Within the context of an IIoT environment based on elliptic curve cryptography, homomorphic encryption was emploied to safeguard data privacy and a verification key management scheme was introduced, facilitating secure and efficient unpaired verification. Furthermore, security analysis demonstrates that the proposed protocol meets the outlined security objectives. Finally, performance analysis conducted using MIRACL reveals that the EUVA protocol outperforms previous similar mechanisms in terms of computational communication costs and energy consumption.