A Robust Multiparty Authentication Testbed Architecture for the Industrial Internet of Things

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has emerged as an advancement and application of the Internet of things (IoT) to enhance manufacturing and industrial processes. IIoT devices are designed for use in industrial environments. The vast majority of IIoT devices are sensors that monitor various manufacturing processes. Monitoring applications receive data from numerous types of sensors, ensuring that vital functions run smoothly. However, due to the wide range of devices and providers, incorporating and actively engaging collaborative users and services from multiple IoT networks in different security settings, as well as the difficulty of adding security to resource-constrained devices, securing IoT devices and the networks they connect to can be challenging. To alleviate these security challenges, the formation of specific trust relationships between these IoT service instances and users necessitates the implementation of a new authentication mechanism that sends a shared secret to all session participants. In this paper, a new multi-party authentication testbed architecture is designed and implemented to dynamically secure communications between participants if members of various security groups choose to use their services while keeping security credentials as secure as possible through resource access. The robustness of the designed protocol is validated using the NuSMV model checkers software tool. This validation process verifies the accuracy of the protocol, ensuring that it meets all requirements. Consequently, this meticulous analysis reduces errors and enhances the protocol’s dependability, security, and credibility. Utilising linear-temporal logic verification, the correctness of the presented framework is explicitly analysed and established. This ensures a rigorous evaluation and provides a comprehensive assessment of the performance and behaviour of the proposed protocol’s features.