Secure Protocol Translation Framework with Dynamic Switching for Heterogeneous IoT Networks
Internet of Things deployments increasingly incorporate devices with heterogeneous capabilities connected through diverse communication technologies including WiFi and low-power wide-area networks. Current protocol architectures force designers to select either feature-rich protocols like MQTT [1] that provide reliable delivery with high overhead, or lightweight alternatives like CoAP [2] that minimize resource consumption at the cost of application features. This paper presents a security-aware protocol translation framework that enables dynamic switching between MQTT and CoAP based on real-time assessment of device battery state, network conditions, and message criticality. The framework leverages Platform Security Architecture [3] cryptographic primitives to maintain end-to-end security during protocol transitions without exposing plaintext at gateway nodes. Implementation on ESP32-C3 [5] and ESP32-C6 [6] platforms connected to Raspberry Pi gateways via WiFi and LoRa demonstrates energy consumption reductions of 42 percent compared to MQTT-only operation while maintaining message delivery rates above 99.4 percent. The system achieves protocol switching in under 380 milliseconds with hardware-accelerated cryptographic operations consuming less than 3 percent of total device energy budget. Comparative evaluation across multiple network configurations validates the effectiveness of adaptive protocol selection for resourceconstrained IoT deployments.