Secure Protocol Translation Framework with Dynamic Switching for Heterogeneous IoT Networks

Abstract

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.