A Secure Lightweight Wireless M-Bus Protocol for IoT: Leveraging the Noise Protocol Framework

The escalating demand for secure communication in the Internet of Things (IoT), particularly in energy-sensitive devices such as smart meters, highlights a critical challenge: achieving robust security without excessive energy consumption. While various solutions have been proposed to minimize energy use, many fail to address the unique constraints of the IoT devices effectively. This article introduces an innovative approach by proposing a secure, lightweight wireless meter-bus (wM-Bus) protocol, specifically designed for the stringent resource constraints of the IoT environments. By incorporating the noise protocol framework (NPF), our protocol significantly reduces computational and power requirements without compromising security integrity. Through a methodical implementation that spanned five distinct phases, including a comparative analysis with the conventional transport layer security (TLS), our findings are compelling. The NPF, particularly with its NX and XX patterns, dramatically surpasses TLS in performance, extending operational lifetimes to approximately 9 and 7.88 years, respectively, in contrast to the 3.81 years offered by TLS. These results not only demonstrate the superior efficiency of the NPF in the IoT settings but also highlight its potential in striking an optimal balance between security and operational longevity.