Content Caching in Industrial IoT: Security and Energy Considerations

In Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the volume of generated traffic can be high, causing concerns over issues, such as high energy consumption and longer access delay. Caching IIoT content at the network nodes is a promising solution to address these concerns. However, cached IIoT content at the network nodes is vulnerable to malicious attacks, which can cause significant disruptions in industrial operations. In order to monitor and prevent such malicious activities, trusted systems/nodes with supervisory control can be placed at the network nodes. In this article, we introduce the concept of the trusted caching node (TCN) for IIoT. TCNs cache popular IIoT content and ensure robust security to the connected links. This article finds the optimum location for the TCNs and selects secured-routes for content distribution. We formulate a joint optimization problem and minimize the cost related to probable content breach and energy consumption. We also design a low-complexity heuristic algorithm to solve this problem in real-time. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed solution achieves significant performance gain and ensures secured IIoT content delivery.