{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T18:22:02Z","timestamp":1780338122284,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,12]],"date-time":"2024-12-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1733961600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Network"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper, we introduce the Secured Real-Time Machine Communication Protocol (SRMCP), a novel industrial communication protocol designed to address the increasing demand for security and performance in Industry 4.0 environments. SRMCP integrates post-quantum cryptographic techniques, including the Kyber Key Encapsulation Mechanism (Kyber-KEM) and AES-GCM encryption, to ensure robust protection against both current and future cryptographic threats. We also present an innovative \u201cPort Hopping\u201d mechanism inspired by frequency hopping, enhancing security by distributing communication across multiple channels. Comparative performance analysis was conducted with widely-used protocols such as ModBus and the OPC UA, focusing on key metrics such as connection, reading, and writing times across local and remote networks. Results demonstrate that SRMCP outperforms ModBus in reading and writing operations while offering enhanced security, although it has a higher connection time due to its dual-layer encryption. The OPC UA, while secure, lags significantly in performance, making it less suitable for real-time applications. The findings suggest that SRMCP is a viable solution for secure and efficient machine communication in modern industrial settings, particularly where quantum-safe security is a concern.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/network4040028","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,12]],"date-time":"2024-12-12T08:36:32Z","timestamp":1733992592000},"page":"567-585","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Secured Real-Time Machine Communication Protocol"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"4","author":[{"given":"Yifei","family":"Ren","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lakmal","family":"Rupasinghe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1944-1418","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Siavash","family":"Khaksar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2014-1831","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nasim","family":"Ferdosian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1840-9624","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Iain","family":"Murray","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Geissbauer, G., Veds\u00f8, J., and Schrauf, S. (2016). Industry 4.0: The Future of Productivity and Growth in Manufacturing Industries, Boston Consulting Group."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"wolfSSL (2024, December 05). Experimenting with Post-Quantum Cryptography. Available online: https:\/\/www.wolfssl.com\/documentation\/manuals\/wolfssl\/appendix07.html."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"644","DOI":"10.1109\/TIT.1976.1055638","article-title":"New directions in cryptography","volume":"22","author":"Diffie","year":"1976","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bos, J.W., Ducas, L., Kiltz, E., Lepoint, T., Lyubashevsky, V., Schanck, J., Schwabe, P., Seiler, G., and Stehl\u00e9, D. (2018, January 24\u201326). CRYSTALS-Kyber: A CCA-secure module-lattice-based KEM. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P), London, UK.","DOI":"10.1109\/EuroSP.2018.00032"},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"1","article-title":"The Galois\/Counter Mode of Operation (GCM)","volume":"20","author":"McGrew","year":"2004","journal-title":"Submiss. NIST Modes Oper. Process"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"855","DOI":"10.1109\/TCOM.1982.1095533","article-title":"Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum: An Analytical Approach","volume":"30","author":"Pickholtz","year":"1982","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Commun."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"(2006, October 04). Organization, M. Modbus Messaging on TCP\/IP Implementation Guide V1.0b. Modbus-IDA 2006. Available online: https:\/\/modbus.org\/docs\/Modbus_Messaging_Implementation_Guide_V1_0b.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nardone, R., Rodr\u00edguez, R.J., and Marrone, S. (2016;, January 5\u20137). Formal security assessment of Modbus protocol. Proceedings of the 2016 11th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST), Barcelona, Spain.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICITST.2016.7856685"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Damm, S.M., and Leitner, W.M. (2016). OPC Unified Architecture, Springer."},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"178","article-title":"OPC UA Security: A View on Risks and Security Improvements","volume":"52","author":"Damm","year":"2019","journal-title":"IFAC-PapersOnLine"},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"5487","article-title":"Performance Analysis and Optimization of OPC UA Based Communication in Industrial Applications","volume":"15","author":"Stoklosa","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Informatics"},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Zurawski, R. (2014). Industrial Communication Technology Handbook, CRC Press."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"2335","article-title":"Cost Analysis of PROFINET Implementation in Industrial Settings","volume":"64","author":"Brown","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"14","article-title":"Analysis of the Complexity and Maintenance of PROFINET Systems","volume":"7","author":"Jones","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Ind. Inf. Integr."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Stenerson, J. (2011). EtherNet\/IP: The Everyman\u2019s Guide to Implementing EtherNet\/IP Devices, Industrial Press."},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"127","article-title":"EtherNet\/IP Performance Limitations in High-Speed Applications","volume":"45","author":"Singh","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Netw. Comput. Appl."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"155","article-title":"Challenges in Deploying EtherNet\/IP in Industrial Networks","volume":"9","author":"Johnson","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Ind. Netw. Manag."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Jansen, D., and Buttner, H. (2017). Computing and Control Engineering, IET."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"78","article-title":"EtherCAT Technology and its Limitations in Industrial Applications","volume":"34","author":"Zhang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Autom. Control"},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"1234","article-title":"Interoperability Challenges in EtherCAT Implementations","volume":"15","author":"Garcia","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Vlacic, L., Parent, M., and Harashima, F. (2001). The CAN bus. Intelligent Vehicle Technologies, Butterworth-Heinemann. Automotive Engineering Series."},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"123","article-title":"Performance Limitations of CAN Bus in Real-Time Applications","volume":"50","author":"Tan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Real-Time Syst."},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"2034","article-title":"Scalability Challenges in Large-Scale CAN Bus Networks","volume":"60","author":"Kumar","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1484","DOI":"10.1137\/S0097539795293172","article-title":"Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Prime Factorization and Discrete Logarithms on a Quantum Computer","volume":"26","author":"Shor","year":"1997","journal-title":"SIAM J. Comput."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/1568318.1568324","article-title":"On lattices, learning with errors, random linear codes, and cryptography","volume":"56","author":"Regev","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. ACM"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"NIST (2024, December 05). Post-Quantum Cryptography, Available online: https:\/\/csrc.nist.gov\/projects\/post-quantum-cryptography."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Malina, L., Ricci, S., Dobias, P., Jedlicka, P., Hajny, J., and Choo, K.R. (2022, January 11\u201313). On the Efficiency and Security of Quantum-resistant Key Establishment Mechanisms on FPGA Platforms. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Security and Cryptography\u2014SECRYPT. INSTICC, SciTePress, Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.5220\/0011294200003283"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Vovk, V., Gammerman, A., and Shafer, G. (2005). Algorithmic Learning in a Random World, Springer."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1145\/1629575.1629578","article-title":"RouteBricks: Exploiting parallelism to scale software routers","volume":"43","author":"Dobrescu","year":"2009","journal-title":"ACM SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev."}],"container-title":["Network"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2673-8732\/4\/4\/28\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]],"date-time":"2025-10-14T09:14:45Z","timestamp":1760433285000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2673-8732\/4\/4\/28"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,12]]},"references-count":29,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12]]}},"alternative-id":["network4040028"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/network4040028","relation":{},"ISSN":["2673-8732"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2673-8732","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,12]]}}}