{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T15:16:04Z","timestamp":1776784564391,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,23]],"date-time":"2024-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1727049600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Industry-Education-Research Cooperation Project of Jiangsu Province","award":["BY20230668"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BY20230668"]}]},{"name":"Industry-Education-Research Cooperation Project of Jiangsu Province","award":["YKJ202115"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["YKJ202115"]}]},{"name":"Research Fund of Nanjing Institute of Technology","award":["BY20230668"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BY20230668"]}]},{"name":"Research Fund of Nanjing Institute of Technology","award":["YKJ202115"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["YKJ202115"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing, more and more devices, such as sensor nodes and intelligent automated guided vehicles (AGVs), can serve as edge devices to provide Location-Based Services (LBS) through the IoT. As the number of applications increases, there is an abundance of sensitive information in the communication process, pushing the focus of privacy protection towards the communication process and edge devices. The challenge lies in the fact that most traditional location privacy protection algorithms are not suited for the IoT with edge computing, as they primarily focus on the security of remote servers. To enhance the capability of location privacy protection, this paper proposes a novel K-anonymity algorithm based on clustering. This novel algorithm incorporates a scheme that flexibly combines real and virtual locations based on the requirements of applications. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly improves location privacy protection for the IoT with edge computing. When compared to traditional K-anonymity algorithms, the proposed algorithm further enhances the security of location privacy by expanding the potential region in which the real node may be located, thereby limiting the effectiveness of \u201cnarrow-region\u201d attacks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24186153","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,24]],"date-time":"2024-09-24T08:56:06Z","timestamp":1727168166000},"page":"6153","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Location Privacy Protection for the Internet of Things with Edge Computing Based on Clustering K-Anonymity"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3978-2890","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nanlan","family":"Jiang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Artificial Intelligence, School of Integrated Circuits, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yinan","family":"Zhai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Artificial Intelligence, School of Integrated Circuits, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China"},{"name":"Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty, Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yujun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Artificial Intelligence, School of Integrated Circuits, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xuesong","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Artificial Intelligence, School of Integrated Circuits, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sai","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pingping","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20444","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2022.3178903","article-title":"An Ontology Integrating the Open Standards of City Models and Internet of Things for Smart-City Applications","volume":"9","author":"Huang","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49844","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2021.3068972","article-title":"Meteorology-Aware Path Planning for the UAV Based on the Improved Intelligent Water Drops Algorithm","volume":"9","author":"Duan","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16845","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2021.3052066","article-title":"HeDI: Healthcare Device Interoperability for IoT-Based e-Health Platforms","volume":"8","author":"Pathak","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12529","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2021.3137596","article-title":"A Smart Meter Infrastructure for Smart Grid IoT Applications","volume":"9","author":"Orlando","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2020.3004529","article-title":"Transmission Scheduling with Order Constraints in WIA-FA-Based AGV Systems","volume":"8","author":"Shi","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"163043","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2021.3133882","article-title":"An Improved Hybrid Secure Multipath Routing Protocol for MANET","volume":"9","author":"Srilakshmi","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1142","DOI":"10.1109\/LWC.2022.3159257","article-title":"6LoWPAN over Optical Wireless Communications for IPv6 Transport in Internet of Things Networks","volume":"11","author":"Kim","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Wirel. 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