An IoE-Powered Framework for Adaptive Energy-Security Trade-Off in IoT

The Internet of Energy (IoE) is emerging as a key enabler for integrated energy and security management in resource-constrained IoT environments. This convergence offers new opportunities for intelligent and sustainable energy and security operations. However, the inherent computational and energy limitations of IoT devices, combined with the complexity of security configurations, often lead to the neglect of protection mechanisms. The lack of lightweight, adaptable solutions makes standardized security protocols – such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Datagram TLS (DTLS) – unsuitable for large, heterogeneous deployments. Their static and rigid nature causes excessive overhead and limits adaptability under dynamic network conditions. To address these challenges, this article introduces an IoE-enabled architectural vision that tightly integrates energy and security management. In this architecture the IoE Controller (IoE-C) is introduced. It operates as an orchestration layer, leveraging data from energy and security monitoring platforms to dynamically adapt tailored security measures on IoT constrained devices. The Energy and Security aware Index (ESaI) is proposed as a composite metric to evaluate and guide the security-energy trade-off. The proposed paradigm generalizes the concept of dynamic and lightweight security across widely adopted IoT protocols, such as MQTT and CoAP. Evaluation results demonstrate improvements in device lifetime and energy efficiency compared to traditional TLS/DTLS-based solutions, while preserving adequate security guarantees. The framework outlines a scalable and sustainable path for secure IoT deployments in 6G and future energy-intelligent infrastructures.