A hybrid machine learning model for intrusion detection in wireless sensor networks leveraging data balancing and dimensionality reduction

Intrusion detection systems are essential for securing wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and Internet of Things (IoT) environments against various threats. This study presents a novel hybrid machine learning (ML) model that integrates KMeans-SMOTE (KMS) for data balancing and principal component analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction, evaluated using the WSN-DS and TON-IoT datasets. The model employs classifiers such as Decision Tree Classifier, Random Forest Classifier (RFC), and gradient boosting techniques like XGBoost (XGBC) to enhance detection accuracy and efficiency. The proposed hybrid (KMS + PCA + RFC) approach achieves remarkable performance, with an accuracy of 99.94% and an f1-score of 99.94% on the WSN-DS dataset. For the TON-IoT dataset, it achieves 99.97% accuracy and an f1-score of 99.97%, outperforming traditional SMOTE TomekLink and Generative Adversarial Network-based data balancing techniques. This hybrid approach addresses class imbalance and high-dimensionality challenges, providing scalable and robust intrusion detection. Complexity analysis reveals that the proposed model reduces training and prediction times, making it suitable for real-time applications.