Wireless communication in industrial networks is challenging due to low latency and high reliability requirements. In this paper, we propose a MAC layer based on distributed priority queues to take advantage of industrial networks’ heterogeneity and the fact that all industrial IoT devices within them pursue a common goal. Through several extensions, we increase the reliability of high-priority messages by several orders of magnitude without reducing less important messages’ reliability.

In this paper, we present SmartJudge, an extensible framework for secure and private trades of digital assets without a trusted third party. We designed efficient verifiers for ETH to BTC atomic swaps (by introducing a novel Bitcoin transaction verification algorithm) and fair data exchanges. In both cases, we achieve cheaper trades compared to the state-of-the-art and, additionally, provide contract confidentiality. SmartJudge optimistically assumes honest behavior by both parties and offers recovery mechanisms (paid for by the malicious actor) in case of misbehavior.

In this paper, we first survey latency requirements towards industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices. We then propose two optimization mechanisms for established AES-based encryption and authentication to help IIoT devices achieve their stringent latency requirements. These mechanisms work by enabling the preprocessing of cryptographic operations, yielding latency reductions of up to 75.9%.