Design and Evaluation of an Adaptive Intrusion Detection Framework for IoT Edge Networks Using Hybrid Machine Learning and Deep Reinforcement Learning Techniques

The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices across diverse industries has significantly increased the vulnerability of IoT edge networks to sophisticated cyber threats. Traditional intrusion detection systems (IDS), such as signature-based and anomaly-based approaches, are often insufficient in addressing the dynamic and evolving nature of these threats. This study proposes a hybrid intrusion detection system (IDS) framework that combines supervised machine learning (ML) techniques with deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to enhance detection performance in real-time, resource-constrained IoT environments. The proposed framework utilizes supervised learning for initial traffic classification and DRL for adaptive decision-making, enabling the system to continuously learn and optimize its detection policies based on new attack patterns. The hybrid approach significantly improves detection accuracy and reduces false positives when compared to conventional signature-based and single-model ML systems. In addition to improved detection capabilities, the framework's computational efficiency allows it to operate effectively within the constraints of IoT devices, ensuring that it is suitable for large-scale deployments. Benchmark evaluations using publicly available datasets, such as NSL-KDD, IoT-23, and BoT-IoT, show that the hybrid IDS framework outperforms traditional methods, providing a more robust and adaptive solution to cybersecurity challenges in IoT edge networks. The findings of this study suggest that combining machine learning with deep reinforcement learning offers a promising approach to secure IoT environments and address the limitations of existing IDS techniques. Future work will explore enhancing real-time adaptability, scalability, and the detection of zero-day attacks in evolving IoT ecosystems.