sensors

Article
Ensemble-Learning Framework for Intrusion Detection to
Enhance Internet of Things’ Devices Security
Yazeed Alotaibi * and Mohammad Ilyas

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road,
Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA; ilyas@fau.edu
* Correspondence: yalotaibi2021@fau.edu

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) comprises a network of interconnected nodes constantly
communicating, exchanging, and transferring data over various network protocols. Studies have
shown that these protocols pose a severe threat (Cyber-attacks) to the security of data transmitted due
to their ease of exploitation. In this research, we aim to contribute to the literature by improving the
Intrusion Detection System (IDS) detection efficiency. In order to improve the efficiency of the IDS, a
binary classification of normal and abnormal IoT traffic is constructed to enhance the IDS performance.
Our method employs various supervised ML algorithms and ensemble classifiers. The proposed
model was trained on TON-IoT network traffic datasets. Four of the trained ML-supervised models
have achieved the highest accurate outcomes; Random Forest, Decision Tree, Logistic Regression, and
K-Nearest Neighbor. These four classifiers are fed to two ensemble approaches: voting and stacking.
The ensemble approaches were evaluated using the evaluation metrics and compared for their efficacy
on this classification problem. The accuracy of the ensemble classifiers was higher than that of the
individual models. This improvement can be attributed to ensemble learning strategies that leverage
diverse learning mechanisms with varying capabilities. By combining these strategies, we were able
to enhance the reliability of our predictions while reducing the occurrence of classification errors. The
experimental results show that the framework can improve the efficiency of the Intrusion Detection
System, achieving an accuracy rate of 0.9863.

Keywords: ensemble learning; machine learning; internet of things; security; intrusion detection system

Citation: Alotaibi, Y.; Ilyas, M.

Ensemble-Learning Framework for
Intrusion Detection to Enhance
1. Introduction
Internet of Things’ Devices Security.
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568. https://
The Internet of Things (IoT) has grown exponentially due to technology’s evolution.
doi.org/10.3390/s23125568
The IoT facilitates people’s lives by providing and enhancing connectivity that supports
the automation aspect of several human services. Millions of interconnected devices use
Academic Editor: Jian Li the IoT to communicate, transfer, share, collect, and analyze data from several domains [1].
Received: 16 May 2023 While involving the internet as the main factor in the technology’s fields, it opens a new
Revised: 1 June 2023 platform for cybercriminals [2]. Therefore, enhancing security and employing artificial
Accepted: 6 June 2023 intelligence innovations and technologies led to a protected and reliable IoT infrastructure.
Published: 14 June 2023 In addition, the IoT architecture contains three main layers: the application, network,
and user experience levels. The Perception layer has responsibility for every task, from uti-
lizing the sensors to gathering the information, but it is also susceptible to multiple attacks
due to its central role. Physical attacks on sensor-equipped equipment, unauthorized entry
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. into the infrastructure, and other forms of physical attack are prevalent. The Network layer
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
allows the devices fitted with sensors to communicate and exchange data with the gate-
This article is an open access article
ways and other IoT devices via wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G. The most
distributed under the terms and
common attacks faced by the Network layer are distributed denial-of-service (DDoS),
conditions of the Creative Commons
denial-of-service (DOS), Man of the Middle, information theft, and gateways attacks [1,3].
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
Despite IoT’s high dependence on the Internet as its primary communication network,
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
the Internet of Things faces a new generation of innovative cybercriminals [4]. The IoT
4.0/).

Sensors 2023, 23, 5568. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23125568 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 2 of 20

consists of a network of interconnected nodes that constantly communicate with one

another and process information over a variety of network protocols. Because of the
ease with which these protocols can be exploited, it has been discovered that they pose a
considerable risk to the confidentiality of the transferred data [5].
Researchers have developed and invented new security technologies based on AI
technologies, such as ML, to detect and prevent such attacks. Unlike traditional firewalls
and detection techniques, ML can handle big data environments [6,7]. Moreover, the ML is
a well-known solution to address detection attacks and classification issues. ML might be
considered the most suitable solution to secure and stabilize IoT network traffic [8]. ML
has several techniques, such as regression, and classification [9]. In addition to preventing
and detecting novel attacks, ML provides an appropriate strategy for securing IoT net-
works with its collection of supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement techniques and
algorithms [10].
One of the recent machine learning techniques is the prevention technique, such as the
Intrusion detection system (IDS).The primary function of the IDS is to identify and report
the normal or abnormal behavior of the traffic messages [1,11]. In addition, the IoT object is
vulnerable to attacks because they rely on wireless communication protocols [12]. Attacks
on the IoT affect all IoT network components, as opposed to the typical local network,
where attacks affect specific nodes [13].
Furthermore, it is still unclear which machine learning techniques are more reliable
and efficient for building a dynamic IDS. IoT IDS have been the focus of extensive study and
research, with numerous machine learning and deep learning approaches being applied
to a variety of datasets to determine their efficacy [14]. Time is a critical component of
an effective IoT attack prevention system, so it’s essential to consider ways to speed up
the process of building and training the system. This can be completed by decreasing the
computational time required by intrusion detection systems [11].
While the ML model scenarios do not show accurate and satisfactory results, the en-
semble methods were employed to address this issue since it is important to combine
several methods to avoid the instability aspect [15]. The primary objective of the ensemble
is to enhance efficiency by combining the classification of several ML base classifiers [16].
When the performance of the ML classifiers is considered weak or low, the ensemble
method is applied to combine the weak classifiers to construct a robust predictive model
and enhance the performance [17]. Ensemble learning has been applied to several datasets,
and it is communally used to construct intrusion detection approaches [17].
In addition, the ML detection system’s capability depends on the quality of the
database, so collecting or generating a credible dataset from the IoT communications
environment at various levels that involves realistic attacks and regular traffic is a necessary
step. Recently, a group of datasets, TON-IoT [18–25], which were collected from multiple
IoT devices, have been tested and authenticated in a cyber lab to be more reliable to be
applied to ML approaches.
In this study, we propose an IDS built with algorithms that use machine learning
specifically for detecting intrusion attacks in IoT network traffic. Our approach’s main
goal is to enhance the accuracy of attack detection. We constructed and evaluated four
supervised machine learning models to classify IoT network traffic as normal or abnor-
mal. In addition, we used two ensemble techniques, voting and stacking, to merge these
supervised models. Through the use of ensemble learning, we facilitate collaboration and
improve classification performance between learning mechanisms with distinct capabilities.
Effectiveness in classification tasks is enhanced by the ensemble learning method, which
encourages the cooperation and reinforcement of several learning systems. Therefore, the
paper’s contributions are as follows:
1. Proposing a binary classification of IoT device network traffic as normal or abnormal.
2. Applying feature selection methods to improve the IDS performance of IoT network
devices. Hence, we examined multiple ML algorithms to determine the most accurate
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 3 of 20

and efficient learners for building an efficient IDS to detect attacks on IoT devices
within IoT network data.
3. Constructing and assessing four supervised models using data preprocessing and
feature selection methods. This group of models consists of Random Forests, Decision
Trees, Logistic Regression, and K-Nearest Neighbor. In addition, by combining the
four supervised ML models, we employ two ensemble methods to improve the
efficiency of the proposed model. The performance evaluation includes accuracy,
precision, recall, and F1-score metrics.
4. The model we constructed improved the performance of the detection technique
compared with the most recent study that used the same dataset.

This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 highlights previous work on machine

learning-based and ensemble-based models for attack categorization, and Section 3 pro-
vides a brief background of the used techniques, methods, and several machine learning
algorithms. Section 4 illustrates the methodology in detail. Section 5 covers our findings,
comparisons, discussion, and evaluation method. Finally, Section 6 describes and outlines
the conclusion of the entire study and the planned future work.

2. Related Work
The IoT transforms our daily activities by providing a mechanism for managing phys-
ical objects on the edge. IoT is one of the remarkable innovations in our era to make and
support systems that are smart by improving system performance and reducing human
involvement by automating several domains of services [26]. While the IoT environment
includes several devices and objects, it allows these objects to communicate and be inter-
connected. These connected IoT objects communicate and exchange data via the internet
and can be remotely accessible, which puts them at high risk of being targeted by malicious
attacks and unauthorized access [27].
Enhancing the security aspect will protect the IoT architecture from attacks. Prevent-
ing these attacks requires detection techniques to expose intrusions or malicious activities
within the IoT network. The IDS is an efficient technique for detecting attacks and mali-
cious activities. The ensemble machine learning technique is considered one technique
that provides an efficient and accurate solution to detecting and preventing attacks or
malicious activities [20]. Recently, security detection technologies based on artificial intelli-
gence innovations have become the primary technologies and modern techniques. Thus,
artificial intelligence techniques driven by extensive data analysis can detect anomalies and
malicious activities more accurately and comprehensively [6].
In the research paper [6,28–30], an ensemble-based model is used to detect and prevent
attacks by applying several machine learning classification algorithms such as SVM, J48,
and DT. Several feature selection methods are applied in proposed model to select the
features that are predicted to be the most relevant, such as swarm optimization. The KDD99
dataset has been used to select the nine features that were predicted to be the most relevant.
Furthermore, they proposed a model with an accuracy higher than 90%. Another study in
ref. [29] implemented different algorithms, LR, Gradient boosting, and DT, and applied
Gradient Boosting to the stacking classifier of ensemble learning. While the most relevant
features must be selected among the CICIDS2018 dataset, Chi-square analysis was per-
formed to zero in on these 23 most important features. As a result, the suggested model
outperformed seven other classifiers, with a detection rate of 98.8% and a F-measure score
of 97.1% [28,31].
Another research paper [32,33] compared seven different algorithms. The BoT-IoT
dataset was used with machine learning algorithms for binary and multiclass prediction.
While the proposed model produced and presented the RF as the best algorithm in binary
prediction, the KNN showed that it gave the highest accuracy in multiclass prediction.
The research in ref. [34] highlighted that the ensemble machine learning, neural networks,
and kernel methods had been applied to detect anomalies and malicious activities in the IoT
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 4 of 20

architecture. The ensemble machine learning methods also outperform them in accuracy
and detection rates.
While IoT is dealing with vast amounts of data, it is required to employ AI techniques
to protect and secure the IoT environment and maintain the speed of exchanging and
transforming the data [35]. Moreover, several public and private sectors use the internet
to exchange data. When the data is transferred unencrypted via the internet, it will cause
privacy issues and lead to data being hacked. While encryption is an essential aspect of
transmitting data over the network. Thus, improving the Caesar cipher method creatively
by applying an arithmetic model to switch to ciphertext has been accomplished [36,37].
Another research paper [38] highlighted that the authentication aspect is one of the
most essential and significant factors in the security aspect. While the data has to be
accessed by an authentic key to grant access, enhancing the authentication aspect of the
image by promoting the security of the invisible watermarking data .Furthermore, research
in ref. [39] has stated that data confidentiality is a critical issue in the cloud computing
domain. While it depends entirely on the internet, it has several security issues. The most
important issue out of them is the access control issue, which leads to data exploitation,
and the time to access the data will be high.
The IoT has created a connected network of devices that involves heterogeneous
objects from various aspects. While in the IoT, the network has no unified protocols or
standards. Therefore, it is challenging to allow full security measures for those devices.
While traditional security protocols provide optimal protection for the IoT architecture
against threats on the Internet. Thus, constructing an efficient IDS relying on Deep Learning
(DL) techniques and technologies is promising. Research papers [40,41] highlighted that
applying novel DL techniques and frameworks, besides enhancing the existing DL models,
presents remarkable results and strengthens the IDS performance. While it has an accurate
and high prediction rate, it can assist in the maintenance aspect of the IoT network.
An IDS is an acronym for an intrusion detection system, which is focused on behavior
detection to handle abnormal traffic. While IDS deals with the network’s behavior in terms
of attacks, it is established to learn from this behavior pattern using several techniques.
Thus, the system will recognize any violated network traffic that can lead to an attack from
this pattern [42,43].
There are two different layers of the Botnet attack classification, which are network-
based or hot-based [34,44,45]. While the authors emphasized that the hot-based type is
considered less realistic, the authors relied on the network layer to propose a comprehensive
IoT attack detection and classification model. The suggested model used six supervised
Machine Learning methods to develop an IDS: the ensemble learning technique was in
three of them, the neural network used two, and the kernel used one. While they have relied
on two standard attack detection datasets to observe their proposed model, NSL-KDD and
distilled-Kitsune-2018, the proposed model produced results that were considered the best
by 1–20% from any other prior work.
The recent anomaly detection studies [46–50] highlighted that the ensemble learning
model is applied to enhance the performance of the current anomaly detection techniques.
While the ensemble model combines and uses multiple algorithms for efficient predictive
performance, it outperforms and is better than the single learning algorithm. Furthermore,
the research in [50] presented an intrusion detection model to detect attacks and anomalies
by applying single and ensemble-based learning implemented on the UNSW-NB15 dataset.
The model achieved 99% accuracy. Although few studies address the imbalanced data
issue in IoT anomaly detection [51], the research in [49] presented an ensemble detection
model to detect outliers to address the imbalanced data issue by extracting the in-depth
features through a stacked autoencoder (SAE) and inserting them into a probabilistic neural
network of the ensemble for single and multiple outlier detection. Thus, reliance on the
SAE enhances performance and stability. Table 1 highlights and summarizes the recent
research on machine learning and ensemble techniques in terms of their approach and the
types of datasets that have been relied on.
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 5 of 20

Table 1. State-of-the-Art Learning Based approach.

Potential Classification
Paper Dataset Attacks
Approach Type
Botent IoT
Learning model malware,
[8] BoT-IoT Binary
(RF, and CNN) and IoT network
attacks traffic.
OS scan, ARP,
Distilled- Ensemble-based SSDP, SSL,
[52] Binary
Kitsune-2018 learning and Maria
attacks.
Naïve Base, DoS, Sybil and
KDD cup’99 and KNN, RF, Spoofing, Man-
[53] Binary
NSL-KDD and DT in-the-middle,
algorithms. Hole ataacks.
DDoS Attacks,
Ensemble-based
[54] NSL-KDD Multi-Class and IoT network
learning
attacks traffic.
Ensemble-based Binary Data theft, DoS,
[55] Network Traffic
learning /Multi-Class and spam
DDoS Attacks,
Ensemble-based
[56] NSL-KDD Binary and IoT network
learning
attacks traffic.
IoT Network Ping
[57] K-means Binary
Traffic flood Attacks

The comparison process of recent machine learning models that relied on the ensem-
ble method is necessary to emphasize that the proposed techniques and approaches are
significantly improving performance and building an efficient IDS. Table 2 presents recent
ML ensemble methods to discuss and highlight the recent prior work that will be used in
the results section.

Table 2. Recent Machine based learning applying Ensemble methods proposed model.

Paper Year Dataset Objectives Accuracy Approach

Comparison process of ensemble learning RF, XGBoos,
[45] 2022 TON_IoT 91–96%
for multiclass IoT network attacks. LGBM, and CatBoost
Ensemble learning with binary
LR, LDA, RF,
[46] 2022 TON_IoT and multi-class classification 86%
NB, SVM,and LSTM
to enhance IDS system performance.
A Binary ensemble-based learning
[47] 2022 CICIDS2017 for improving the performance 88% NB(M), DT, and LR
of IDS system
A Binary ensemble-based learning
RF, ET, KNN,
for improving the performance
The proposed Model 2023 TON_IoT 98% and SVC,
of IDS system with a Comparison
Stacking method
process of ensemble learning

While Tables 2 and 3 present a comparison process between the proposed model
and the prior work. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed work’s novelty is that,
besides the analysis, the comparison to prior research, the preprocessing process with
its applied methods, the selected feature based on the applied feature selection methods,
the applied ML supervised models (RF, DT, LR, KNN), and the comparison between
the two ensemble approaches. The proposed approach produces significantly improved
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 6 of 20

performance. A recall is 98.60 percent, precision is 98.2 percent, the F1 score is 98.61 percent,
and accuracy is 98.63 percent. According to these measurements, advancements have been
made relative to earlier studies’ findings. The suggested model is an ensemble of several
different algorithms, including the Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN),
Logistic Regression (LR), and Decision Tree (DT). By combining several algorithms into
an “ensemble”, the model takes advantage of their strengths to achieve better results than
would be possible with a single algorithm alone. Table 3 presents the recent Ensemble-
learning based methods compared with the proposed approach.

Table 3. Recent Ensemble-learning based methods compared with the proposed approach.

Paper Year Dataset Recall Precision F1-Score Accuracy Approach

[53] 2022 TONIoT 91–97% 89–97% 89–97% 89–97% RF, XGBoos, LGBM, and CatBoost
[42] 2022 TONIoT 85% 87% 86% 86% LR, LDA, RF, NB, SVM, and LSTM
[28] 2022 CICIDS2017 Nil Nil Nil 88.92% NB(M), DT, and LR
RF, ET, KNN, and SVC
The proposed Model 2023 TONIoT 98.60% 98.20% 98.61% 98.63%
Stacking method

3. Background Studies
3.1. Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
An IDS is an acronym for an intrusion detection system, which is focused on behavior
detection to handle anomalies or attacks [42]. While IDS deals with the network’s behavior
in terms of attacks, it is established to learn from this behavior pattern using several
techniques. Thus, the system will recognize any violated network traffic from this pattern
that can lead to an attack on the infrastructure [42].

3.2. Supervised Models for IDS

While recent researchers have implemented various machine learning algorithms and
techniques to build an efficient IDS, there are some challenges. It is considered risky for the
research community to share network data because it may contain confidential or sensitive
information. Thus, the lack of training data will impact the ML implementation to build an
IDS system [42].

3.3. Ensemble Learning (EL)

The ensemble learning method is a way to view all the learning techniques and
algorithms simultaneously rather than deploy them individually [17]. Recently, EL has
been used for many predictions and forecasting applications, so it has been applied to
address several complex issues. EL relies on a set of combined classifiers or predictors
instead of single classifiers, so these sets of classifiers are trained and learned from the
conducted patterns to address the same issue and get better results [17].
In addition, the ensemble methods that could be applied to IDS approaches are
as follow:

3.3.1. Voting
Is every lower-level classifier for its prediction casts a vote, so the winner is the
prediction with the most votes [58] .

3.3.2. Stacking
A learning method is employed to combine the predictions in the voting process.
The resulting meta-level classifier is then utilized to construct the final prediction from the
predictions of the basis classifiers [58] .
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 7 of 20

3.3.3. Boosting
Starts with the original data set and uses a learning algorithm to construct a classifier.
A new classifier is built using the same learning process after increasing the weights of the
mistakenly classified tasks. The method is repeated several times. The classifiers are then
combined using weighted voting [58].
In the methodology section, we explained the ensemble learning approaches that
applied to our proposed model with the selected ensemble methods.

4. Methodology
4.1. Experimental Environment
The framework was implemented using Jupyter Notebook as the development en-
vironment. Within the Anaconda environment, Jupyter Notebook is a widely used tool.
Python was used to create the actual code for the scheme. Python was selected because of
how effectively it works, how well it scales, and how stable it is. In addition, Python offers
a variety of useful metrics for evaluation, which were utilized here effectively.
While the proposed model includes several methods and algorithms, the study’s
dataset, feature selection techniques, classification algorithms, ensemble approach, and the
selected ensemble methods are all detailed here.
We propose a binary classification of network traffic from the Internet of Things
devices as normal or abnormal. We implemented feature selection algorithms to enhance
the IDS performance in the IoT devices. Therefore, since our goal is to construct an effective
IDS that can detect attacks on Internet of Things devices within the IoT network dataset, we
examined a variety of machine learning algorithms to choose which models were the most
accurate and efficient learner. Using the scaling of the data and the selection of features,
we construct and evaluate four supervised models. RF, DT, LR, and KNN are the models
that are included in the proposed model. In addition, to improve the effectiveness of our
method for attack detection,we employ two ensemble methods to improve the efficiency
of the proposed model. The performance evaluation includes accuracy, precision, recall,
and F1-score metrics.
Furthermore, the main objective is to use a variety of supervised machine learning
models to combine and input them into the ensemble model, which offers a solution for
enhancing the IDS performance besides predicting malicious and normal IoT network
traffic, where 0 denotes normal, and 1 means abnormal, using the features type, date, ts,
time, label, longitude, altitude, and label. However, in the result section, we will illustrate
the final result for all ML classifiers.
Moreover, Figure 1 illustrates the first workflow of the supervised ML classifiers
applied to the IDS model. While it presents the preprocessing process and the methods
used to fulfill all required steps to complete the preprocessing requirement, the proposed
model used data cleaning, label encoding, and data normalization processes. In addition,
Figure 1 illustrates the feature selection methods applied to the proposed model: Mutual
information (MI), Pearson Coefficient Correlation (PCC), and K-Best feature. After we
selected the proposed model features based on the feature selection methods, we trained
the model to conduct the results. Finally, we will discuss the ML models, the preprocessing
process, and feature selection methods applied to the proposed model.
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 8 of 20

Figure 1. Illustration the workflow of the supervised ML classifiers that are applied to IDS.

4.1.1. Random forest (RF)

RF is described as a Random decision forest and a Machine learning algorithm that
can be applied to several methods, such as ensemble learning. The samples for the forest
decision [42] were generated by the RF, which is structured by constructing an unconnected
tree and then centralizing it. Although RF is applied to deal with high-dimensional data,
a significant difficulty with RF is that it has to cope with vast or huge data while being a
viable technique to enhance accuracy by applying and merging numerous decision trees
DTs [28]. Although it utilized memory and demanded additional time since it depends on
a computational process, it gave high-accuracy results because it deals with dimensional
data to improve performance.

4.1.2. Decision Tree (DT)

DT is a well-known Machine learning ML classification used to build an Intrusion
detection system. DT contains three essential factors: the decision node, the branch, and leaf
node. After the model was learned and trained with the dataset, the DT established and
formed the decision tree [42]. DT is characterized by the fact that it can handle numerical
and categorical features and recognize nonlinear relationships. Despite the simplicity of
implementation of the DT, DT requires and consumes more storage capacity, which is
considered an issue [59]. In our experiment, the DT presented high-accuracy results with
straightforward implementation while requiring more space in memory. The mathematical
representation of functionality is as follows:

G ( D ) = ΣCI=1 ( P(i ) ∗ (1 − P(i )) (1)

The Gini impurity is a measure of the level of impurity or uncertainty in a training dataset
(D) that is constructed from a set of class labels (C) and the fractions (p(i)) of samples that
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 9 of 20

are assigned to each class label (I) in the set. The Gini impurity is zero when there is just
one class label in the set.

4.1.3. K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)

KNN refers to K-Nearest Neighbors, where K is the number of the selected sample
points. KNN is a supervised machine learning algorithm applied to a set of data points or
a single one to make a classification or prediction. While KNN deals with regressions and
classification issues, the KNN works based on the hypothesis that a point can be located
near another with similarity [60]. Furthermore, the voting majority generates the class
point, which appears most frequently in specified data points. When KNN is defined
as a suitable method to handle multi-classification tasks, KNN has an issue: the values
of K will be different from one dataset to another [60]. While KNN has influenced our
model positively since it deals with complex decisions borderline, it consumes memory
and requires more time since it relies on computational processes.
Moreover, KNN uses the Euclidean distance to calculate the spread between the
nearest points to measure the KNN represented in the equation as [60]:
q
Euclideandistance = (( a1 − a2)2 + (b1 − b2)) (2)

Which, (a1−a2) is the first, and (b1−b2) is the second.

4.1.4. Logistic Regression (LR)

The LR algorithm can be used to classify a set of discrete variables. The logistic sigmoid
is the basis for logistic regression (LR). This technique predicts the probability value of a
test sample that can be plotted to discrete types of two or more by transforming absolute
values into values between 0 and 1 [42]. The corresponding transactions are classified as
negative when the model predicts a less than 50 result. When the outcome is anticipated
to be greater than 50, the corresponding transactions are classified as positive. is the
equivalent mathematical expression [42]. The mathematical representation of functionality
is as follows:
(1)
g(z) = (3)
(1 + e −2 )
An estimated probability between 0 and 1 is represented by the function g(z), where z
is the input value, e is the base of the logarithm of nature, and z is the result.

4.2. Ensemble Learning (EL)

Instead of applying learning techniques and algorithms one at a time, EL allows you to
view them simultaneously by combining a group of classifiers or predictors. These groups
of classifiers are trained and learned from prior patterns of behavior to address complex
issues [17,61]. The workflow of the proposed ensemble classifier approach is described in
Figure 2 for any application.
The supervised model used the preprocessed dataset, as shown in Figure 1 in Section 4.
While Figure 2 indicates that the stacking and voting ensemble classifiers were examined,
it represents the second workflow of the proposed model. We used ensemble classifier
prediction approaches to improve our system’s accuracy. We aimed to enhance classification
accuracy by merging many classifiers into a single ensemble platform. We will give each
classifier’s findings and explain and compare the two approaches in the results section.
Figure 2 illustrates the workflow of the proposed ensemble classifiers.
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 10 of 20

Figure 2. Illustration the workflow of the proposed ensemble classifiers.

Furthermore, We build and assess four supervised models using data scaling and the
feature selection. This group of models consists of Random Forests, Decision Trees, Logistic
Regression, and K-Nearest Neighbors to improve IDS detection capability. We employ two
ensemble methods to enhance the attack detection efficiency of our scheme. This system
uses ensemble classifiers based on classification algorithms. We chose stacking and voting
as ensemble techniques since their predictions are weighted depending on the relevance of
the individual classifiers. The weighted probabilities are then added together to get the
total probability.

4.3. TON-IoT Network Dataset

The TON IoT network traffic dataset is acquired from real-world IoT network device
(in-home) scenarios [18–25]. The TON-IoT dataset network was generated from UNDW
Canberra Cyber, the Australian Defense Force Academy (ADFA), housed in the School
of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) at the University of New South Wales
(UNSW) in Canberra [20]. The TON-IoT datasets, collected from multiple IoT devices
through IoT architecture, have been tested and authenticated in a cyber lab to be more
reliable to be applied and implemented through machine learning techniques.
In this study, however, we present a binary classification of normal and abnormal
IoT device network traffic. The proposed model presents a solution for improving IDS
performance by constructing an efficient ensemble framework of supervised machine
learning models.
Moreover, several datasets have been used for IDS domain development, such as BOT
IOT (2018), UNSWNB (2015), and KDD-CUP99, the most common datasets. Still, these
datasets have shown that a lack of various sensors and newly updated attacks may lead
to a need for more data. Consequently, TON-IoT was selected for several IDS approaches,
while it is publicly available and the most recent work to build an IDS. The TON means the
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 11 of 20

telemetry data, system log operating, and network traffic of the IoT network from which
the dataset was collected. Thus, the dataset has multiple dataset files containing sensor
telemetry data, so Table 4 presents details of the selected files in the proposed model.

Table 4. Details the selected files in the proposed model.

Number of Number of
Datasets Features’ Names Types of Attacks
Features Instances
Ts, date, time, fridge_temperature,
TON_IoT (IoT_Fridge). 7 59,944
temp_condition,type, and label.
ts, date, time, door_state, sph1e_signal,
temp_c1diti1, l1gitude, light_status,
TON_IoT (IoT_Garage_Door). 15 409,963 current_temperature, thermostat_status,
temperature, pressure, humidity, type,
Normal. Backdoor.
and lable
DDoS.
Ts, date, time, current_temperature,
TON_IoT (IoT_Thermostat). 7 52,774 Injection.
thermostat_status, type and label.
Password
Ts, date, time, latitude, longitude,
TON_IoT (IoT_GPS_Tracker). 7 58,960 Ransomware.
type and label.
Scanning.
Ts, date, time, motion_status, light_status,
TON_IoT (IoT_Motion_Light). 7 59,488 XSS.
type and label.
Ts, date, time, temperature, pressure,
TON_IoT (IoT_Weather). 8 59,260
humidity, type and label.
ts, date, time, fridge_temperature,
temp_condition, label, type,
door_state, sph1e_signal,
Combined_dataset 20 700,389 temp_c1diti1, l1gitude, light_status,
current_temperature, thermostat_status,
temperature, pressure, humidity,
latitude, longitude, moti1_status

In the proposed model, we have combined all the datasets mentioned above into
one dataset called the combined dataset to establish the experiment and presented model.
In contrast, the TON-IoT dataset contains telemetry data in all dataset files representing
various IoT devices and realistic IoT network traffic with different attack scenarios. In
addition, Table 5 Presents statistical details of the attack types in the combined dataset.

Table 5. Presents statically details of the attacks types [42].

Attack Types Attacks Normal

Data No.
Scanning DDOS Ransomware Backdoor Injection XSS Password Totals Totals
1 Nil 5000 2902 5000 5000 2042 5000 24,944 35,000
2 529 5000 2902 5000 5000 1156 5000 24,587 35,000
3 61 Nil 2264 5000 5000 449 5000 17,774 35,000
4 550 5000 2833 5000 5000 577 5000 23960 35,000
5 1775 5000 2264 5000 5000 449 5000 24,488 35,000
6 529 5000 2865 5000 5000 866 5000 24,260 35,000
7 3444 25,000 13,990 30,000 30,000 5539 30,000 185,494 190,710
1. TON-IoT (IoT-Fridge). 2. TON-IoT (IoT-Garage-Door). 3. TON-IoT (IoT-Thermostat). 4. TON-IoT (IoT-GPS-
Tracker). 5. TON-IoT (IoT-Motion-Light). 6. TON-IoT (IoT-Weather). 7. Combined data.

4.4. Data Preprocessing

4.4.1. Data Cleaning
Several individual dataset files exist within the TON-IoT dataset network; we merged
them into one single document called the combined dataset. Even though the new, larger
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 12 of 20

file resulted from the merge, we still had to clean up some unexpected information, so
random data as ‘-’ has been removed from several features. Therefore, the median value
process was utilized to recalculate values for each feature in place of the extracted and
missing values. The median was chosen as the measurement method instead of the mean
because it is more robust against outlier errors [32].

4.4.2. Label Encoding

In addition, many ML classifiers work exclusively with continuous values; hence,
features with categorical values must be transformed into continuous ones. Since the
combined dataset has several categorical features required to be transformed into numerical
values, we employed the Label Encoding approach. Label Encoding was chosen because it
does not increase the number of features or the computational complexity of the modeling
process. Both are important considerations given the time needed for classification [32,42].
The natural values of true, false, off, and low were consequently converted to zero or one.

4.4.3. Data Standardization and Normalization

Moreover, most classification algorithms function more effectively when features
are of comparable magnitude, since this helps to lessen the bias toward traits with high
multiplicity values in the prediction results [32]. Although the combined dataset has a
variety of attribute values, the fact that several features contain values in a wide range
(from zero to hundreds to thousands) would negatively impact the model’s performance
and produce erroneous results. Therefore, standardization and normalization for scaling
the features are two methods for dealing with this problem. As a result, we used min-max
scaling for several features in our investigation and provided a model. The following
equation represents the Min-Max scaling method [32]:

( a−a min)
anormlized = (4)
( a max −−a min)

The dataset maintains attribute ‘a’ values. ‘amax’ and ‘amin’ indicate attribute ‘a”s
greatest and lowest values. Data separation preceded feature scaling. To preserve the
prediction accuracy of trained models, the normalized data in the training set was kept
hidden from the test data [32].

4.4.4. Data Splitting

It is necessary to note that the data has been partitioned per the feature mapping.
The dataset was split into training and testing subsets using stratification and randomiza-
tion, with the same 70:30% split of class types as the original dataset. Predictive models
were developed using the training data, and the best intrusion detection model was selected
based on its performance in the testing set.

4.5. Features Selections

Additionally, experiments are run to evaluate various feature selection algorithms and
determine which ones are most effective for detecting anomalies. The training process can
be simplified through feature selection by eliminating irrelevant or redundant data points
from the collection [32]. Mutual information, Pearson Coefficient Correlation, and K-Best
are the most popular and common feature selection methods that are applied for various
IDS models:

4.5.1. Mutual Information (MI)

Is the one that has been modified the most frequently in practice. A reduction in
uncertainty for one variable is predicted by this formula when the other variable has a
known value. The value of mutual information indicates a stronger relationship between
the two variables if it is greater than zero [32]. A result of 0 from a calculation including
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 13 of 20

both variables suggests that they are unrelated. Thus, the mathematical representation of
the MI is as follows [32]:
IG ( X |Y ) = H ( X ) − H ( X |Y ) (5)
where H(x) is the the process of the independent variable x, given by

H ( X ) = −Σi P( xi )log2 ( P( xi )) (6)

as well as the formula for H(x|y):

H ( x |y) = −Σi P(yi )Σi P( xi |yi )log2 ( P( xi |yi )) (7)

4.5.2. Pearson Coefficient Correlation (PCC)

Represents a standard to evaluate the degree of a statistical association between two
independent variables [32]. Its value, which can range from −1 to 1, and its sign, which
can be negative or positive, indicate the type of significance between two attribute vectors.
This formula is used to determine PCC [32]:

Σ( x − x − )(y − y− )
r= p (8)
Σ ( x − x − )2 + Σ ( y − y − )2

The symbol r denotes Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC). The variable x represents
the conditional feature, and the value y represents the decision feature. In addition, we
refer to the sample means for the x and y characteristics as x and y, respectively.

4.5.3. K-Best Feature

Each feature’s value is computed, then the chi-squared function is applied to those
values, and finally, the top feature’s value is ranked according to the k we choose. The chi-
squared statistic [62] is used in feature selection to determine whether or not two features
are independent of a given class. This equation is written mathematically as [32]:

m ∗ ( PQ − RT )2
x2 ( f , c) = (9)
( P + x ) + ( P + Q) + ( P + R) + ( T + Q)

where f stands for a single feature, c for a class, M for the entire dataset’s total number of
occurrences, P is the frequency, f occurs in c, and Q is the frequency neither f nor c does.
The frequency with which class c occurs without feature f, denoted by R, and class f without
class c, represented by T, are inversely proportional.
Furthermore, feature selection uses chi-squared statistics. This statistic determines
if two class-related features are independent. The chi-squared test determines a feature’s
importance to the target class. This equation’s numerical address can determine the
feature’s importance. Thus, the highest-scoring features are modeled. Chi-squared feature
selection improves model efficiency in several ways: Removing unneeded or duplicate
features reduces dimensionality during feature selection. This reduces overfitting and
improves model performance. Selecting the most relevant attributes helps researchers
determine which data features best predict the target class. Readability may help uncover
data patterns and correlations. Removing unnecessary characteristics might help the
model focus on data values, improving generalization. This enhances the model’s pattern
recognition and prediction. Chi-squared-based feature selection helps us select the most
relevant characteristics, minimize dimensionality, improve interpretability, and increase
model generalization [63].
After we applied the above selection method to the combined dataset, we decided
to select the most repeated features given high scores by the selection algorithms, and we
called the selected models features (Final selection). Table 6 illustrates the features that
each method has selected.
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 14 of 20

Table 6. Illustrates the features that each method has selected and the final selection.

Feature Selection Technique Selected Features

Mutual information (MI) type, date, ts, time, and lable
date, l1gitude, light_status,
longitude, moti1_status,
Pearson Coefficient Correlation (PCC) sph1e_signal,
temp_condition,
and type, lable.
type, date, ts, time, logtiude,
K-Best feature
and iltitude.
type, date, ts, time, lable,
Final selection
logtiude, iltitude nad lable

5. Results
This section compares the learning models and the experimental results with tradi-
tional performance metrics like F1-score, recall, accuracy, and precision. The models created
after the ML bais models algorithms have been trained and evaluated based on standard
key evaluation parameters [64]:
1. True positive (TP): The method correctly identified and categorized malicious attempts
across many samples [58].
2. True Negative (TN): The algorithm accurately categorizes the proportion of normal
samples [58].
3. True positive (TP): The method correctly identified and categorized malicious attempts
across many samples [64].
4. True Negative (TN): The algorithm accurately categorizes the proportion of normal
samples [64].
The performance measures generated from the parameters above are described as follows:

5.1. Accuracy
The accuracy metric is necessary to determine how well the model is doing. On the
other hand, it is only usable with data that is evenly distributed [58,64]. It is computed
as the ratio of correctly predicted occurrences to the total test samples. The mathematical
representation of the equation is as follows [64]:

TP + TN
Accuracy = (10)
TP + TN + FP + FN

5.2. Precision
The percentage of accurate predictions that turned out to be accurate [58]. In other
words, the proportion of positively identified samples that were correctly classified (TP)
compared with the balance of positively identified samples that were mistakenly classified
(but were still positively identified) [64]. The mathematical representation of the equation
is as follows:
TP
Precision = (11)
FP + TP

5.3. Recall
The percentage of the positive sample count that has been correctly categorized and
identified [64]. The equation is as follows:

TP
Recall = (12)
FN + TP
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 15 of 20

5.4. F1-Score
The F1-score, with its usual range of 1.0 to 0.0, can be used to determine the harmonic
mean of precision and recall [64]. The F-1 score improves as the degree of accuracy and
precision increases. The equation is as follows [58]:

Precision ∗ Recall
F1 − score = 2 ∗ (13)
Precision + Recall
While we got our data from the TON-IoT dataset, as stated, we started the prepatory
process to build the supervised machine learning models. In addition, four effective
classifiers were employed to detect normal and abnormal IoT network traffic. LR, k-NN,
RF, and DT were used. The primary goal is to combine them into the ensemble to enhance
the IDS performance.
Moreover, Table 7 illustrates the evaluation results of the supervised models. LR has
achieved the highest accuracy, 98.42%; the KNN has 98.28% accuracy; the RF has 98.15%
accuracy; and the DT has 97.44% accuracy, which is considered the lower one, respectively.

Table 7. Evaluation results of the Supervised models.

Algorithm Accuracy Recall Precision F1-Score

LR 98.42% 98.42% 98.47% 98.42%
KNN 98.28% 98.28% 98.29% 98.30%
DT 97.44% 97.44% 97.44% 97.44%
RF 98.15% 98.15% 98.16% 98.15%

Our research aims to develop a binary classification based on an ensemble-based

learning model to boost the IDS’s efficiency further. The ensemble-based learning approach
combined four supervised ML models (LR, KNN, DT, and RF). These models are accurate
and well-balanced in terms of data, while LR, KNN, and RF stand out as having the highest
accuracy. The advantages of the ensemble learning approach become apparent when
considering how different learning strategies can mutually benefit one another. Stacking
and voting are two methods of ensemble classifier models. Table 8 highlights the ensemble
classifiers and the performance metrics for the two ensemble classifier models.

Table 8. Evaluation results of the ensemble classifiers.

Algorithm Accuracy Recall Precision F1-Score

Stacking 98.64% 98.60% 98.66% 98.61%
Voting 96.63% 96.59% 96.51% 96.60%

We chose stacking and voting as ensemble techniques since their predictions are
weighted depending on the relevance of the individual classifiers. The weighted probabil-
ities are then added together to get the total probability. Furthermore, stacking involves
two steps. There are four model-based learners (LR, KNN, DT, and RF) in the first step; the
next stage is to include one model in a meta-learner (Logistic Regression). Stacking uses
these two stages to learn and identify the best approach to merging base and meta-learner
models. Stacking outperformed Voting in all measures metrics.
However, Figure 3 illustrates the comparison process between the ensemble methods
and the supervised ML models, which emphasizes that the proposed stacking model
outperforms the Voting ensemble classifier, although the supervised ML models have
achieved high accuracy. Stacking has the highest F1 scores (98.64%), Accuracy (98.64%),
Recall (98.60%), and precision (98.20%).
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 16 of 20

Figure 3. Compares the proposed and supervised ML models regarding evaluation metrics.

Table 3 presents recent machine-based learning models that used ensemble approaches
in refs. [17,28,42] and were compared with our proposed scheme. Both of them used the
same dataset. The proposed model performed better when measured against evaluation
metrics for the same dataset. While the proposed IDS can detect attacks on IoT network traf-
fic, the detection performance is improved based on the conducted results. The suggested
ensemble models for binary classification showed performance and evaluation metrics
improvements compared with the prior models.

5.5. Discussion
Table 3 compared the performance metrics of different approaches on the TON-IoT
and CICIDS2017 datasets. Each approach utilizes different machine learning algorithms.
Moreover, the research [53] used the TON-IoT dataset, the Random Forest (RF), XG-
Boost (XGBoos), LightGBM (LGBM), and CatBoost algorithms were employed. The ap-
proach achieved recall, precision, F1-score, and accuracy in the range of 91% to 97%, 89%
to 97%, 89% to 97%, and 89% to 97%, respectively. In the study [42] on the same TON-IoT
dataset, the Logistic Regression (LR), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), RF, Naive Bayes
(NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) algorithms
were utilized. The reported metrics for this approach were 85% recall, 87% precision,
86% F1-score, and 86% accuracy. In addition, the study [28] employed the CICIDS2017
dataset and used the Naive Bayes (NB), Decision Tree (DT), and Logistic Regression (LR)
algorithms. Although specific values are provided for recall, precision, and F1-score,
the reported accuracy was 88.92%.
The proposed models on the TON-IoT dataset employed the Random Forest (RF),
K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Logistic Regression (LR), and Decision tree (DT) algorithms.
The stacking and voting methods used in our model to generate these results. The evalua-
tion metrics for our ensemble stacking model were 98.60% recall, 98.20% precision, 98.61%
F1-score, and 98.63% accuracy. Our models are compared with recently proposed models
that utilized the same dataset and similar approaches. Our models performed better at
detecting attacks and presented an enhancement in the IDS performance, as shown in
Tables 6–8. Precision is 98.2, recall is 98.60, the F1 score is 98.61, and accuracy is 98.63.
Moreover, stacking and voting were selected as ensemble methods because their
predictions are weighted according to the importance of the individual classifiers. After as-
signing weights, probabilities can be totaled to generate an overall prediction. The proposed
stacking model performs better than the proposed ensemble classifier and is highly ac-
curate, although supervised ML models are also highly accurate. F1 (98.64%), Accuracy
(98.60%), Recall (98.2%), and Precision (98.1%) are all best achieved by the stacking method.
There are two phases of the Stack. In the first phase, we employ four model-based learners
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 17 of 20

(Logistic Regression, K-Nearest Neighbor, Distance-based, and Radial Basis Function).

These two steps allow stacking to learn and determine the optimal method for combining
base and meta-learner models. Compared with Voting, the Stacking method performed
better on all measures and metrics.
These evaluation metrics have shown improvement over prior research. The proposed
model uses RF, KNN, LR, and DT algorithms. Combining multiple algorithms into an
“ensemble”, the model uses their strengths to generate better outcomes than a single algo-
rithm. The proposed model stacks many distinct models and integrates their predictions
with a meta-model. The model can detect patterns and make more accurate predictions by
combining basic model results.
Furthermore, we relied on the ensemble since the ensemble learning approach allows
all learning techniques and algorithms to be evaluated simultaneously rather than individ-
ually. There has been an increase in the usage of EL for prediction and forecasting in recent
years, and this has allowed it to be put to use in solving a number of challenging tasks. EL
relies on a set of combined classifiers or predictors instead of single classifiers, so these sets
of classifiers are trained and learned from the conducted patterns to address the same issue
and get better results.
While we proposed a binary classification of IoT device network traffic as normal
or abnormal, by combining the four supervised ML models, we employed two ensemble
methods to improve the efficiency of the proposed model. The proposed method primarily
focuses on the Internet of Things (IoT); however, it is noteworthy that the fundamental tech-
niques and approaches are transferable to other network environments. The principles of
supervised machine learning, ensemble classifiers, and enhancing detection efficacy are not
exclusive to the Internet of Things (IoT) and can be customized to various network contexts.
Hence, the proposed approach is tailored to optimize Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
efficacy in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, this approach’s fundamental principles
and methodologies can potentially be extrapolated and implemented in other network
contexts. While we evaluated the proposed model in the IoT network traffic dataset,
the proposed methodology may provide valuable perspectives and methods that have the
potential to enhance intrusion detection across diverse network environments, extending
beyond the boundaries of the Internet of Things.

6. Conclusions
This study proposes an IDS for IoT networks that employs machine learning to
identify malicious behavior in IoT network data. The primary objective of this approach
is to enhance the efficiency of intrusion and attack detection. This research compares and
contrasts four supervised machine learning algorithms—Random Forest, Decision Tree,
Logistic Regression, and K-Nearest Neighbor— to classify normal and abnormal Internet of
Things network data. Logistic Regression and K-Nearest Neighbor classifiers provided the
most optimal findings. Ensemble approaches, including voting and stacking, are used to
improve classification by combining all supervised models. By working together, various
ensemble learning methods can improve classification accuracy.
Ensemble learning has the advantage of combining various learning methods to
support and reinforce one another in a classification task. This means that the efficiency of
the machine learning models is greatly improved by the ensemble classifiers, which perform
better than the individual supervised classifiers. Performance measures highlight stacking
over voting, with improved accuracy, recall, and F1-Score. In particular, the stacking model
performs exceptionally well in terms of recall. The stacking method has an F1 score of
0.986 and scores of 0.9864 for accuracy, 0.9864 for precision, 0.9864 for recall, and 0.9864 for
both. Compared with the previously used models, these enhancements constitute a major
advance forward. Moreover, as shown in Table 8, stacking shows improvement in accuracy,
precision, and F1-score compared with the models referenced in [28,42,53]. Our objective
for the future is to develop an innovative multi-classification approach that can detect and
classify anomalies and intrusions in IoT network traffic.
Sensors 2023, 23, 5568 18 of 20

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Y.A. and M.I.; methodology, Y.A.; software, Y.A.; vali-
dation, Y.A. and M.I.; formal analysis, Y.A. and M.I.; investigation, Y.A. and M.I.; writing—original
draft preparation, Y.A.; writing—review and editing, M.I.; visualization, Y.A.; supervision, M.I. All
authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Data available upon request.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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