Cross-Domain Generalization Failure in Lightweight Intrusion Detection Models for IIoT Networks

Hugging Face Daily Papers Papers

Summary

This paper investigates the cross-domain generalization failure of lightweight ML models for IIoT intrusion detection, finding they rely on coarse port features and that adversarial robustness does not correlate with cross-network performance.

Lightweight machine learning models are increasingly proposed for intrusion detection in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks due to their suitability for resource-constrained edge deployment. Most reported results evaluate these models only within their training network, leaving behavior on unseen networks unverified. This study trains four lightweight architectures on one IIoT dataset and evaluates them, without retraining, on two structurally distinct IIoT datasets using a feature representation restricted to attributes available across all three sources. Explainability analysis across two top-performing models shows both rely overwhelmingly on coarse port-category features; the most influential category occurs in source-domain attack traffic at 96 to 435 times the rate in the two target domains, indicating that coarsening port resolution relocates rather than removes a documented shortcut. Evaluation under naturally imbalanced class distributions reveals a further effect: the evaluation protocol used can reverse which target network appears to pose the greater generalization challenge. Adversarial robustness and recovery through limited target-domain exposure are also assessed; robustness to adversarial perturbation is unrelated to cross-network generalization, and recovery through adaptation varies considerably by architecture. These findings suggest deployment readiness should be assessed using cross-network evaluation under realistic class distributions, rather than within-domain accuracy alone.
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Paper page - Cross-Domain Generalization Failure in Lightweight Intrusion Detection Models for IIoT Networks

Source: https://huggingface.co/papers/2607.00553

Abstract

Lightweight machine learning models for IIoT intrusion detection show limited generalization across networks due to reliance on coarse port-category features and imbalanced class distributions, with adversarial robustness not correlating with cross-network performance.

Lightweight machine learning models are increasingly proposed forintrusion detectioninIndustrial Internet of Things(IIoT) networks due to their suitability for resource-constrainededge deployment. Most reported results evaluate these models only within their training network, leaving behavior on unseen networks unverified. This study trains four lightweight architectures on one IIoT dataset and evaluates them, without retraining, on two structurally distinct IIoT datasets using afeature representationrestricted to attributes available across all three sources.Explainability analysisacross two top-performing models shows both rely overwhelmingly on coarse port-category features; the most influential category occurs in source-domain attack traffic at 96 to 435 times the rate in the two target domains, indicating that coarsening port resolution relocates rather than removes a documented shortcut. Evaluation under naturally imbalanced class distributions reveals a further effect: the evaluation protocol used can reverse which target network appears to pose the greater generalization challenge.Adversarial robustnessand recovery through limited target-domain exposure are also assessed; robustness to adversarial perturbation is unrelated to cross-network generalization, and recovery through adaptation varies considerably by architecture. These findings suggest deployment readiness should be assessed usingcross-network evaluationunder realistic class distributions, rather than within-domain accuracy alone.

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