FIDSUS: Federated Intrusion Detection for Securing UAV Swarms in Smart Aerial Computing

Deng, Jiangtao ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9688-2631, Wang, Wei ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1717-5785, Wang, Lina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7601-2917, Bashir, Ali Kashif ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2601-9327, Gadekallu, Thippa Reddy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0097-801X, Feng, Hailin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2734-480X, Lv, Meilei and Fang, Kai ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0419-1468 (2025) FIDSUS: Federated Intrusion Detection for Securing UAV Swarms in Smart Aerial Computing. IEEE Internet of Things Journal. ISSN 2372-2541

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Abstract

The dynamic environment of UAV swarms in forest management is characterized by communication instability, heterogeneous nodes, and frequent topology changes due to challenging terrain. These systems are vulnerable to network attacks, requiring advanced intrusion detection technologies. Traditional methods struggle with rapid changes due to data privacy concerns and centralized computational limits, while existing Federated Learning (FL) algorithms lack robustness against client heterogeneity and dynamic data distribution, especially in complex forest environments. To address these challenges, we propose Federated Intrusion Detection for Securing UAV Swarms (FIDSUS). FIDSUS improves intrusion detection systems by leveraging collaborative sensing among UAVs, enabling better monitoring and response to security threats in forestry. By quantifying the similarity between UAVs’ local feature extractors through an affinity matrix, FIDSUS guides the aggregation of feature extractors, improving detection capabilities. It also uses AI-driven aerial and distributed computing to enhance data processing efficiency and decision-making speed. The framework addresses data heterogeneity by cross-round feature fusion, improving detection in dynamic environments. Experimental results on the NSL-KDD and UNSW-NB15 datasets show that FIDSUS outperforms existing FL methods with a 4% to 34% accuracy improvement. FIDSUS shows robustness and accuracy in dynamic environments, providing an effective solution for securing UAV swarms in forestry.