<p>Ensuring reliable and secure authentication techniques is essential in the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) environment to protect sensitive data and maintain network integrity. This paper focuses on edge computing environments and proposes Edge-Optimized Hybrid Anneal-Bound Authentication, a novel approach to IoT network security that incorporates the positive aspects of Branch and Bound and Simulated Annealing optimization approaches. This approach reduces latency and enhances resource efficiency by deploying edge devices, which have been strategically placed closer to IoT devices. This makes the authentication process faster and energy efficient. The suggested method optimizes energy usage while maintaining security measures between devices and edge nodes by integrating this algorithm into the edge computing architecture. We conducted simulations in a controlled setting to test the proposed method, considering scenarios and workloads. The results show an enhancement in energy efficiency while maintaining security standards. The novel Hybrid Anneal-Bound Authentication approach significantly improves the security and performance of IoT systems; it shows a detection rate of 98.9% for identifying attacks, outperforming the GA, PSO, WOA, and Quantum Inspired methods, with their average detection rates of 95.4%, 96.3%, 94.7%, and 98.5%. This research motivates the next generation of connected agricultural technology; it makes way for more secure, scalable, and efficient IoT networks.</p>