<p>Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) are intelligent networks that integrate sensors, actuators and computational algorithms to connect both the digital and physical world. Although it incorporates the devices seamlessly, ensuring safe and reliable communication remains a significant challenge. There is continuous data exchange between the digital and physical devices which paves the way for serious issues like security, interoperability and reliability when used in critical applications like autonomous vehicles, Smart grids and military applications. So, there is a need for a simple and secure authentication mechanism to protect the devices and data from external attacks. The traditional cryptographic measures that rely on key based mechanisms are effective; however, they can’t handle the challenges posed by CPS. To overcome the limitation, Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) a hardware-based authentication has, emerged as a promising solution. A Unique identifier is generated during the manufacturing process of the integrated circuit, which is impossible to replicate, making PUF an ideal alternative for cryptographic key authentication in resource-constrained CPS. This article presents a novel PUF based lightweight verification protocol (PLVP) for optimised sensor-based CPS. Simulation results have demonstrated enhanced performance in terms of authentication time and memory usage, ensuring the suitability of PLVP as an effective, low-cost, and secure solution for low-power CPS communication.</p>