LDAF: Low-Bandwidth Distributed Applications Framework in a Use Case of Blockchain-Enabled IoT Devices

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Networking
• Distributed Systems

Background:

• Internet of Things (IoT) devices often face communication constraints due to limited resources.
• Existing cloud backend servers and communication protocols may not be suitable for these resource-limited devices.
• Fog computing architectures offer potential for optimizing IoT communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Low-Bandwidth Distributed Applications Framework (LDAF) as a solution for communication-constrained IoT devices.
• To demonstrate the adaptability and effectiveness of LDAF in various IoT application scenarios.
• To reduce data traffic and enable participation of IoT devices in complex networks like blockchain.

Main Methods:

• Developed LDAF as a modular, application-aware gateway.
• Investigated LDAF server placement within fog computing architectures.
• Implemented and tested LDAF in three use cases: DNS queries, blockchain interactions, and binary file patching.
• Utilized binary content encoding and application protocol optimization for traffic reduction.

Main Results:

• Successfully enabled blockchain decentralized applications (DApps) for previously incapable IoT devices.
• Reduced periodic traffic from 16 kB/s to ~1.1 kB/s (7% of initial) using binary encoding.
• Further reduced traffic to ~1% of initial levels through gateway optimization and message filtering.
• Demonstrated significant communication traffic reduction for binary file patching.

Conclusions:

• LDAF effectively addresses communication constraints in IoT devices.
• The framework enables participation in complex networks and reduces data overhead without compromising functionality or security.
• LDAF offers a viable solution for resource-limited IoT applications in fog computing environments.