IoT Registration and Authentication in Smart City Applications with Blockchain

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Cybersecurity
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• The widespread adoption of 5G networks will significantly increase the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, particularly in Smart City (SC) applications.
• Ensuring the reliability and security of data collected by IoT devices, especially in Edge Computing environments, presents a major challenge.
• Existing IoT devices in SCs may have long lifespans, increasing vulnerability to security flaws due to outdated firmware.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the scalability and security challenges of IoT data in Smart City applications.
• To propose and evaluate a novel solution using Blockchain and Smart Contracts for securing IoT data.
• To develop and test API Gateways for authenticating and authorizing messages from IoT devices.

Main Methods:

• Development of API Gateways for IoT devices and network gateways to sign, identify, and authorize messages.
• Utilizing Blockchain for registering device keys and characteristics.
• Implementation of Smart Contracts for message verification and attribute authentication.
• Creation of a testbed comprising Blockchain Ethereum and real IoT devices for analysis.

Main Results:

• The proposed API Gateways successfully sign, identify, and validate messages from IoT devices.
• Analysis of the testbed provides insights into the transfer time, memory, and CPU impacts of the implemented solution.
• The system enhances the security and reliability of data collected from IoT devices in urban environments.

Conclusions:

• Integrating Blockchain and API Gateways offers a robust solution for securing IoT data in Smart Cities.
• The approach enhances data integrity and provides a defense against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
• This method can improve the trustworthiness of data extracted from diverse and potentially untrusted urban IoT devices.