IoT-Chain and Monitoring-Chain Using Multilevel Blockchain for IoT Security

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Technology
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Centralized servers in Internet of Things (IoT) architectures present vulnerabilities like DDoS attacks and single-point failures.
• Existing blockchain solutions for IoT face challenges with high storage and computational demands.
• Edge computing and cloud-based nodes for IoT blockchain management do not fully resolve centralized vulnerabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a multi-level blockchain structure and a lightweight consensus algorithm to address the security and reliability issues in IoT data management.
• To enhance the stability and efficiency of blockchain-based IoT systems by reducing computational and storage overhead.

Main Methods:

• Development of a multi-level blockchain with an IoT chain layer for sensor data and a Hyperledger Fabric-based monitoring chain layer for metadata.
• Implementation of an export consensus method using Schnorr signatures and a random-based lightweight consensus algorithm for the IoT-Chain.
• Experimental evaluation of blockchain size, propagation time, consensus delay, and transactions per second (TPS) using IoT devices.

Main Results:

• The proposed multi-level blockchain effectively managed IoT data without exceeding a critical size.
• Average consensus delay time was reduced by 96% to 99% compared to existing consensus algorithms.
• Throughput tests demonstrated a transaction processing capacity ranging from 1024 to 1701 TPS.

Conclusions:

• The multi-level blockchain structure offers a robust and efficient solution for secure and reliable IoT data management.
• The lightweight consensus algorithm significantly improves performance metrics, making blockchain more feasible for resource-constrained IoT environments.