Abstract
Those working on Blockchain technologies have described several new innovative directions and novel services in the Internet of things (IoT), including decentralized trust, trusted and verifiable execution of smart contracts, and machine-to-machine communications and automation that reach beyond the mere exchange of data. However, applying blockchain principles in the IoT is a challenge due to the constraints of the end devices. Because of fierce cost pressure, the hardware resources in these devices are usually reduced to the minimum necessary for operation. To achieve the high coverage needed, low bitrate mobile or wireless technologies are frequently applied, so the communication is often constrained, too. These constraints make the implementation of blockchain nodes for IoT as standalone end-devices impractical or even impossible. We therefore investigated possible design approaches to decentralized applications based on the Ethereum blockchain for the IoT. We proposed and evaluated three application architectures differing in communication, computation, storage, and security requirements. In a pilot setup we measured and analyzed the data traffic needed to run the blockchain clients and their applications. We found out that with the appropriate designs and the remote server architecture we can strongly reduce the storage and communication requirements imposed on devices, with predictable security implications. Periodic device traffic is reduced to 2400 B/s (HTTP) and 170 B/s (Websocket) from about 18 kB/s in the standalone-device full client architecture. A notification about a captured blockchain event and the corresponding verification resulted in about 2000 B of data. A transaction sent from the application to the client resulted in an about 500 B (HTTP) and 300 B message (Websocket). The key store location, which affects the serialization of a transaction, only had a small influence on the transaction-related data. Raw transaction messages were 45 B larger than when passing the JSON transaction objects. These findings provide directions for fog/cloud IoT application designers to avoid unrealistic expectations imposed upon their IoT devices and blockchain technologies, and enable them to select the appropriate system design according to the intended use case and system constraints. However, for very low bit-rate communication networks, new communication protocols for device to blockchain-client need to be considered.
Highlights
The Internet o things (IoT) [1] is a well-established concept referring to numerous interconnected things along with corresponding cloud or fog/edge-based applications
Raw transaction messages were 45 B larger than when passing the JSON transaction objects. These findings provide directions for fog/cloud IoT application designers to avoid unrealistic expectations imposed upon their IoT devices and blockchain technologies, and enable them to select the appropriate system design according to the intended use case and system constraints
In our view, which is backed by the initial research, developments, and application examples, there is a vast IoT application opportunity for these technologies, especially in relation to smart grids and smart energies
Summary
The Internet o things (IoT) [1] is a well-established concept referring to numerous interconnected things along with corresponding cloud or fog/edge-based applications. Elaborate and compare in terms of computation and communication constraints, as well as in terms of security, three architectural approaches for the design of IoT end-device applications based on the Ethereum BC. Our research provides directions for IoT application designers to enable them to select the appropriate system design and avoiding the placement of unrealistic expectations on IoT devices and BC technologies Their architectural approach can be shaped according to the intended use and the specifics of the planned IoT system. These principles are elaborated into three architectural approaches for BC enabled IoT devices—Section 4—which differ in communication and computation constraints, as well as in in their security implications.
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