Empowerment of Internet of Things Through the Integration of Blockchain Technology

Abstract

AbstractDue to the convergence of advanced technologies, the emergence of electronic things tends to increase tremendously. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the technology where enormous things such as sensors, softwares etc. are embedded together for enabling the connection as well as communication of data. With the evolution of Industrial IoT, the need for monitoring the things that are used for automation becomes one of the thrust among the industries. There is a necessity that the monitoring can be empowered through the integration of blockchain technology. Not limited to monitoring, it also enriches the scalability, interoperability, durability, device reliability, privacy, security, silo mentality, standardization of the devices that are used for the internet of things. The blockchain technology is the distributed ledger with the list of growing records or blocks which are linked using the cryptography. The one of the main advantage of blockchain technology is that all the transactions are captured with its respective timestamps and the data that are recorded in the blocks cannot be altered retroactively. This enforces timely updation of information which cannot be altered. The Industrial IoT plays a major roles in the IoT platform as there exists smart connected operations that covers plenty of assets which obviously needs capability such as high level connectivity, analytics on big data and the development of applications. To resolve these challenges of IIoT, several requirement has to be considered such as asset visibility, Bigdata handling, technology integration and security. Also it is felt that most of the existing facilities of the industries such as ad hoc networks, smart grids etc. could not connect to the IoT system as it is not with built in intelligence. These needs an interface for invoking the communication. Since the blockchain technology has the decentralized nature, the information of the communication that happens between the two devices such as state of the devices, interactions and data digest can be acquired all in a point. This might reduce the risk with the business processes that the industry faces. Also, in the field of logistics which is one of the most important field, the information about the goods will be kept out of the illegal persons. Hence, it is considered that the blockchain technology will hold a safer environment for the individual as well as the enterprises. Thus the integration of blockchain with the Internet of Things will regulate the process of IoT through decentralized control which is kept highly safe than other technology implications. This chapter discuss about the different components of block chain enabled IoT system and the application of implementing the blockchain in IoT.KeywordsBlockchainInternet of thingsIndustrial internet of thingsBlockchain and IoT