Abstract
A lot of hard work and years of research are still needed for developing successful Blockchain (BC) applications. Although it is not yet standardized, BC technology was proven as to be an enhancement factor for security, decentralization, and reliability, leading to be successfully implemented in cryptocurrency industries. Fog computing (FC) is one of the recently emerged paradigms that needs to be improved to serve Internet of Things (IoT) environments of the future. As hundreds of projects, ideas, and systems were proposed, one can find a great R&D potential for integrating BC and FC technologies. Examples of organizations contributing to the R&D of these two technologies, and their integration, include Linux, IBM, Google, Microsoft, and others. To validate an integrated Fog-Blockchain protocol or method implementation, before the deployment phase, a suitable and accurate simulation environment is needed. Such validation should save a great deal of costs and efforts on researchers and companies adopting this integration. Current available simulation environments facilitate Fog simulation, or BC simulation, but not both. In this paper, we introduce a Fog-Blockchain simulator, namely FoBSim, with the main goal to ease the experimentation and validation of integrated Fog-Blockchain approaches. According to our proposed workflow of simulation, we implement different Consensus Algorithms (CA), different deployment options of the BC in the FC architecture, and different functionalities of the BC in the simulation. Furthermore, technical details and algorithms on the simulated integration are provided. We validate FoBSim by describing the technologies used within FoBSim, highlighting FoBSim’s novelty compared to the state-of-the-art, discussing the event validity in FoBSim, and providing a clear walk-through validation. Finally, we simulate case studies, then present and analyze the obtained results, where deploying the BC network in the fog layer shows enhanced efficiency in terms of total run time and total storage cost.
Highlights
In light of the general tendency towards skepticism around Blockchain (BC) systems being reliable, huge research and industrial projects are being encouraged to address issues and vulnerabilities of those systems
Searching the literature for tools implemented for simulating Fog Computing (FC)-BC integration scenarios, we found that no previous work has directly targeted our objective
In light of the lack of simulation tools similar to our proposal, we found it more suitable to present this section in two separate groups: namely FC simulation tools, and BC simulation tools
Summary
Different reference architectures were proposed for the FC paradigm, e.g. by Habibi et al [7], Dastjerdi et al [8], the OpenFog consortium [9], and Cisco [10] They all have the same general properties of middling between end-users and the clouds, providing cloud services at the edge of the network, managing mobility issues, and introducing reliable and secure communications. The research and industry communities have been working hand-in-hand to solve these major challenges, along with other technical issues Such efforts require reliable and flexible simulation environments that can mimic real-life scenarios with the lowest possible costs.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
