Secure and efficient blockchain-based consensus scheme for MWSNs with clustered architecture

Abstract

Blockchain has proven in sensor networks as a distributed solution for transparent and secure storage, which allows its application in mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs). The consensus mechanism, an essential aspect of blockchain technology, must concern the high mobility, resource-constrained nature, and weak physical defenses of sensor nodes in MWSNs. To secure MWSN data storage in clustered communication, we design a proof-of-information (PoI) variant for fair miner campaigning via the amount of valid data generated from environmental information, including a dynamic adjustment of the data volume threshold to detect malicious nodes and prevent them from misreporting information. Additionally, we introduce a filtering mechanism through the dynamic integrated trust (DIt) of nodes, which integrates the trust evaluation of peer nodes across the network combining objective performance to prevent malicious nodes from infiltrating the final consensus group. The multi-level filtering technique improves the campaign fairness while isolating malicious nodes, ensuring complexity-sensitive PBFT algorithm efficiency in large-scale networks. Simulation results show that the scheme isolates 90% of the malicious nodes and screens 20% of members to produce a smaller final consensus group. Further analysis of impacts on the performance considering network topology and mobility patterns and comparisons of the relevant solutions are presented.