Wi-Fi-Dependent Consensus Mechanism for Constrained Devices Using Blockchain Technology

Chinazaekpere E Ngubo,Mischa Dohler

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3014287

Abstract

Consensus mechanisms are at the core of any Distributed Ledger Technology. They define how transactions are validated and verified, how the network resolves conflicts and protects against malicious intent, and how multiple devices on a distributed network with no central authority arrive at the same global view of the ledger. Experience with the consensus mechanisms employed in popular blockchain platforms have warranted years of research into more scalable and energy-efficient consensus mechanisms for a green society using constrained devices. Most of the “high-security” consensus mechanisms require the use of computational resources which are simply not available to devices with a constrained nature. Hence, the presence and activity of these devices do not contribute to the security of the ledger, irrespective of how numerous they are on the network. In this paper, we propose a novel consensus scheme, fully dependent on WiFi technology, suitable for constrained devices. Whilst in traditional Blockchain consensus mechanisms, constrained devices do not add to the security of the ledger, the security of our consensus mechanism increases with the number of connected devices.

Highlights

Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) which relies on cryptographic proofs to secure the ledger while presenting a consistent, global view of the ledger
EVALUATION we evaluate the efficiency of the consensus mechanism and compare it to the Proof of Work (PoW)
The core aim of this research is to produce a consensus mechanism where computing power plays no significant role, and this is to be achieved by taking into consideration certain variables that can be obtained from the WLAN environment and be used in conjunction with other values for the proving of certain actions

Summary

Introduction

Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) which relies on cryptographic proofs to secure the ledger while presenting a consistent, global view of the ledger. As an append-only ledger, transactions in the blockchain network append to the ledger in a deterministic manner, i.e. every node on the network executes the same transactions in the same way and arrives at the same results, ensuring the global view. In early 2016, Christidis and Devetsikiotis [1] detailed the applications of the Blockchain technology to the Internet-ofThings (IoT) sector, which involved among other things the transfer of digital tokenized assets and the usefulness of smart contracts in IoT communication and services. Authentication of IoT devices and the integrity of the data gathered continue to be a major concern as it raises questions about the privacy of the data and the security of the distributed large scale IoT networks [2].

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