Internet of Things
(IoT) has been making waves and fascinating the technology circles for some
time. Creating a secure ecosystem of the IoT architecture has been an issue of
the technology architects. Converging the blockchain technology with IoT can
solve these issues is another which is being brainstormed.
We shall start our
discussion by first understanding the basic building blocks of IoT
infrastructure and its limitations. Then we shall discuss the blockchain technology
in brief. We shall then study the feasibility of convergence of IoT and the
blockchain technology.
IoT Basics:
Any IoT architecture
can be represented by four basic building blocks:
1.
Things: These are the
uniquely defined nodes or primary sensors to communicate without human
interaction using various connectivity methods.
2.
Gateways: These are
the intermediary channels between “Things” and the cloud to provide
connectivity, security and manageability.
3.
Network
Infrastructure: This comprises of the routers, aggregators, gateways, repeaters
and other devices that control and secure the data flow.
4.
Cloud Infrastructure:
The cloud infrastructure is the pool of virtualized servers and storage
devices, networked together with computing and analytical capabilities.
Like any new
deployment, there are certain challenges in IoT deployments as well. One of the
major issues has been to channelize the data securely to the right place, at
the right time in the requisite format. These may be aggravated by the design
and implementation.
One of the biggest issues
has been in the security and platform configurations of the virtualized IoT
platforms supporting multi-tenancy. Other, related to this is privacy concerns.
Another issue of the IoT ecosystem is its
centralized brokered communication model based on the client-server paradigm.
IoT devices are identified, authenticated and connected through cloud servers. Connections
between devices have to go through the internet, even if they are a few feet
apart.
Existing IoT infrastructure solutions and their
associated maintenance cost with centralized clouds are quite expensive. These
costs will increase drastically with the increasing number of IoT nodes.
Lately, the industry has visualized for decentralizing
the IoT networks to solve the above issues.
This is by adopting a standardized
peer-to-peer communication model to process the billions of transactions
between devices. This should reduce the associated costs of installation and
maintenance. Also, the cost associated with maintaining large data centres will
reduce. With peer to peer networking, chances of collapse due to the failure of
a single node will also be diminished.
The peer to peer networking also has its
issues but the blockchain technology already has a well-matured ecosystem on
peer to peer networking system. The pre-requisite for adopting peer-to-peer in
IoT are: peer-to-peer messaging
distributed file sharing and autonomous device coordination. All these
pre-requisite aspects are matured features of the blockchain technology.
The Blockchain Technology
Blockchain has lots of features and
applications which can be brought in use directly when using it for IoT
applications.
The blockchain technology offers a system to
record transactions in digital form in a secure and transparent, immutable and
open way. So, in simple words, blockchain is a chain of blocks where each block
contains some information. The information is a timestamped digital document
which is not possible to backdate or temper. However, blockchain cannot work
without the internet.
The blockchain is referred to as
meta-technology. It can affect other technologies. Any blockchain application
consists of a database, software application and connected computers called
nodes, to name a few.
There are three types of blockchain: 1. Public
Blockchain, 2. Private Blockchain and 3. Federated Blockchain.
In the context of the IoT, depending on the
applications, any one of the blockchains can be used. Generally, public
blockchain is recommended for IoT applications. The public blockchain is also
protected using the method of public and private keys, and digital signatures.
The blockchain is a decentralized solution. No
single authority can approve the transaction. Specific rules are pre-decided,
it works on the basis of consensus to accept any transaction.
The blockchain is a secure technology. It is
also called an immutable technology. If any of the records in a block of data
is tampered or changed, the whole block is changed.
The
Convergence of Blockchain and IoT
The blockchain
technology can be used to address the privacy and reliability concerns of the
Internet of Things. It can also be used to track the billions of connected
devices, enabling the processing of transactions and coordination between the
devices. Ultimately, this will interpret into exhaustive savings for the IoT
industry.
The decentralized
approach of the blockchain can be applied to eliminate any single point of
failure, thus creating a resilient ecosystem for the IoT nodes.
The blockchain ledger
is tamper-proof as it is located on multiple blockchain nodes. The
decentralized, autonomous, and trustless capabilities of the blockchain make it
an ideal component to be an element of IoT solutions.
The blockchain can keep an immutable record of
the history of smart devices in the IoT network. This enables the autonomous
functioning of smart devices without the need for centralized authority.
The blockchain opens the door to a series of
IoT scenarios that were remarkably difficult, or even impossible to implement
without it.
By leveraging the blockchain, IoT solutions
can enable secure, trustless messaging between devices in an IoT network. The
blockchain will treat message exchanges between devices similar to financial
transactions in a bitcoin network. Message exchanges can be enabled using the smart
contracts function of the blockchain applications.
There are lots of exciting capabilities of the
blockchain which can be integrated with the IoT to make it more feasible and
cost-effective.
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