Access Control for Distributed Ledgers in the Internet of Things: A\n Networking Approach

Abstract

In the Internet of Things (IoT) domain, devices need a platform to transact\nseamlessly without a trusted intermediary. Although Distributed Ledger\nTechnologies (DLTs) could provide such a platform, blockchains, such as\nBitcoin, were not designed with IoT networks in mind, hence are often\nunsuitable for such applications: they offer poor transaction throughput and\nconfirmation times, put stress on constrained computing and storage resources,\nand require high transaction fees. In this work, we consider a class of\nIoT-friendly DLTs based on directed acyclic graphs, rather than a blockchain,\nand with a reputation system in the place of Proof of Work (PoW). However,\nwithout PoW, implementation of these DLTs requires an access control algorithm\nto manage the rate at which nodes can add new transactions to the ledger. We\nmodel the access control problem and present an algorithm that is fair,\nefficient and secure. Our algorithm represents a new design paradigm for DLTs\nin which concepts from networking are applied to the DLT setting for the first\ntime. For example, our algorithm uses distributed rate setting which is similar\nin nature to transmission control used in the Internet. However, our solution\nfeatures novel adaptations to cope with the adversarial environment of DLTs in\nwhich no individual agent can be trusted. Our algorithm guarantees utilisation\nof resources, consistency, fairness, and resilience against attackers. All of\nthis is achieved efficiently and with regard for the limitations of IoT\ndevices. We perform extensive simulations to validate these claims.\n