BOppCL: Blockchain-Enabled Opportunistic Federated Learning Applied in Intelligent Transportation Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel blockchain-enabled approach to opportunistic federated learning (OppCL) for intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Our approach integrates blockchain with OppCL to streamline the learning of autonomous vehicle models while addressing data privacy and trust challenges. We deploy resilient countermeasures, incentivized mechanisms, and a secure gradient distribution to combat single-point failure verification attacks. Additionally, we integrate the Byzantine fault-tolerant algorithm (BFT) into the node verification component of the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) to minimize verification delays. We validate our approach through experiments on the MNIST, SVHN, and CIFAR-10 datasets, showing convergence rates and prediction accuracy comparable to traditional OppCL approaches.