Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum for Emergency Response Vehicular Networks under DDOS Attacks: A Performance Analysis

Abstract

In emergency response vehicular networks (ERVNs), where each second might dictate a life-or-death outcome, the performance of underlying communication systems is critical. Blockchain technology is a promising backbone for authenticating emergency response vehicles (ERVs) at smart traffic signal intersections. However, the decentralized nature of blockchain networks makes them vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A DDoS attack can compromise safetycritical functions by overwhelming the network with fake authentication requests. Therefore, this article presents a comparative performance analysis of two well-known blockchain technologies, namely Ethereum (permissionless) and Hyperledger Fabric (HLF, permissioned), under DDoS-based network congestion. We clarify that this article does not propose any DDoS detection or mitigation mechanisms; rather, we evaluate the ability of the abovedescribed blockchains to maintain service for legitimate transactions under DDoS attacks. We design three DDoS attack scenarios that simulate realistic threats to ERVNs and benchmark throughput and latency using Hyperledger Caliper. Our results show that HLF, because of its architecture, achieves up to 2.7 times higher throughput and lower latency compared to Ethereum. This finding provides an important insight: A permissioned blockchain offers better performance under DDoS attacks, making it a more reliable communication system for safety-critical transportation systems.