BLOCKCHAIN ENABLED IOT SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE IN EDGE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

The Internet of Things paradigm enables various applications in different fields through the exponential increase of devices and sensors. Architecting systems based on Internet of Things concepts is very challenging and has focused mostly on a centralized approach. Decentralized or distributed architectures aren't straightforward concepts for IoT applications, but through the distributed ledger and Blockchain implementations that provide better identification, security and data integrity the fully distributed system architecture can become a reality. Major cloud vendors these days are using edge computing platforms to bring the cloud closer to the device, using a locally centralized system based on edge agents, which can be seen as a partially decentralized module in the full IoT cloud picture. Blockchain allows this edge IoT environment to become distributed if services or functions installed on the edge agent are used by the device to gain Blockchain capabilities. If more capable devices are deployed, then the Blockchain functionality can be embedded in the IoT and the system becomes a fully distributed peer-to-peer network.