A Blockchain-based Architecture for Secure IoT-based Health Monitoring Systems

Abstract

Although IoT technology brings significant benefits to the healthcare sector and can play a noteworthy role in improving citizens' quality of life by enabling IoT-based health monitoring systems, it also raises many security challenges. Conventional security mechanisms are inadequate to secure IoT-based health monitoring systems as they have high resource requirements, in terms of computational power and energy consumption, and thus they cannot be afforded by the resource-constrained IoT nodes of these systems. On the other hand, blockchain is a promising technology that can be used to enhance the security of IoT-based health monitoring systems due to its decentralized and autonomous nature. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a blockchain architecture, based on the Hyperledger Fabric platform, for securing IoT-based health monitoring systems in a more lightweight manner as Hyperledger Fabric does not apply the consensus protocol of Proof of Work (PoW) that cannot be afforded by IoT devices.