Optimizing Off-Chain Storage in Blockchain of Things Systems

Abstract

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) offers decentralized storage and data sharing, which are critical for the functionality of Blockchain of Things (BCoT) systems. Despite its advantages, IPFS faces challenges such as scalability, latency, and resource management issues that hinder its effective integration into existing blockchain infrastructures. This study explores the implementation of Docker containerization to enhance IPFS performance within BCoT environments. An experimental testbed was established, comprising an IPFS node and an IPFS Cluster peer deployed as Docker containers, to evaluate the latency of file operations across various sizes and analyze containerization’s impact on data storage and retrieval efficiency. The proposed Dockerized IPFS implementation demonstrates substantial performance improvements over traditional systems, achieving latency reductions of up to 75% for small files (1–256 KB) and a three-fold decrease for larger files (64 MB). Specifically, write operations were reduced from 1000 ms to 300 ms, while read operations improved by 40%, decreasing from 2500 ms to 1500 ms. Additionally, the containerized approach yielded lower latency than previous standalone IPFS deployments. The study emphasizes the significance of dynamic resource allocation in optimizing resource utilization, thereby enhancing the overall performance of IPFS Clusters within BCoT frameworks. By leveraging Dockerized IPFS, BCoT systems can achieve more efficient off-chain storage solutions, facilitating improved data management and interoperability in decentralized applications.