In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has developed rapidly and has been widely used in military operations, medical rescue, environmental monitoring, and so on. UAV networks are an important foundation for large-scale UAV collaborative work. Traditional mobile self-or-ganizing network technology is too complicated to be quickly constructed and dynamically adjusted according to application requirements. In this article, we propose a new type of UAV network based on SDN architecture and blockchain technology, which is named SUV. By using blockchain technology, SUV implements a logically centralized but physically distributed control plane, which is responsible for the routing calculation and configuration management of the UAV network. SUV can quickly build UAV networks according to the application requirements and communication environment. It has features such as flexibility, survivability, security, and programmability, and is suitable for 5G-oriented UAV networking.
A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed, and often public, digital ledger system consisting of records called blocks, used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved block cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks. In literature, Blockchain is used as a medium to achieve trust between nodes in distributed autonomous systems like the Internet of Things(IoT). In IoT, resource-scarce, economical sensing devices are deployed in large to gain accuracy. Routing Protocol for Low Power and lossy network (RPL) is defined as the de-facto standard for large-scale deployment. Due to wireless communication and resource constriend deployment, medium RPL is susceptible to many DOS attacks. This paper presents a space-efficient blockchain architecture viz. 6MID using Microchain. 6MID augments RPL to accommodate distributed ledger within resource-constrained 6LoWPAN devices and can be used to detect Blackhole attack. We also present a security analysis of the proposed framework in the context of IoT networks.
The proposed approach uses blockchain-based technology to strengthen the data security of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This paper integrates blockchain-based technology with data transfer to establish an extremely secure WSNs structure. The present wireless network is built on the architecture of the Internet of Things (IoT) and employs a blockchain-based method to make the reliability of data transmission strong. In this proposed research, many small-area wireless sensor networks establish the entire WSNs structure, and every small-area wireless sensor network has a primary data collection node called a “mobile database.” The “mobile database” node of this study uses embedded microcontrollers with an operating system, such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino Yun. This block contains the sensor data collected by itself and the hash value of the previous block. Then the hash value of its own block, which is also part of the hash calculation of the next block, was calculated through the mining calculation program. Any block in the proposed method includes the encrypted hash-value of the previous block, the current timestamp, and the transaction data. In our research content, the transaction data is represented as wireless network sensing data. Basically, the system employs the hash function for calculation using the Merkel-tree algorithm. Such programming makes the block with blockchain-based technology difficult to tamper with content. This study approach revises the blockchain-based transaction ledger to become a sensor data record. Therefore, the proposed system gathers and analyzes sensor data for more reliability in the wireless sensing network structure. Furthermore, the innovative system with blockchain-based technology can treat a private cloud-end. This paper also carries on to visualize the uploaded sensing data by the sensors and draws corresponding charts based on big data analysis. The wireless network architecture proposed in this paper is built on embedded devices, making it easy for the system to build a web server. Using Python or JavaScript programming language in the web environment is relatively more convenient for data visualization and data analysis. Finally, this study uses traditional methods and innovative methods to compare data transmission. When the system uses innovative methods with blockchain-based technology, it is almost impossible for any operator to tamper with the data transmitted by the sensor.
In this paper, we address the problem of mutual authentication in user groups in decentralized messaging systems without trusted third party. We propose a mutual authentication algorithm for groups using zero-knowledge proof. Using the algorithm, which is based on trust chains existing in decentralized network, users are able to authenticate each other without establishing a shared secret over side channel. The proposed algorithm is based on Democratic Group Signature protocol (DGS) and Communication-Computation Efficient Group Key algorithm for large and dynamic groups (CCEGK). We have performed security analysis of the proposed mutual authentication scheme against several attacks including Sybil attack and have made complexity estimation for the algorithm. The algorithm is implemented in an experimental P2P group messaging application, and using this implementation we estimate overhead of the authentication scheme and convergence time for several initial configurations of user groups and trust chains.
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is recognized as one of the best sensing tools for gathering data in the industrial Internet of things sector. Besides, the flying ad hoc network (FANET) with multiple drones shows significant advantages in complicated task performing of large area. However, as an important part of communication security, key management for FANET currently depends heavily on the base station or infrastructures, which may easily become the attack target or increase the communication overheads of drones. Therefore, we propose a blockchain-based distributed key management scheme for heterogeneous FANET in this article, based on which drones can autonomously distribute cluster keys, update their public/private key pairs, migrate between clusters, and revoke malicious UAVs in a secure way. Security analysis and performance evaluation prove that our scheme can resist against a variety of external and internal attacks, and guarantee lightweight energy consumption for ordinary drones in the network.
Abstract Embedded systems and wireless sensor networks (WSN) are found today in increasingly critical areas of applications. They have become integrated and embedded in nearly all aspects of everyday life, including manufacturing, healthcare, education, critical infrastructure, and entertainment. The number of connected devices continues to grow, and due to the insecure nature of these devices, the amount of risk continues to grow as well. These risks, however, can be mitigated with the creation and adoption of WSN security standards developed to create an environment of safety, security, and confidence in the technology. Designing the security policy for WSNs requires asking some preliminary questions. These questions are particularly important in the case of WSNs because their use is highly decentralized. Blockchain's ability on governing decentralized networks makes it especially suitable for designing a self‐managing system on WSN devices. This article proposes a routing protocol that uses Blockchain technology to offer a shared memory between the network's nodes. The simulation results have shown that this solution could be applicable and could resolve the issues cited above.
Ahmed Al Guqhaiman, Oluwatobi Akanbi, Amer Aljaedi, C. Edward Chow
Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are liable to malicious attacks due to limited bandwidth, limited power, high propagation delay, path loss, and variable speed. The major differences between UWSNs and Terrestrial Wireless Sensor Networks (TWSNs) necessitate a new mechanism to secure UWSNs. The existing Media Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols have addressed the network performance of UWSNs, but are vulnerable to several attacks. The secure MAC and routing protocols must exist to detect Sybil, Blackhole, Wormhole, Hello Flooding, Acknowledgment Spoofing, Selective Forwarding, Sinkhole, and Exhaustion attacks. These attacks can disrupt or disable the network connection. Hence, these attacks can degrade the network performance and total loss can be catastrophic in some applications, like monitoring oil/gas spills. Several researchers have studied the security of UWSNs, but most of the works detect malicious attacks solely based on a certain predefined threshold. It is not optimal to detect malicious attacks after the threshold value is met. In this paper, we propose a multi-factor authentication model that is based on zero-knowledge proof to detect malicious activities and secure UWSNs from several attacks.
Vankamamidi Srinivasa Naresh, V. V. L. Divakar Allavarpu, Sivaranjani Reddi
Abstract With the rapid increase in the popularity of groupware applications whose security mainly relied on the key being used, which made multi‐party/group secret key agreements significant. However, the brute‐force attacks to interpret the group key made group communication vulnerable. The logical solution to overcome this is changing the group key frequently. In this direction, we propose blockchain‐based multiple shared keys agreement among a group of participants. As with conventional methods, the proposed protocol does not rely on strong random number generation and/or master key. In this technique, the privacy‐preserving smart contract acts as group controller (GC) and forms two parties with each of the other nodes. The GC, while generating these two‐party keys in the first round instead of exchanging one public key, it exchanges “ m ” public keys with each of the other nodes and generates m 2 shared two‐party keys with each of the respective nodes. Now in the second round, GC generates m 2 sequential products of two‐party shared keys and stores them securely as private data objects in the privacy‐preserving smart contract. Next GC computes m 2 sequential public keys to each of the respective nodes by multiplying these products with the inverse of individual members shared keys sequentially of the group nodes in trusted execution environment and shares them with respective group nodes. On receiving respective public keys, each group node computes the multiple multiparty shared keys by multiplying it with their individual shared keys. Furthermore, an upper limit for the number of shared keys obtained in terms of the number of keys exchanged.
Wireless sensors are often deployed in environments where it is difficult for them to discern friend from enemy. An example case is a military tactical scenario, where sensors are deployed to map the location of an item but where some of the nodes have been compromised or where there are other malicious nodes present. In this scenario, sharing data with other network nodes may present a critical security risk to the sensor nodes. Blockchain technology, with its ability to house a secure distributed ledger, offers a possible solution. However, blockchain applications for Wireless Sensor Networks suffer from poor latency in block propagation which in turn decreases throughput and network scalability. Several researchers have proposed solutions for improved network throughput. In this work, a comparison of these existing works is performed leading to a taxonomy of existing algorithms. Characteristics consistently found in algorithms reporting improved throughput are presented and, later, these characteristics are used in the development of a new algorithm for improving throughput. The proposed algorithm utilizes a proof-of- authority consensus algorithm with a node trust-based scheme. The proposed algorithm shows strong results over the base case algorithm and was evaluated with blockchain network simulations of up to 20000 nodes.
Lehlogonolo P. I. Ledwaba, Gerhard P. Hancke, Aikaterini Mitrokotsa, Sherrin J. Isaac
Recently, work with Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) has focussed on leveraging the decentralised, immutable ledger for use outside of cryptocurrency. One industry poised to benefit from DLTs is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT); as the inherent cryptographic mechanisms and alternative trust model make DLTs an attractive solution for distributed networks. Existing DLTs are unsuitable for the IIoT, owing to the large computational and energy requirements for consensus operations and the slow throughput of validated blocks. With limited processing, energy and storage resources and a deadline sensitive operational environment, DLTs in their current state could serve to introduce intolerable latency into IIoT processes and deplete constrained, device resources. Designed for the IIoT context, and based off Delegated Proof of Stake, this work serves to introduce a new consensus mechanism called Delegated Proof of Proximity (DPoP). Using existing location discovery processes, nodes in close proximity to a sensor event are elected as delegates; whose role is to handle consensus and block generation. In using information already known to IIoT devices, DPoP aims to reduce wasted effort, improve throughput by limiting the number of nodes required for consensus operations and improve scalability and flexibility of DLT solutions as the IIoT network continues to grow.
Group Key Agreement (GKA) mechanisms play a crucial role in realizing various applications in different networks, such as sensor networks and the Internet of Things (IoT). To be suitable for IoT, a GKA must satisfy several critical requirements. First, a GKA must be robust against a compromised device attack and satisfy essential secrecy definitions without the existence of a Trusted Third Party (TTP). TTP is often used by IoT devices to establish ad hoc networks securely, and usually, these devices are resource-constrained. Second, the GKA must be able to distribute session keys successfully, even with offline devices. Third, a GKA must reduce the burden of heavy cryptographic computations for IoT devices. Based on these observations, we propose a new GKA scheme that satisfies all the requirements above. The proposed scheme leverages smart contracts to alleviate the computational and storage overheads on IoT devices induced by cryptographic functions. It also brings the advantage of asynchronism such that offline devices will be able to compute the group key once they are online.
Mobile ad-hoc networks also known as MANETs have been in global use for numerous applications which are not possible with fixed network topologies. The distributed operation and dynamic topology have encouraged MANETs to be applied for establishing communication in unstable environments. MANET's dynamic topology and mobility have been very advantageous in the fields of military and disaster management. These dynamic characteristics of a MANET also create a major challenge in managing trust between the mobile nodes. Managing the trustworthiness of information that a node provides to the rest of the MANET is very crucial as misinformation spread can lead to erroneous decision making. Although previous studies have been carried out on trust management in MANETs using price-based and reputation systems, the potential of a globally distributed system has not been utilized practically. Therefore, these systems address the trust management issue within a boundary of a single MANET. Above mentioned systems should be re-evaluated when a node from another MANET joins a new MANET as the reputations of the node in the previous MANET cannot be imported to the new MANET. Lack of a possible solution for this gap may result in misinformation spreading by a malicious node before other nodes determine its reputation, which could be very dangerous in sensitive environments. Therefore, a globally distributed reputation model is a timely need in mobile ad-hoc networking. Blockchain technology is one of the most suitable technologies in present for its immutable and distributed properties to build robust systems. Blockchain is a distributed ledger, that has the ability to store feedback from mobile nodes about the accuracy of information provided by other nodes. A trust factor for each node can be calculated using these feedbacks. A mobile node can then decide whether to trust information, based on nodes’ trust factors. Adopting a development-oriented research methodology, a blockchain based reputation model prototype has been implemented and validated within the study.
Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are non-fixed framework systems and there are such a large number of issues with them because of their dynamic topology, portable nodes, security, data transfer capacity, restricted battery strength and so forth. Trust is an association, dependability, unwavering excellence, and loyalty of the nodes in the system. A trusted routing plan is essential to guarantee the routing security and productivity of sensor systems. In perspective on these issues, this manuscript proposes a trusted routing plan utilizing block chain and building up a security model to improve the routing security and productivity for ad hoc networks. The possible routing plan is given for acquiring routing data of routing nodes on the block chain, which makes the routing data distinct and difficult to alter. The support learning model is utilized to help routing nodes progressively select increasingly trusted and productive routing connections. The proposed work introduces a Trust Based Efficient Blockchain Linked Routing Method (TbEBCLRM) for a system of trusted and untrusted nodes. The proposed method utilizes blockchain method to improve security in the ad hoc networks and to avoid malicious activities during communication is initiated. The proposed method is compared with the traditional methods and the results show that the proposed method exhibits better performance in terms of accuracy, security level, trust level and energy consumption.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly deployed in networked environments, such as places of mass gatherings, smart cities and smart nations. For example, UAVs can be deployed to detect violations of lockdown, stay-at-home or social / physical distancing directives during pandemics (e.g. COVID-19). There are, however, security and privacy considerations in such deployments. To achieve secure and efficient authentication of UAVs, solutions such as those based on Point-to-Point (P2P) or a Point- to-Multipoint (P2M) communications have been proposed in the literature. In this article, we present a novel blockchain-based technique to support multi-party authentication to facilitate trustworthy group communications. Specifically, this allows us to provide secure P2P wireless communications and trusted group communication management for UAV networks, while ensuring service efficiency. Evaluation findings from both real-world implementation and simulations demonstrate the utility of the proposed approach.
Zisang Xu, Feng Li, Han Deng, Minfu Tan · 6 authors
With the rapid development of mobile networks, there are more and more application scenarios that require group communication. For example, in mobile edge computing, group communication can be used to transmit messages to all group members with minimal resources. The group key directly affects the security of the group communication. Most existing group key agreement protocols are often flawed in performance, scalability, forward or backward secrecy, or single node failure. Therefore, this paper proposes a blockchain-based authentication and dynamic group key agreement protocol. With our protocol, each group member only needs to authenticate its left neighbor once to complete the authentication, which improved authentication efficiency. In addition, our protocol guarantees the forward secrecy of group members after joining the group and the backward secrecy of group members after leaving the group. Based on blockchain technology, we solve the problem of single node failure. Furthermore, we use mathematics to prove the correctness and security of our protocol, and the comparison to related protocols shows that our protocol reduces computation and communication costs.
Internet of Things (IoT) composed of large number of sensing devices with a variety of features applicable for various applications. In such scenarios, due to low data handling capabilities, limited storage, and security aspects, it is quite challenging to protect networks against illegal information access and utilizes storage efficiently. Though researchers provide various solutions for security and data storage, but a few solutions are appropriate for wireless sensor networks (WSNs)-enabled IoTs. Therefore, a blockchain-based decentralized framework integrated with authentication and privacy-preserving schemes is developed for the secure communication in WSNs-enabled IoTs. Registration, certification, and revocation process are employed for the communication with sensor nodes and base station (BS) in a cloud computing environment. In this scheme cluster heads forward the collected information to the BS. Consequently, BS records all the key parameters on the distributed blockchain and large data is forwarded to clouds for the storage. The revoked certificates of all malicious nodes are eliminated from blockchain by BS. The performance of the proposed scheme is scrutinized in terms of detection accuracy, certification delay, computational, and communicational overheads. The simulated results, comparative analysis, and security validation support the superiority of the proposed solution over the existing approaches.
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been ruling the sensing world since the time of its emergence. With the advancement of the sensor technology, the battery constraints of the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are drawing a huge research attention of the researchers. The limited battery constraints can be dealt if the routing algorithms implied to sensor network are energy efficient. As the sensor nodes communicate in the wireless medium, the security of the sensor nodes becomes imperative to consider. Therefore, to affirm security issues, the Blockchain technology can be introduced at the Cluster head levels of cluster-based routing algorithm. Consequently, the leisure information about each node can be used to authenticate the data. In this paper, we have presented a study of blockchain technology pertaining to WSNs. It will help the readers to select the suitable method for their research work from the reported studies encapsulated in this paper.
Walter Tiberti, Alessio Carmenini, Luigi Pomante, Dajana Cassioli
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are nowadays used in a variety of applications, to monitor relevant quantities often in large and harsh environments, thanks to their flexibility and versatility. Unfortunately, the nature of the wireless communication channel exposes WSN nodes to security risks. Conventional security countermeasures cannot be applied to the WSN nodes due their resource limitations. In this paper, we propose a lightweight blockchain approach to contrast the physical or logical tampering of WSN nodes. We validate our approach through experiments showing the performance impact and the storage footprint due to the use of the proposed blockchain anti-tampering technique. The proposed approach appears to be suitable in the context of WSNs, although the overhead generated by the blockchain depends on the number of nodes in the WSN.
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are infrastructure-less networks that are mainly used for establishing communication during the situation where wired network fails. Security related information collection is a fundamental part of the identification of attacks in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). A node should find accessible routes to remaining nodes for information assortment and gather security related information during route discovery for choosing secured routes. During data communication, malicious nodes enter the network and cause disturbances during data transmission and reduce the performance of the system. In this manuscript, a Time Interval Based Blockchain Model (TIBBM) for security related information assortment that identifies malicious nodes in the MANET is proposed. The proposed model builds the Blockchain information structure which is utilized to distinguish malicious nodes at specified time intervals. To perform a malicious node identification process, a Network Block Monitoring Node (NBMN) is selected after route selection and this node will monitor the blocks created by the nodes in the routing table. At long last, NBMN node understands the location of malicious nodes by utilizing the Blocks created. The proposed model is compared with the traditional malicious node identification model and the results show that the proposed model exhibits better performance in malicious node detection.