TY - JOUR
T1 - Delay and Communication Tradeoffs for Blockchain Systems With Lightweight IoT Clients
AU - Danzi, P.
AU - Kalør, A. E.
AU - Stefanović, Č.
AU - Popovski, P.
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - The emerging blockchain protocols provide a decentralized architecture that is suitable of supporting Internet of Things (IoT) interactions. However, keeping a local copy of the blockchain ledger is infeasible for low-power and memory-constrained devices. For this reason, they are equipped with lightweight software implementations that only download the useful data structures, e.g., state of accounts, from the blockchain network, when they are updated. In this paper, we consider and analyze a novel scheme, implemented by the nodes of the blockchain network, which aggregates the blockchain data in periodic updates and further reduces the communication cost of the connected IoT devices. We show that the aggregation period should be selected based on the channel quality, the offered rate, and the statistics of updates of the useful data structures. The results, obtained for the Ethereum protocol, illustrate the benefits of the aggregation scheme in terms of a reduced duty cycle of the device, particularly for low signal-to-noise ratios, and the overall reduction of the amount of information transmitted in downlink from the wireless base station to the IoT device. A potential application of the proposed scheme is to let the IoT device request more information than actually needed, hence increasing its privacy, while keeping the communication cost constant. In the conclusion, this paper is the first to provide rigorous guidelines for the design of lightweight blockchain protocols with wireless connectivity.
AB - The emerging blockchain protocols provide a decentralized architecture that is suitable of supporting Internet of Things (IoT) interactions. However, keeping a local copy of the blockchain ledger is infeasible for low-power and memory-constrained devices. For this reason, they are equipped with lightweight software implementations that only download the useful data structures, e.g., state of accounts, from the blockchain network, when they are updated. In this paper, we consider and analyze a novel scheme, implemented by the nodes of the blockchain network, which aggregates the blockchain data in periodic updates and further reduces the communication cost of the connected IoT devices. We show that the aggregation period should be selected based on the channel quality, the offered rate, and the statistics of updates of the useful data structures. The results, obtained for the Ethereum protocol, illustrate the benefits of the aggregation scheme in terms of a reduced duty cycle of the device, particularly for low signal-to-noise ratios, and the overall reduction of the amount of information transmitted in downlink from the wireless base station to the IoT device. A potential application of the proposed scheme is to let the IoT device request more information than actually needed, hence increasing its privacy, while keeping the communication cost constant. In the conclusion, this paper is the first to provide rigorous guidelines for the design of lightweight blockchain protocols with wireless connectivity.
KW - computer network security
KW - cryptocurrencies
KW - cryptographic protocols
KW - data structures
KW - Internet of Things
KW - radio networks
KW - blockchain systems
KW - lightweight IoT clients
KW - emerging blockchain protocols
KW - decentralized architecture
KW - local copy
KW - blockchain ledger
KW - memory-constrained devices
KW - lightweight software implementations
KW - blockchain network
KW - blockchain data
KW - periodic updates
KW - communication cost
KW - connected IoT devices
KW - aggregation period
KW - Ethereum protocol
KW - aggregation scheme
KW - reduced duty cycle
KW - wireless base station
KW - IoT device request
KW - lightweight blockchain protocols
KW - low-power devices
KW - Internet of Things interactions
KW - Blockchain
KW - Protocols
KW - Data structures
KW - Wireless communication
KW - Base stations
KW - Synchronization
KW - Internet of Things (IoT)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065611108&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/JIOT.2019.2906615
DO - 10.1109/JIOT.2019.2906615
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2327-4662
VL - 6
SP - 2354
EP - 2365
JO - IEEE Internet of Things Journal
JF - IEEE Internet of Things Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 8671694
ER -