Integration of Internet of Things and blockchain toward portability and low-energy consumption

The modern era of information and technology leverages connectivity and information sharing for enhancing applications and reducing human intervention. The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) in almost all aspects of modern life raises major challenges of security and privacy in health care services and the pharmaceutical industry. Blockchain has emerged as a secure technology in a trustless network without central governance. The inherent attributes it provides can solve the security and privacy challenges related to IoT and extend its capabilities. However, traditional instances of Blockchain are not suited for the IoT environment for reasons such as computationally expensive consensus process. Proof of authentication is a lightweight consensus algorithm that can be implemented in the IoT environment. This paper presents an IoT-friendly Blockchain scheme implemented to evaluate the feasibility of medical supply and drug transportation to aid security and mitigate privacy issues which are fault-tolerant, transparent, and traceable. The proof of concept implementation on portable single board computer demonstrates proof of authentication consensus algorithm executed with block validation and block addition in 30 and 40 ms while consuming 45 and 60mJ, respectively. Additionally, the network performance of the proposed architecture was presented and evaluated in the application context.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the application of Blockchain technology in the IoT environment for medical supply and drug transportation, proposing a lightweight consensus algorithm and conducting a proof of concept implementation. The scheme features fault-tolerance, transparency, and traceability.