BCoT Sentry: A Blockchain-Based Identity Authentication Framework for IoT Devices

In Internet of Things (IoT) environments, privacy and security are among some of the significant challenges. Recently, several studies have attempted to apply blockchain technology to increase IoT network security. However, the lightweight feature of IoT devices commonly fails to meet computational intensive requirements for blockchain-based security models. In this work, we propose a mechanism to address this issue. We design an IoT blockchain architecture to store device identity information in a distributed ledger. We propose a Blockchain of Things (BCoT) Gateway to facilitate the recording of authentication transactions in a blockchain network without modifying existing device hardware or applications. Furthermore, we introduce a new device recognition model that is suitable for blockchain-based identity authentication, where we employ a novel feature selection method for device traffic flow. Finally, we develop the BCoT Sentry framework as a reference implementation of our proposed method. Experiment results verify the feasibility of our proposed framework.

Automated summary

This work proposes a mechanism to enhance IoT network security using blockchain technology, including the design of an IoT blockchain architecture, a BCoT Gateway, and a new device recognition model. The developed BCoT Sentry framework serves as a reference implementation of the proposed method, with experiment results confirming its feasibility.