MapChain-D: A Distributed Blockchain for IIoT Data Storage and Communications
Tiantong Wu, Guillaume Jourjon, Kanchana Thilakarathna, Phee Lep Yeoh
Abstract
With the rapid growth of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices, managing an extensive volume of IIoT data becomes a significant challenge. While the conventional cloud storage approaches with centralized data centers suffer from high latency for large-scale IIoT data storage due to increased communication and latency overheads, distributed storage frameworks, such as blockchains, have become promising solutions. In this article, we design and analyze a dual-blockchain framework for secure and scalable distributed data management in large-scale IIoT networks. The proposed framework, named <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> , consists of a data chain that is mapped to an index chain to provide efficient data storage and lookup. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> is designed for practical IIoT applications with storage, latency, and communication constraints. Detailed data exchange protocols are presented for data insertion and retrieval operations in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> . Based on these, theoretical analyses are provided on the space, time, and communication complexities of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> compared with conventional single-chain frameworks with local and distributed data storage. We implement our <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> prototype using open-source LoRaWAN communications with multiple Raspberry Pi and Arduino devices, Kademlia-based distributed hash table, and Ethereum-based blockchain with proof-of-authority consensus. Experimental results from our prototype show that <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> is more suitable to be deployed on resource-constrained IIoT devices. We also highlight the scalability and flexibility of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MapChain-D</i> with different number of edge nodes in the system.