On performance of PBFT for IoT-applications with constrained devices

TL;DR

This paper critically analyzes the use of PBFT consensus in blockchain-based IoT security, demonstrating its efficiency and evaluating its applicability limits for constrained devices through simulation.

Contribution

It justifies using PBFT for IoT devices and provides simulation results on its performance and feasibility in constrained environments.

Findings

PBFT is efficient for constrained IoT devices

Simulation demonstrates the applicability limits of PBFT

Blockchain can effectively protect IoT data

Abstract

Cyber-physical systems and the Internet of things (IoT) is becoming an integral part of the digital society. The use of IoT services improves human life in many ways. Protection against cyber threats is an important aspect of the functioning of IoT devices. Malicious activities lead to confidential data leakages and incorrect performance of devices are becoming critical. Therefore, development of effective solutions that can protect both IoT devices data and data exchange networks turns in to a real challenge. This study provides a critical analysis of the feasibility of using blockchain technology to protect constrained IoT devices data, justifies the choice of Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) consensus algorithm for implementation on such devices, and simulates the main distributed ledger scenarios using PBFT. The simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the blockchain technology for constrained devices and make it possible to evaluate the applicability limits of the chosen consensus algorithm.