On Using Blockchains for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Drones Operation: An Architectural Study

TL;DR

This paper proposes a blockchain-based architecture for secure data exchange in BVLOS drone operations, addressing security and traceability concerns at the on-chip compute platform level.

Contribution

It introduces a generic blockchain service architecture for drone on-chip platforms and provides a concrete implementation example.

Findings

Designed a blockchain architecture tailored for drone on-chip platforms

Demonstrated a practical implementation of the proposed architecture

Enhanced security and traceability in BVLOS drone operations

Abstract

Beyond Visual Line of Sight operation enables drones to surpass the limits imposed by the reach and constraints of their operator's eyes. It extends their range and, as such, productivity, and profitability. Drones operating BVLOS include a variety of highly sensitive assets and information that could be subject to unintentional or intentional security vulnerabilities. As a solution, blockchain-based services could enable secure and trustworthy exchange and storage of related data. They also allow for traceability of exchanges and perform synchronization with other nodes in the network. However, most of the blockchain-based approaches focus on the network and the protocol aspects of drone systems. Few studies focus on the architectural level of on-chip compute platforms of drones. Based on this observation, the contribution of this paper is twofold: (1) a generic blockchain-based service architecture for on-chip compute platforms of drones, and (2) a concrete example realization of the proposed generic architecture.