Toward Blockchain for Edge-of-Things: A New Paradigm, Opportunities, and Future Directions
This addresses the need for secure and efficient IoT systems at the network edge, but it is incremental as it builds on existing blockchain and edge computing concepts without presenting new experimental results.
The paper proposes a new paradigm called blockchain enabled Edge-of-Things (BEoT) by integrating blockchain with edge computing and IoT to enable low-latency, high-security services for industrial applications like smart home and healthcare, exploring its potential for security services such as access authentication and data privacy.
Blockchain is gaining momentum as a promising technology for many application domains, one of them being the Edge-of- Things (EoT) that is enabled by the integration of edge computing and the Internet-of-Things (IoT). Particularly, the amalgamation of blockchain and EoT leads to a new paradigm, called blockchain enabled EoT (BEoT) that is crucial for enabling future low-latency and high-security services and applications. This article envisions a novel BEoT architecture for supporting industrial applications under the management of blockchain at the network edge in a wide range of IoT use cases such as smart home, smart healthcare, smart grid, and smart transportation. The potentials of BEoT in providing security services are also explored, including access authentication, data privacy preservation, attack detection, and trust management. Finally, we point out some key research challenges and future directions in this emerging area.