0000-0003-2963-7729
Isparta, Turkey
Abstract: Reaching a sufficient number of data sets, learning
past experiences from many systems and using this experience in instant
or future predictions are among the capabilities of artificial
intelligence. The horizontal and vertical growth of industrial systems
and the transfer of experience from each location to all other locations
increase the quality of the process. However, the rapid growth of IoT
(Internet of Things) and OT (Operational Technology) assets in recent
years raises questions about data integrity, confidentiality and
accessibility. It deploys edge computing and blockchain-based solutions
for data security and secure transmission in the IoT ecosystem. In this
study, a four-layer IoT ecosystem network is proposed that combines the
learning capabilities of artificial intelligence-based systems used in
different locations and offers a blockchain-based storage system for
data security. These layers consist of node layer, edge layer, decision
layer, and training and blockchain layer, respectively. The lowest
layer, the node layer, is responsible for collecting the temperature and
humidity values in different locations with the developed node devices
in order to evaluate them. The data generated in the node devices is
transferred to the communicating edge device in the edge layer. The edge
layer collects the data from the nodes in the edge system and transfers
it to the server centrally. The training and blockchain layer provide
the collection of data from edge devices, training the artificial
intelligence model and transferring the weights to the decision layer.
At the same time, the blockchain-based storage system works at this
layer to securely store the processed data. As a result, with this
study, it is aimed to develop a framework for transferring the local
learning experiences of distributed IoT devices to all IoT devices and
for the secure storage of data.
Keywords: Blockchain, Edge Computing, Distributed Learning, IoT
INTRODUCTION
IoT technology, which is one of the assets of the Industry 4.0
ecosystem, is becoming more and more widespread in our daily lives and
is consolidating its place in the field of technology. Capable IoT
devices for different purposes have been developed to meet the various
needs of technology and people [1]. In developed IoT technologies,
hardware has limited capacities and limited processing power. For this
reason, various methods are preferred for the security and performance
of IoT devices. While the developed IoT devices were combined with edge
computing technology, they preferred server-client architecture with
security protocols such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and TLS (Transport
Layer Security). However, this situation creates a bottleneck threat due
to continuous growth in the process and may cause delays and
malfunctions as a result of blockages in network traffic [6]. With
these developments, many problem areas that need to be developed in
terms of efficiency, security requirements, resource usage and user
security have emerged [3, 5]. Many IoT devices used to gather
information from the environment do not have enough resources to deal
with malicious cyber-attacks. Manipulating the data collected by these
devices or intentionally uploading unwanted data disrupts the integrity
of the system set up in terms of security [2].
Considering all these problem areas and processes, valuable features
such as getting rid of single point centralization, data immateriality
and transaction transparency have made the combined use of edge
computing and blockchain technologies popular [4]. Security problems
that may be encountered during the collection and distribution of data
obtained from IoT devices using edge computing technology are tried to
be eliminated by using blockchain technology [1, 6, 9]. In
particular, keeping and securing transaction records has attracted the
attention of many researchers. While some of the researchers care about
the security dimension in storing transaction records [6], some of
them have deepened their studies on analysis and scalability [8].
Many of the studies have focused on keeping and protecting the
transaction records produced by IoT devices.
More than fifty countries have officially published strategy
papers/regulations summarizing their official positions on cyberspace,
cybercrime and cybersecurity [10, 11]. Prevention and detection of
computer crimes are among the main objectives of cyber security and
information security. The authorities take constitutional measures on
this issue. In Turkey, Law No. 5651 came into force for “regulating the
broadcasts made on the Internet and combating the crimes committed
through these broadcasts”. With the General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), a regulation on data protection and privacy has been prepared
for individuals. GDPR primarily aims to give individuals control of
their personal information and to bring companies in the EU into
compliance with these regulations [12].
In order to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and security of the
data in the proposed security models in the studies carried out,
specific methods are presented for that study. In the healthcare field,
patients’ health information is critical to the privacy of personal
data. In studies built on this basis, alternative methods have been
developed by combining blockchain technology to ensure the
confidentiality of data collected from health devices and encryption
algorithms to ensure security [7, 8]. Therapy, diagnostic and
analytical data of bedridden patients, disabled individuals or
individuals with mobility restrictions due to old age are monitored
remotely. This has made it important to protect the ownership, storage
and sharing of therapeutic data during the home therapy service, which
has become popular during the pandemic period. The most suitable
solution to this problem can be provided with blockchain technology
[13]. In addition to data privacy, when considering data security
and performance criteria, blockchain technology can be preferred in
order not to resort to complex cryptographic methods. In order to
provide low-time latency and real-time service, effective solutions to
the secure communication problem in smart grid systems are also realized
with blockchain technology [14]. Consensus and agreement between
nodes is defined as a serious problem in resource allocation processes
in wireless networks. This problem can be solved by optimizing the
spectrum allocation, block sizes and block numbers with the consortium
feature of blockchain technology to improve the service quality of users
[15]. In order to increase the efficiency of authentication systems
and collaborative sharing designs, systems in which edge computing and
blockchain technology are used together have been proposed [16]. In
Table 1, the years of studies using blockchain and edge computing
technology together, the preferred consensus algorithms, the purpose of
the study and literature contributions are shown in a table.
Table 1. Review of studies using blockchain and edge computing together