Blockchain based security solution for Industrial Internet of Things

Dr. K. Jayarajan1,Dr. T. Poongothai 2

1
Professor, Department of IT, Malla Reddy Engineering College for Women, Secunderabad, India.
2
Lecturer, Department of Computer Engineering, Government Polytechnic College
Kadathur,Tamilnadu, India
1
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract

With the monumental growth of smart manufacturing and the evolution of Industry 4.0 now
Industrial Internet of Things(IIoT) received lot of attention by researchers and industry. The IIoT
promises revolutionary business models in several industrial fields by providing ubiquitous
connection, efficient data analytics tools, and improved decision support systems for increased
market competitiveness. However, IIoT systems are subject to a number of security threats
across the networking and communications infrastructure. Due to the complexity of IIoT
infrastructure, it is difficult to assure availability, confidentiality, and integrity. As a result, there
is a risk of a loss of vital infrastructure, end-user safety issues on the network, and sensitive data
privacy violations. The blockchain method was put up as a decentralised and distributed solution
to fulfil security requirements and spur the growth of the IIoT due to its decentralisation and
information disclosure. In this article, we outline the fundamental architecture and key
characteristics of blockchain technology. Then, we examine how blockchain, with its security
tools and technologies, can be used with the Internet of Things for Industry 4.0. To promote the
features and benefits of the blockchain approach on IoT and IIoT platforms, we outline the most
pertinent blockchain-based IoT applications. A few suggestions are then put forth to direct
upcoming blockchain researchers and developers.

Keywords: Industrial Internet-of-Things, Blockchain, Security, Decentralization

1. Introduction

Many industries, including financial services, insurance, manufacturing, transportation,

healthcare, energy, government, and real estate, have increased their use of IoT technologies in
recent years. Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) is a highly effective Internet of Things
application that transforms the development of industries by ensuring transparent communication
across diverse entities like hubs, manufacturing units, and packaging units. IIoT is regarded as a
crucial application of IoT that monitors and logs each activity of the sector to support its
expansion. The term "IIoT" refers to a network where information is gathered from various
sensors, actuators, and machines in an industrial setting and is accessed online. By optimising
manufacturing processes, improving customer experiences, lowering costs, and increasing
productivity in smart enterprises—where smart industrial facilities and people are seamlessly
interconnected—the IIoT promises to transform the current industrial production process.
Despite the potential benefits listed above, the IIoT is also confronted with a number of
difficulties, such as interoperability, device security and privacy, scalability, standardisation,
etc[1]. These challenges are handled by blockchain technology. The following requirements need
to be satisfied for the proper functioning of IIoT such as security, fault tolerance, durability,
public access possibility and the possibility of consensus [6,7].

Motivation

The blockchain has a lot of potential for solving the IIoT's interoperability problems. By 2027,
more than 10% of the world's GDP will be associated with blockchain-enabled systems,
according to the International Data Corporation, which estimates that up to 20% of IoT
deployments will provide blockchain-enabled services.[1] . This technology gained widespread
acceptance once S. Nakamoto used it to create the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as a public ledger
(2018). Since then, numerous sectors, including finance, agriculture, logistics, and insurance,
have paid it a great deal of attention. It helps to speed up, streamline, and increase transparency
of various operations by effectively digitising transactions. Blockchain can be used to deploy
automatic production platform which increase the productivity [14]. This paper provides a
thorough overview of recent developments in IoT, blockchain technology, and the
decentralisation of IoT systems through the use of blockchains. This study examines recent
research initiatives undertaken to address various IoT security concerns, blockchain-IoT
integration plans, and untapped research areas for future work.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the evolution and
applications of IIoT. Section 3 provides the challenges in implementing IIoT. Section 4
summarizes the overview of blockchain technologies. Section 5 lists the key findings of our
research and future research directions, and the final section provides the conclusion.

2. Industrial Internet of Things

According to [4] the IIoT will add $10:69bn to the global economy by 2030. It is undoubted that
the IIoT will benefit all industrial sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, energy and
utilities, municipal services, etc. by increasing efficiency, developing new business models,
creating of new revenue streams, and improving safety and risk management.

IIoT have attracted a lot of attention in recent years for use in many industrial applications. It
plays significant role in smart industry where scalable and easily adopted technologies are
deployed for increased productivity. IIoT is introducing new research trends for industrial
applications. It integrates a number of cutting-edge technologies into conventional industrial
settings, such as digital twins, big data analytics, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), smart
sensors, actuators, and other communications protocols [9]. IIoT intends to promote the
productivity of smart enterprises, reduce expenses, and streamline production processes in order
to enhance the efficiency of present industrial operations. The fundamental design principles of
IIoT are Interoperability, Information transparency, Technical assistance and Decentralization of
decisions. IIoT provide real time monitoring of systems and data transfer that makes the industry
become more efficient. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is advancing industrial processes
through remote monitoring, cognitive analytics, and control.

The three levels that make up the IIoT architecture are physical, communication, and application.
The physical layer is made up of tangible objects including data centres, actuators, smart
terminals, manufacturing equipment, sensors, and actuators. The communication layer integrates
multiple devices in the physical layer for industrial manufacturing and automation using network
technologies including actuator and wireless sensor networks (WSNs), 5G, and machine-to-
machine (M2M) communication. To support the industrial and production application layer
employing the aforementioned technologies for the creation of smart factories, smart supply
chains, etc., the aforementioned layers come together to form a CPS (Industrial-CPS in the
context of IIoT). The production systems' networking and intelligent operation are made possible
by the control, networking, and computing infrastructures of the cyber systems.

IIoT architecture is combined with the following emerging technologies such as edge/fog
computing, software defined networking, wireless sensor networks, 5G, Machine learning and
blockchain.

3. IIoT Challenges

IIoT involves private and confidential data, and several security problems result from flaws in
the infrastructure [5]. While the IIoT's reliable functioning significantly raises the level of
automation in industry, it also makes it difficult to enforce more security concerns within it. To
provide the client and users with a flexible, scalable, and dependable IIoT environment, a
number of security challenges must be resolved. Attacks on IIoT present a significant security
concern for the sector. These assaults could cause significant damage to businesses and, on rare
occasions, even endanger lives. Data security is among the most significant difficulties facing an
IIoT system. It can be tough when the typical heavy-weight security designs cannot be employed
directly to address such challenges because of the peculiarities of an IIoT system[2].

Instead, they require more frameworks and systems that can meet the particular requirements of
an IIoT system. As a result, in order to transmit and analyse many data sources quickly, such as
in a supply chain network, an enterprise-to-enterprise data exchange platform is needed. So, in
addition to technology considerations, organisational issues like cross-enterprise information
exchange and cooperation (through data interchange and transparency) are particularly
challenging. A potential vulnerability in one device or component could have a more severe
impact on the system's overall performance because the IIoT is linked to a network of diverse
communication protocols and different network platforms. The challenges faced by IIOT are as
follows [11,12]
  Interoperability
 Device reliability and durability
 Security and privacy issues
 Scalability and latency
 Standardization
 Heterogeneity
 Massive Data Management
These challenges need to be taken care to make use of the potential application of IIoT.

4. Overview of Blockchain technologies

In 1991, Haber et al. defined Blockchain technology as “a cryptographically secured chain of

blocks”. Later Satoshi Nakamoto coined the term blockchain in 2008 and published the white
paper. In the evolution of blockchain technology Blockchain 1.0 dealt with bitcoin and
cryptocurrencies. Blockchain 2.0 mainly focused on smart contracts. Ethereum blockchain has
evolved to support smart contracts. Blockchain 3.0 supports the Internet of Things applications
and Industry 4.0. Currently programmable blockhains offer distributed and decentralized
solutions to IoT and IIoT. Several countries across the globe and wide range of companies are
focusing for the growth of blockchain technology. Eminent companies like Alibaba, and Google,
have also interested in projects related to blockchain. Therefore, in the future, the blockchain will
be the most significant technology.
Blockchain technology is distributed, trusted and immutable in nature so that the existing
transactions cannot be modified. The important features of blockchain are distributed ledger,
consensus mechanism, provenance, immutability and finality. It eliminates the intermediaries or
third parties in the transaction. The blockchain consists of three parts such as block, chain and
network. The integration of Blockchain with IoT system provides lot of advantages.

At the beginning, it reduces single points of failure, encourages fault tolerance, and permits end-
to-end communications without relying on a centralised server. Second, users of a blockchain
network can confirm both the sender's identity and the accuracy of the material. Finally, IoT
devices can benefit from secure software updates thanks to blockchain's tamper-proof data
storing feature. Furthermore, blockchain ensures accountability and traceability by storing data
and event logs in an immutable manner.

Without the need for a middleman, the blockchain can securely exchange and store data from
IIoT system components. The secure nature of blockchain will enable IIoT systems more
trustworthy and safe, which can change\sthe way the data is being treated with in IIoT. The
properties of blockchain makes it promises in building new business models,\ssuch as data
streaming sharing, financial, manufacturing, smart\shealthcare, etc. Data may be sensed, shared,
and updated via decentralised collaborative IIoT systems in a trustworthy manner that is simple
to verify. In the meantime, IIoT participant digital interactions may be effectively managed and
secured by the blockchain, and with decentralised authenticity, IIoT reliability problems between
various parties can be resolved. The integration blockchain with IIoT yields the benefits such as
enhanced security, improved interoperability, autonomous interactions, reliability, secure code
deployment, dependability and traceability. By integrating blockchain technology into IIoT,
manufacturers and industrial companies will be able to register and verify both their physical
entities such as facilities, products, etc. and service features in a reliable and decentralised
network.

Blockchain technology is widely employed in a variety of sectors, including finance,

e-government, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, real estate, and education. Ethereum is one of
the most widely used platforms in blockchain-enabled IIoT applications and can offer additional
functionalities. The adoption of blockchain in the IIoT can be considerably improved by the
growing M2M and 5G technologies. The figure 1 illustrates the applications of blockchain
technology in IIOT.

Blockchain for IIoT

Technologies and Standards Application

Distributed Ledger e-governence

Smart Contracts Healthcare

Consensus Protocols Manufacturing

Crypto currency Finance

Smart grid

Figure 1. Blockchain for IIoT

5. Blockchain Architecture for IIoT

Merging blockchain with IIoT improves the overall performance of the system. Blockchain
provides the necessary security requirements for IIoT applications. Blockchain provide
numerous applications in IIoT such as sharing services and properties, device management and
supply chain etc. [15]. The figure 2 shows the IIoT architecture integrated with blockchain. This
architecture combines the existing layers of IIoT with the functions of blockchain. The different
layers of this architecture are perception layer, communication layer, blockchain service layer,
application layer [3].
The lowest physical layer of the IIoT architecture is believed to be the perception layer, which
contains a range of sensors for gathering various types of context data related to collaborative
production between humans and machines. The sensors and actuators that make up the
perception layer gather and interpret contextual input to perform tasks (such retrieve location and
acceleration). The perception layer is required for a number of IIoT applications. A variety of
end devices can be used at the perception layer to connect the real world and the digital one.
It serves as the connecting layer between the perceptual and middleware layers, as its name
implies. Using networking technologies like 3G, 4G, UTMS, WiFI, infrared, etc., it receives data
from the perception layer and sends it to the middleware layer. Because it facilitates
communication between the middleware and perception layers, this layer is also known as the
communication layer. Data is transferred securely at all times, maintaining the privacy of the
collected information.

The blockchain service layer provides necessary services to the IIoT applications. This layer
consists of nodes, chain structure and private blockchain. The application layer is on the top of
all layers which offer various interfaces for physical devices. It provides services like user
management, data visualization, data administration and so on [16].

Application Layer
Perception Layer

Blockchain Service Layer

Communication Layer

Perception Layer

Figure 2 : Blockchain IIoT Architecture

Blockchain technology has the potential to fill the gap in peer-to-peer contractual behaviour by
enabling IoT transactions to be certified by no one other than the parties involved. It consistently
provides a solution to the problems of scalability, single point of failure, time stamping, records,
privacy, trust, and dependability. Blockchain is a game changer for IIoT. It enables the IIoT
devices to participate in blockchain transactions. Blockchain can be used in various applications
of IIoT such as health care industry, supply chain/logistics, power industry, agriculture industry,
manufacturing industry and E-Commerce industry [8].
6. Findings and Future Research Directions

This section focuses on the key findings of this research and main obstacles that must be
removed in order to deploy and integrate IoT applications using a blockchain strategy. In order to
accomplish resilient manufacturing for Industry 5.0, it is desirable to manage data in a robust and
economical data format and through an integration approach.

Practical methods to increase speed without compromising scalability are needed in order to
successfully integrate blockchain into IIoT platforms. This will allow for high throughput and
low latency even from resource-constrained IIoT devices. In order to deploy and optimise the
performance in large-scale applications, some new design frameworks are critically needed.
Balancing the trade-off between the impacted elements, such as scalability vs. security, is also
necessary to obtain the appropriate performance.

Standards for creating suitable architectures on the integration of blockchain into IIoT are
currently lacking. It is challenging or impossible to reach a service agreement for these
integration activities in the absence of available standardisation. Additionally, among these
partners, each organisation could create standards that are incompatible. Although there are
currently no standards, the participating members have made numerous efforts to standardise.

The creation of numerous standards connected to the blockchain, including those covering
terminology, privacy, governance, interoperability, security, and hazards, is still ongoing. To
support the possibilities in financial transactions and the role of standards in fostering market
confidence by resolving blockchain concerns, the U.K. and Europe have produced a number of
industry standards. Blockchain standardisation will be essential in changing future technologies
after a long journey on IIoT. The following are the suggestions for future research.

 Implementation of efficient deep learning models is necessary to manage the computing

resources of complex IIoT environments.
 Development of robust and cost effective data format for managing the collected data
among multiple devices.
 Advanced self-configured fault detection algorithm to handle the heterogeneous devices.
 Adequate and efficient interfaces for the development of middleware.
 Establishing lightweight consensus algorithm for IIoT blockchain network.
 Decentralised IIoT blockchain middleware standardisation and synchronisation with
current standards are still in their early phases.
 Blockchain may be combined with technologies like federated learning to improve the
security in data sharing [13].
 Lightweight data structures based on blockchain to manage IIoT data[10]
7. Conclusion

With the advent of the Internet of Things, researchers have become aware of a number of
security flaws ranging from device vulnerabilities to data in transit attacks. Furthermore, because
of the widespread use of IoT in industry, IIoT has become a separate research topic. The
adoption of intelligent systems has exacerbated the vulnerabilities in IoT-based systems in the
industrial sector.

Finally, given the extensive application of IoT/IIoT, there is an urgent need to proactively
address newly emerging threats and develop effective security solutions employing cutting-edge
technologies. As a result, this study identifies a number of promising open research areas in
IoT/IIoT security that have yet to be explored. Security solutions for IIoT is still in their early
stages, with the anticipated disruptive developments still to arrive. As a result, future research
should focus on innovative techniques to overcoming the issues of the developing IIoT, in
addition to enhancing standard security measures.

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