Date Presented:

28 November

Abstract:

Without a doubt the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has been gaining attention over the last years. With the deployment of low cost sensors, a plethora of information is made available, giving rise to intelligent systems that combine data from multiple sources. Multiple IoT platforms have been developed to support different application domains such as smart cities, health, industry 4.0, etc. However, the vertical focus and usually isolated development of such platforms pose difficulties in offering cross-domain smart applications to meet society's needs. To this end, interoperability frameworks have emerged to allow the interplay of different platforms as well as the formation of federations among the entities contributing IoT devices through such platforms. The decentralized nature of IoT data federations presents challenges when it comes to their management and governance, particularly in ensuring fairness, security, trustworthiness and transparency among its members. However, permissioned blockchain-based solutions hold significant potential in addressing these issues due to their inherent characteristics. In this work, we propose a blockchain solution based on the Hyperledger Fabric for the decentralized management of IoT federations and their gover-nance by utilizing voting-based configurable rules that abide to the concept of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). The solution includes smart contracts for the secure creation and management of federations exposed through APIs, as well as a voting application for enabling the DAO dynamic. Our solution demonstrates a secure, trustworthy and transparent way for the formation and membership control of IoT federations, that holds potential for extension with smart contracts related to data marketplace, as well as reputation and tokenization mechanisms.

Publisher's Version