Internet of Things (IoT) networks are typically composed of many sensors and actuators. The operation controls for robots in smart factories or drones produce a massive volume of data that requires high reliability. A blockchain architecture can be used to build highly reliable IoT networks. The shared ledger and open data validation among users guarantee extremely high data security. However, current blockchain technology has limitations for its overall application across IoT networks. Because general permission-less blockchain networks typically target high-performance network nodes with sufficient computing power, a blockchain node with low computing power and memory, such as an IoT sensor/actuator, cannot operate in a blockchain as a fully functional node. A lightweight blockchain provides practical blockchain availability over IoT networks. We propose essential operational advances to develop a lightweight blockchain over IoT networks. A dynamic network configuration enforced by deep clustering provides ad-hoc flexibility for IoT network environments. The proposed graph neural network technique enhances the efficiency of dApp (distributed application) spreading across IoT networks. In addition, the proposed blockchain technology is highly implementable in software because it adopts the Hyperledger development environment. Directly embedding the proposed blockchain middleware platform in small computing devices proves the practicability of the proposed methods.
Funding: This work was supported in part by a grant from the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion (IITP) funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and Information Technology) (Versatile Network System Architecture for Multi-Dimensional Diversity) under Grant 2016000160, and in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and Information Technology) under Grant 2020R1F1A1049553.
