Secure Blockchain-Based Routing Framework for IoT Networks Using Lightweight Consensus Mechanisms to Enhance Routing Security

Internet of Things (IoT) is experiencing a rapid growth and has led to the deployment of billions of interconnected devices in various applications such as healthcare, smart cities, industrial automation, environmental monitoring etc. Although the advantages of IoT technology, the security of the routing protocols is still a significant concern because of the emerging attacks like blackhole, wormhole, sinkhole and Sybil attacks. The traditional security approaches usually use a centralized architecture which is prone to single-point failures and is not appropriate for a distributed architecture like IoT. In addition, traditional consensus mechanisms for blockchain networks are energy-intensive and demand significant computational power, which may not be feasible for resource-constrained IoT networks. The current study aimed to enhance the security of routing in IoT Networks by introducing a Secure Blockchain-Based Routing Framework (SBBRF) with Lightweight Consensus Mechanisms (LCM) to ensure communication efficiency and security. The framework combines the use of blockchain technology, trust-aware routing, smart contracts, and lightweight consensus mechanisms, such as the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) and Proof of Authority (PoA), to deliver trust management for decentralized networks, authentication for network routes, and detection of malicious nodes. The system is implemented with the help of network simulation using NS-3 and blockchain using Hyperledger Fabric. A trust classification model was trained and tested with the node behavioural data, and the accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score were 96.8%, 95.9%, 97.4% and 96.6% respectively. The results of the performance evaluation indicated that the proposed framework could attain a packet delivery ratio of 96.5%, throughput of 940Kbps, end-to-end delay of 92ms, energy consumption of 2.91J and routing overhead of 1180 control packets. The framework also achieved an average of 96.6% attack detection rate on blackhole, wormhole, Sybil and sinkhole attacks. The outcomes show that the proposed framework is safe, scalable, and energy-efficient routing solution that can enhance the communication reliability and cybersecurity in modern IoT networks.

Internet of Things Blockchain Routing Security Lightweight Consensus Mechanisms PBFT Proof of Authority Trust-Aware Routing Hyperledger Fabric Smart Contracts Cybersecurity

To solve the security challenges of the IoT communication and routing, this study introduced a Secure Blockchain-Based Routing Framework (SIBR) for the IoT networks with Lightweight Consensus Mechanisms. The proposed framework combines several key elements, such as blockchain technology, trust-aware routing, smart contracts, and lightweight consensus mechanisms, including Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) and Proof of Authority (PoA), to create a decentralized and secure routing system. The combination of blockchain-based trust management and efficient routing mechanisms successfully ensured data integrity, route authenticity and mitigated malicious network activities while preserving the resource constraint of the IoT devices.

The testing accuracy, precision, recall and F1 score of the trust classification component were 96.8%, 95.9%, 97.4% and 96.6%, respectively, showing its effectiveness. Moreover, the network performance evaluation revealed that the network performance had improved considerably as compared to conventional routing protocols. The proposed framework resulted in a packet delivery ratio of 96.5%, throughput of 940Kbps, end-to-end delay of 92ms, energy consumption of 2.91J and routing overhead of 1180 control packets. The findings show that the lightweight blockchain consensus methods can be integrated to improve routing efficiency and reliability in communication while providing minimal computational and energy cost.

Furthermore, it proved to be highly resilient to the common IoT routing attacks such as blackhole, wormhole, Sybil and sinkhole with average attack detection percentages of 96.6%, 96.4%, 96.5%, and 97.0%, respectively. This trust management system, which utilized the blockchain technology, was able to effectively detect and isolate malicious nodes, thereby enhancing the overall security and stability of the blockchain network. The results indicate that the proposed Secure Blockchain Based Routing Framework is scalable, decentralized, and energy efficient solution for securing IoT network. It has a great potential to be implemented in smart city applications, healthcare systems, industrial Internet of Things applications and other communication infrastructure dependent applications.

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