Analysis of Blockchain-IoT Connection Patterns based on Clients Type
Shahid Abbas, Sana Amjad, Stefan Craß, Seyed Amid Moeinzadeh Mirhosseini · 2024
The Internet of Things (IoT) has rapidly grown in popularity over recent years, but this growth comes with signifi-cant challenges. Scalability constraints, security vulnerabilities, and data integrity issues have been identified as key concerns. However, blockchain technology may provide a solution due to its decentralised architecture and cryptographic security mechanisms. Despite its potential, integrating blockchain in an IoT environment is complex and challenging. This is due to the diverse nature of IoT devices, including different manufacturers, microcontroller architectures, and firmware versions, as well as their limitations in computational power, memory, and energy resources. To address these challenges, this paper analyses existing studies and their approaches to IoT blockchain integration. We focus specifically on the advantages and drawbacks of direct, indirect, and remote API connections, as well as the implications of using light, fast, or full clients. Additionally, we highlight the importance of considering key factors when selecting a connection pattern and client types. These factors include transaction latency, scalability, trust, query response, resource utilisation, total transaction cost, and total infrastructure cost.