Convergence of Blockchain and Edge Computing for Secure and Scalable IIoT Critical Infrastructures in Industry 4.0
Open accessAbstract
Critical infrastructure systems are vital to underpin the functioning of a society and economy. Due to the ever-increasing number of Internet-connected Internet-of-Things (IoT)/Industrial IoT (IIoT), and the high volume of data generated and collected, security and scalability are becoming burning concerns for critical infrastructures in industry 4.0. The blockchain technology is essentially a distributed and secure ledger that records all the transactions into a hierarchically expanding chain of blocks. Edge computing brings the cloud capabilities closer to the computation tasks. The convergence of blockchain and edge computing paradigms can overcome the existing security and scalability issues. In this article, we first introduce the IoT/IIoT critical infrastructure in industry 4.0, and then we briefly present the blockchain and edge computing paradigms. After that, we show how the convergence of these two paradigms can enable secure and scalable critical infrastructures. Then, we provide a survey on the state of the art for security and privacy and scalability of IoT/IIoT critical infrastructures. A list of potential research challenges and open issues in this area is also provided, which can be used as useful resources to guide future research.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
IIoT systems face additional difficulties in terms of scalability due to energy consumption and the need to replenish depleted batteries.
“IIoT systems face additional difficulties in terms of scalability due to energy consumption and the need to replenish depleted batteries [41].”
From A Critical Overview of Industrial Internet of Things Security and Privacy Issues Using a Layer-Based Hacking Scenario (2023) · cites this paper as [41]
Cites
Edge Intelligence: Paving the Last Mile of Artificial Intelligence With Edge Computing
Zhou, Z., Chen, X., Li, E., Zeng, L., Luo, K., & Zhang, J. (2019) · Proceedings of the IEEE · doi:10.1109/jproc.2019.2918951 · Cited by 2,455 · cited 1× · see citing works
“can serve an important complement to IoT devices [166].”
BackgroundSmart contract-based access control for the internet of things
Zhang, Y., Kasahara, S., Shen, Y., Jiang, X., & Wan, J. (2019) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2018.2847705 · Cited by 788 · see citing works
A Learning-Based Incentive Mechanism for Federated Learning
Zhan, Y., Li, P., Qu, Z., Zeng, D., & Guo, S. (2020) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2020.2967772 · Cited by 602 · see citing works
A Trustworthy Privacy Preserving Framework for Machine Learning in Industrial IoT Systems
Arachchige, P. C. M., Bertok, P., Khalil, I., Liu, D., Camtepe, S., & Atiquzzaman, M. (2020) · IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics · doi:10.1109/tii.2020.2974555 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
A Blockchain-SDN-Enabled Internet of Vehicles Environment for Fog Computing and 5G Networks
Gao, J., Obour Agyekum, K. O.-B., Sifah, E. B., Acheampong, K. N., Xia, Q., Du, X., Guizani, M., & Xia, H. (2020) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2019.2956241 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Zuo, Y., Wu, Y., Min, G., Huang, C., & Pei, K. (2020) · IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking · doi:10.1109/tccn.2020.2966615 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A Survey on the Convergence of Edge Computing and AI for UAVs: Opportunities and Challenges
McEnroe, P., Wang, S., & Liyanage, M. (2022) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2022.3176400 · Cited by 482 · see citing works
Key Challenges and Emerging Technologies in Industrial IoT Architectures: A Review
Mirani, A. A., Velasco-Hernandez, G., Awasthi, A., & Walsh, J. (2022) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s22155836 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Eyeleko, A. H., & Feng, T. (2023) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2023.3308195 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“Data format incompatibility and the handling of big data introduce additional challenges to interoperability [37], [41].”
BackgroundJourney from cloud of things to fog of things: survey, new trends, and research directions
Chakraborty, A., Kumar, M., Chaurasia, N., & Gill, S. S. (2023) · Software: Practice and Experience · doi:10.1002/spe.3157 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
A Blockchain-Reinforced Federated Intrusion Detection Architecture for IIoT
Jiang, D., Wang, Z., Wang, Y., Tan, L., Wang, J., & Zhang, P. (2024) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2024.3406602 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wu, Y., Dai, H.-N., & Wang, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Macau University of Science and Technology (MO)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
- Venue
- IEEE Internet of Things Journal
- Published
- 2021-02-15
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 2300-2317
- ISSN
- 2327-4662 (ISSN-L)
- 2372-2541
- OpenAlex
- W3089096050
- Cited by
- 323
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 44.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Internet of Things Journal (publishedVersion)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, U.K. (EP/R030863/1)
- Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (0026/2018/A1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Internet of Things and AI
- Keywords
- blockchain, edge computing, Industrial Internet of Things, critical infrastructure security, scalability, privacy, Industry 4.0, distributed ledger technology, Internet of Things security
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
