A Hybrid BlockChain-Based Identity Authentication Scheme for Multi-WSN

• Published in: IEEE transactions on services computing Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 241 - 251
• Main Authors: Cui, Zhihua, Xue, Fei, Zhang, Shiqiang, Cai, Xingjuan, Cao, Yang, Zhang, Wensheng, Chen, Jinjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01-03-2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Authentication; Base stations; Blockchain; Clusters; Cryptography; hierarchical network; Hybrid blockchain; identity authentication; Internet of Things; IoT; muti-WSN; Nodes; Peer-to-peer computing; Protocol (computers); Security; Trusted third parties; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 1939-1374; 2372-0204
• DOI: 10.1109/TSC.2020.2964537

Internet of Things (IoT) equipment is usually in a harsh environment, and its security has always been a widely concerned issue. Node identity authentication is an important means to ensure its security. Traditional IoT identity authentication protocols usually rely on trusted third parties. However, many IoT environments do not allow such conditions, and are prone to single point failure. Blockchain technology with decentralization features provides a new solution for distributed IoT system. In this paper, a blockchain based multi-WSN authentication scheme for IoT is proposed. The nodes of IoT are divided into base stations, cluster head nodes and ordinary nodes according to their capability differences, which are formed to a hierarchical network. A blockchain network is constructed among different types of nodes to form a hybrid blockchain model, including local chain and public chain. In this hybrid model, nodes identity mutual authentication in various communication scenarios is realized, ordinary node identity authentication operation is accomplished by local blockchain, and cluster head node identity authentication are realized in public blockchain. The analysis of security and performance shows that the scheme has comprehensive security and better performance.