Abstract
Many systems nowadays, such as healthcare systems, are not well integrated with each other and lack the connectivity, transparency or even security. This is causing many issues in this field including transaction delays, medical errors and breach of privacy. To address these major issues, an introduction of a technology that is secure while also transparent is needed. Blockchain technology take up has been significant in the recent past and the technology shows enormous potential for the future. It is a technology that provides the possibility of generating and sharing transaction ledgers that are tamper proof. Its use cases are expanding through multiple areas such as, Internet of Things (IoT), security and even finance. In a Blockchain, each full node must store the full history of the blockchain. This affects transaction times and limits lightweight nodes, such as IoT devices, from joining the network. As time passes, history becomes larger, and the scalability issue will be aggravated. In this thesis we propose a novel blockchain platform with an off-chain solution for solving this storage constraint issue. We integrate a couple of security mechanisms to securely manage the IoT devices and secure the data transferred throughout the blockchain. Finally, we present simulation results and a detailed discussion scenario of the Saudi Arabian Healthcare System.This thesis offers three main contributions to this field of research:
• A proposed blockchain platform using off-chain storage for managing IoT devices.
• A proposed security mechanism for managing IoT devices.
• An implementation of blockchain in the Saudi Arabian health sector.
The first contribution proposed an off-chain storage platform for managing IoT devices. The platform was constructed using Ethereum for its flexibility, availability and usability. A simulation script was written using python and simulations were made for different user groups to test the limitations of the platform while focusing on transaction rates and the read and write speeds from and to the blockchain. In order to properly simulate the speed of the system, the creation of a private blockchain was necessary to remove the variables affecting the transaction speed (such as block size and transaction count) on a public network, allowing a more accurate simulation to be made. Secondly, a security mechanism was constructed and implemented within the platform and the blockchain to securely manage all IoT devices connected to the system. Data Encryption and Data Validation were implemented and a tier level has been constructed with each user being assigned a different tier level access to avoid tampering with data. In a blockchain, public and private key play an important role in verifying the owner of the transaction as well as digital signatures. To verify if digital signature is true or false, both digital signature and private key of the user are validated using the cryptographic functions, based on the results, the transaction will be declared valid or invalid. Later we test our proposed security mechanisms against DDoS attack for validation purposes. Finally, the system was implemented in a real time scenario. For this implementation, the Saudi Arabian Health Sector has been used as well as the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health as the main contract deployer. A list of 50 Saudi Arabian hospitals were obtained and implemented in the platform using random generators for doctors and patients. Following that, a front end page has been designed that reads the data directly from the platform. And in the end we show why and how the Saudi Arabian Health Sector can benefit from our module implementation. According to many real-world issues and scenarios, there is no ideal approach that could present the best comprehensive outcome. In this thesis, we took a far-reaching step by proposing and developing an off-chain storage platform to securely manage IoT devices using blockchain technology while using Bitcoin as our benchmark against our transaction rates and our read and write speed. Furthermore, we have developed our own cryptographic techniques to test and proof that our proposed solution is as secure as the traditional blockchain security mechanism. Finally, we implemented a private blockchain and integrated it within the Saudi Arabian Healthcare system which helped in clarifying the transparency and security needed within the blockchain technology for such systems. More analysis and experimentation with different approaches with real-life scenarios are needed. We believe that the effort and work presented in this thesis will assist and complement future research in the fields of blockchain technology, off-chain storage and IoT.
| Date of Award | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Kumudu MUNASINGHE (Supervisor), Dharmendra Sharma AM PhD (Supervisor) & Abbas Jamalipour (Supervisor) |