A Trust-Aware Task Allocation Method Based on Blockchain for The Internet of Things

Abstract

In IoT systems, evaluating the trustworthiness of users and devices before relying on their information is a significant problem. Preserving privacy, decentralization, and self-management without the need of a third party is an open problem in trust management in IoT systems. Collecting reputation feedback and shreds of evidence can also be a source of security issues. On the other hand, blockchain is a promising approach for such environments where centralization and trusted third parties can cause security issues. We present a method by extending Contract Net Protocol for task allocation, which can be exploited as a base for trust management in IoT systems. This method allocates tasks to participants through smart contracts, and feedback values are securely collected in the blockchain. After registration of devices, all communications among IoT devices are handled by smart contracts, and reputation values are maintained in blockchain only when a previous task allocation is successfully taken place. The proposed method is evaluated by experiments on Hyperledger Fabric, and results are reported. Our findings indicate that the proposed method enables the IoT environment to collect feedback values robustly. The technique can be applied in a blockchain-based trust management model for security enhancement.