Reliable-RPL: A Reliability-Aware RPL Protocol Using Trust-Based Blockchain System for Internet of Things

Abstract

Routing protocol for low-power and lossy network (RPL) is a routing protocol for resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) network devices. RPL has become a widely adopted protocol for routing in low-powered device networks. However, it lacks essential security features, including end-to-end security, robust authentication, and intrusion detection capabilities. Blockchain is a decentralized and immutable digital ledger that records transactions across multiple computers. It provides privacy, transparency, security, and trust. In this work, we proposed a blockchain-based reliable RPL protocol called reliable-RPL, which uses node reliability, link reliability, and relative trust scores of RPL-enabled IoT devices. The parent selection and network topology formulation are based on the proposed reliability-aware objective function. A lightweight ECC-based scheme performs registration, identification, and authentication of RPL-enabled IoT devices. The consistent topological updates from these authenticated IoT devices are used to secure routing paths in RPL-enabled networks. Using a modified trickle algorithm, we employed a reputation-based trust system that monitors and labels malicious nodes based on their reliable activities. The novelty of the proposed framework relies on integrating Contiki-NG (as fronted for IoT network simulation) and Hyperledger Fabric (as a backend for blockchain-based device authentication and trust-based attack resilience regarding rank, replay, sinkhole, and route poisoning attacks). The experimental evaluation of reliable-RPL has demonstrated its effectiveness compared to state-of-the-art methods regarding significant performance metrics, including packet loss, routing overhead, and throughput on Hyperledger Caliper.