BECIR: A Framework for Identity Resolution in the CIoT With Blockchain and Edge Assistance

Abstract

In the Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT), identity resolution lies on the critical path of service access. The traditional paradigm of “on-chain endorsement, off-chain resolution” still depends on centralized entry points or a small set of fixed nodes. For consumer devices, once such entry points fail or are attacked, resolution interruption and service unavailability can become directly perceivable to consumers. To address this issue, we propose a Blockchain–Edge Collaborative Identity Resolution framework (BECIR). BECIR uses smart contracts to implement full-lifecycle on-chain identifier management and improves consistency, tamper resistance, and traceability without central nodes. To address the inability of resource-constrained consumer devices to maintain full on-chain state, edge proxies are introduced to undertake full-node responsibilities. We further formulate device–edge association as a new multi-objective optimization problem and seek Pareto-optimal trade-offs among security reputation, end-to-end latency, and load balancing. In addition, we develop a scenario-aware reputation model based on global anomaly indicators to characterize node risk dynamically. We also propose CAL-MOGWO, which improves the exploration–convergence balance through quality-aware leader selection, chaotic perturbation, and adaptive weight adjustment. Large-scale simulations show that BECIR maintains low resolution latency under complex network conditions and high concurrency. Compared with several mainstream multi-objective algorithms, CAL-MOGWO achieves better overall convergence and solution distribution quality. In particular, relative to MOGWO, IGD is reduced by 8.02% and 63.65%, and Spacing is reduced by 61.05% and 85.09%, respectively.