ABC-GSPBFT: PBFT with grouping score mechanism and optimized consensus process for flight operation data-sharing

The flight operation data sharing not only brings huge benefits to all participants, but also puts forward higher requirements for data security. Consortium blockchain provides a new approach to safely sharing flight operation data in an untrusted environment. Practical Byzantine Fault-Tolerant (PBFT) algorithm is one of the most widely used consensus algorithms in consortium blockchain, but it exists some problems, such as static structure, low consensus efficiency and large communication overhead. To solve these problems, a PBFT with grouping score mechanism and artificial bee colony-optimized consensus process, namely ABC-GSPBFT, is designed to construct the consortium blockchain for sharing flight operation data. Firstly, the artificial bee colony algorithm is used to pre-select a collection of reliable nodes to narrow the scope of consensus. Then, the grouping score mechanism is employed to dynamically update the consensus nodes to further narrow the scope of consensus and enhance the reliability of consensus nodes. Finally, the commit stage of the PBFT algorithm is reasonably simplified to improve consensus efficiency. The actual flight operation data is selected to test and verify the effectiveness of the ABC-GSPBFT algorithm. The analysis and experimental results show that the ABC-GSPBFT algorithm can greatly reduce consensus delay and communication overhead, and improve dynamic performance and consensus efficiency of the flight data sharing. It is an effective method for safely, reliably and efficiently sharing flight data.