Customized blockchain-based architecture for secure smart home for lightweight IoT

Abstract Safeguarding security and privacy remains a major challenge with regards to the Internet of Things (IoT) primarily due to the large scale and distribution of IoT networks. The information systems in Smart Homes are mainly based on sharing information through smart devices (IoT) and embedded sensors. Each sensor generates data to be processed or assembled by a central system. This data, while being transmitted over the internet to other users or servers, can be compromised for its privacy, user confidentiality and/or service availability. This paper proposes a novel Blockchain-based solution for secure smart home systems, using a combined hyperledger fabric and hyperledger composer. This solution is designed to overcome reported security limitations in commonly used permissioned blockchains approaches. The proposed architecture contains four layers: Cloud storage, Hyperledger fabric, Hyperledger composer, and a smart home layer. Another important aspect of the proposed solution is the mapping of the attributes of a smart home to those from the hyperledger composer. This mapping allows for a customized, designed-for-purpose solution which can meet the security requirements for IoT based smart homes. The proposed architecture was implemented and tested to improve the integrity, confidentiality, availability, authorization and privacy of smart homes as well as some inherited features, including transparency and interoperability.