A nodal Authentication IoT Data Model for Heterogeneous Connected Sensor Nodes Within a Blockchain Network

Modern IoT infrastructure consists of different sub-systems, devices, applications, platforms, varied connectivity protocols with distinct operating environments scattered across different subsystems within the whole network. Each of these subsystems of the global system has its peculiar computational and security challenges. A security loophole in one subsystem has a directly negative impact on the security of the whole system. The nature and intensity of recent cyber-attacks within IoT networks have increased in recent times. Blockchain technology promises several security benefits including a decentralized authentication mechanism that addresses almost readily the challenges with a centralized authentication mechanism that has the challenges of introducing a single point of failure that affects data and system availability anytime such systems are compromised. The different design specifications and the unique functional requirements for most IoT devices require a strong yet universal authentication mechanism for multimedia data that assures an additional security layer to IoT data. In this paper, the authors propose a decentralized authentication to validate data integrity at the IoT node level. The proposed mechanism guarantees integrity, privacy, and availability of IoT node data.