QoS-Aware Federated Crosschain-Based Model-Driven Reference Architecture for IIoT Sensor Networks in Distributed Manufacturing

The realm of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) encompasses a broad spectrum of sensors that are integral to distributed smart manufacturing (DSM). The miscellaneous IIoT sensors deployed for DSM are distributed and operate in a hierarchical and federated structure. Nonetheless, fulfilling essential quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as ensuring security and privacy (integrity) while maintaining scalability and interoperability (robustness), poses a profound challenge for the DSM cloud service platform. Although blockchain technologies have been used to safeguard integrity, the first two generations have imposed constraints on robustness. In contrast, the third-generation blockchain, a.k.a. decentralized crosschain ecosystem, complements Web 3.0 and metaverse and can mitigate the constraints of previous generations. Moreover, blockchain-based ad hoc solutions for DSM use cases are abundant; they often suffer from limited adaptability and unique or homogeneous use cases from a software engineering perspective. A holistic architectural modeling process (AMP) leading to a software reference architecture (SRA) is preferred when alleviating ad hoc constraints. Therefore, we proposed an AMP for SRA for crosschain-based DSM that safeguards integrity while preserving robustness. In the work described in this article, we have conducted the following system—modeling process. First, we propose a novel software AMP for DSM. Second, we deduce a modeled SRA based on a crosschain. Third, we infer a modeled system architecture (SA). Empirical experiment results demonstrate that our proposed crosschain-based method outperforms the widely used on-chain-based method while achieving our objectives efficiently.