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Advancing Secure and Efficient Sensor Data Integration in Smart Cities: A Blockchain-Based Approach
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Submitted:
03 June 2024
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05 June 2024
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Abstract
As technology advances, people are increasingly adopting IoT (Internet of Things) devices in smart cities. These devices are equipped with sensors that are connected everywhere, from energy infrastructure and transportation to telecommunications, health and human services, waste management, public safety, and more. People want to access sensor data anytime and everywhere to make better decisions and improve their lives. To achieve this, a sensor integration model has been developed where multiple sensors are integrated under one gateway to manage and share sensor data. However, effective sharing of sensor data requires data security, privacy, confidentiality, fairness, effective architectural design, and low communication and computation costs. These issues need to be addressed in the sensor integration model in smart cities. Existing storage models face challenges in managing sensor data effectively. To overcome these issues and hurdles, a data storage framework leveraging blockchain technology has been proposed within the sensor integration model. This framework ensures data security, privacy, confidentiality, and a fair and transparent financial model, all while minimizing communication and computation costs.
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Subject: Computer Science and Mathematics - Computer Networks and Communications
1. Introduction
As technology advances and urban populations grow, cities face many challenges spanning waste management, healthcare, water distribution, and education. In response, smart cities have emerged as a promising solution, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to tackle these issues effectively. Central to the concept of smart cities is integrating sensors into Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed across various urban domains such as hospitals, roads, homes, and public spaces [1]. This integration allows for collecting and utilizing sensor data to enhance quality of life and operational efficiency [2].
Moreover, recent technological advancements have propelled smart cities towards greater sophistication by integrating electronic and physical sensors into urban infrastructure. This integration, coupled with the widespread adoption of mobile devices, underscores the importance of exploring various concepts within the smart city framework, including motivations, object aspects, contributors, and legal frameworks [3]. As urban populations continue to grow, projections indicate a significant increase in networked sensors by 2030, highlighting the urgent need for robust sensor and data management strategies [4].
The Sensor Integration Model, comprising sensor service providers, data providers, and data purchasers, offers a structured framework for streamlined sensor deployment and data access within smart cities [5]. Despite its potential benefits, unresolved issues persist across economic, social, and technical domains. This study aims to address financial and technological concerns surrounding data storage, accuracy, confidentiality, security, and fairness within the Sensor Integration Model [6]
In particular, achieving fairness in data transactions necessitates the development of equitable business models and trust mechanisms. Blockchain technology is a promising solution to enhance fairness and transparency within the Sensor Integration Model. [7]. However, challenges such as computing costs and scalability hinder the widespread adoption of blockchain-based solutions in smart cities, emphasizing the need for continued research and innovation in this field [8,9]
The proposed solution introduces a comprehensive sensor integration model and data storage framework comprising four main participants: sensors and sensor owners, sensor data consumers, sensor service providers, and blockchain technology. Sensors deployed to detect various physical occurrences are associated with sensor owners who may choose to offer their data for free or for a fee [10,11]. The sensor service provider acts as a platform facilitating registration, data transactions, and storage, leveraging blockchain for secure and transparent operations. Sensor data consumers, ranging from governmental bodies to commercial entities, access sensor data via the platform, with transactions executed seamlessly through blockchain smart contracts. The security requirements of the data storage framework include pseudonymity, unlinkability, and traceability, ensuring confidentiality and authenticity in data transactions. Infrastructure development involves sensor integration, registration processes, secure data storage mechanisms, and implementation of blockchain technology [12]. Testing and optimizing the proposed system, including gas cost analysis in Ethereum, ensure efficiency and scalability in real-world applications.
The subsequent sections of this paper are structured as follows: Section 2 delves into the exploration of related works. Section 3 outlines the architecture of the proposed sensor integration model and data storage framework. Section 4 details the implementation stages of the proposed solution. Section 5 evaluates the proposed solution based on the obtained results. Finally, Section 6 concludes the paper by summarizing the findings.
2. Literature Review
The sensor data storage framework uses cloud services to interact with the IoT. It provides the data effectively and securely based on the user’s requirements. The Internet of Things (IoT) allows for the virtual communication of objects and the physical communication, sensing, computation, and processing of data via sensors and other physical devices [13]. The applications that belong to the IoT usually communicate with the services of physical devices or sensors [14]. Sensors on smart devices perform the operations related to sensing data for an IoT platform. The cloud servers manage sensor data collection, and all the required data is obtained through an IoT application in a pay-as-you-go manner. The quality of predicted data analytics is increased, and seamless internal and external networks support efficient automated mechanisms by checking all the data that are consumed by the sensors on physical devices. The IoT continues to face its most significant challenges related to data management in terms of its analysis, consumption, and usage. IoT must be designed and managed so that it can take advantage of the nearly limitless capabilities that Cloud Computing can offer, for instance, to make up for the smart device’s technological gaps [15]. The Cloud servers can act as a transitory layer among IoT Objects and IoT applications to manage resources effectively.
Table 1.
Summary of Literature review.
 |
The authorization of access control standards has been aided by integrating cryptographic techniques and role-based access management in cloud servers, ensuring safe information storage and exchange [16]. Customers can scramble their data, allowing only those who are officially authorized to decipher and access it per defined access agreements. However, despite these precautions, confidence in the effective management of customer data by access control providers still exists, underscoring the growing difficulty of ensuring reliability in cloud environments. In another work in [17], the authors propose a mechanism called Role-Based Get to Control (RBAC), that is introduced for ensuring dependability and improving information protection and security in cloud servers. Their program enables data owners to assess the dependability of access configurations and components, assisting in decisions about storing disorganized data. They provide a dependable cloud capacity framework engineering by combining a reliability demonstration with cryptographic RBAC arrangements, reducing risks and advancing information owner evaluations. Moreover, the authors in [18] suggest an attribute-based cloud data-sharing system for low-resource mobile users. The approach minimizes computational work by using offline partial encryption and system characteristics. It uses Chameleon hashing to generate cipher-texts instantaneously, disguising offline ciphertexts with online ones. The technology ensures safe data exchange in cloud contexts by effectively thwarting attacks via adaptively determined ciphertexts.
For cloud storage, the study in [19] proposed ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption, incorporating effective user revocation. The method keeps costs low by contracting with cloud providers to do sophisticated computations, even if it has high computational expenses. It features minimal and stable computing costs on local devices, is immune to collusion attacks, and guarantees file content and key confidentiality. Hence, it is appropriate for devices with constrained resources. Another work by [20] focuses on a secure proxy re-encryption method for cloud-based systems that manage IoT data that is outsourced from IoT devices. Their method is predicated on the notion that bilinear inverse Diffie-Hellman is hard. Their method enables bidirectional ciphertext conversions even in scenarios involving numerous IoT nodes. Their system’s re-encryption processes only take one exponentiation, or 54 milliseconds, to complete while sending data between 100 nodes. In contrast, the study in [21] introduced an IoT access control system based on blockchain. Blockchain, attribute-based access control, and identity-based signatures are all integrated into one system. They created distinct blockchain ledgers for each functional area into which they separated the IoT platform. Access policies, digests, and attributes are managed using these ledgers. Their approach combines Identity-based signature (IBS) and Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) channel architecture to prevent DDoS assaults and to identify decentralized policy decision points for runtime policy enforcement.
Another work in [22] seeks to resolve security issues with the Sensing as a Service (SaaS) IoT approach in their study. In this paradigm, sensor data is sold on a marketplace. The researchers suggest a secure authentication and key management system to reduce vulnerabilities in the open service industry. Their approach does away with traditional smart cards by providing a user-friendly website that allows efficient and safe access to sensor data. A publish/subscribe approach powers the system, making it simple for users to register, log in, and request data. The data is sent to the relevant sensor and fog nodes upon receipt of a request. The system verifies user identity and data integrity before accessing the requested data. Furthermore, a decentralized reputation and reward system for mobile crowd-sensing networks has been proposed by [23]. Their objectives are to increase involvement and address weaknesses like intrusions and invasions of privacy. They use reputation management strategies and cutting-edge encryption standards to do this. Similarly, the study in[24] proposes a grouping memetic algorithm for wireless sensor network energy optimization. This algorithm is designed especially for the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in smart cities. The algorithm effectively plans out sensing tasks by solving the SET K-COVER issue. The ultimate objective is reducing energy consumption and maximizing coverage among heterogeneous sensor nodes.
Moreover, the authors in [25] offer a thorough analysis of the difficulties encountered in the Internet of Things space and suggest a blockchain-based remedy. In order to address issues like the removal of centralized authority, faster peer messaging, efficient resource utilization, secure code deployment, data security, transparency, improved interoperability, identity management, and reliability improvement, they advocate for adopting an integrated architectural design incorporating blockchain technology. Sensing, cloudlet, and dew layers make up the suggested architecture. To address issues with security, privacy, device constraints, massive data processing, and network infrastructure traffic, blockchain is integrated into the dew and cloudlet levels. Smart contracts are used in various IoT systems to facilitate protocol integration and authentication, reducing security risks, data storage requirements, computational intensity, network congestion, device limits, and data privacy.
Table 1 summarizes the related work discussed above and outlines each study’s focus, method/approach, advantages, and limitations.
3. Proposed Solution
3.1. System Model
The proposed sensor integration model and data storage framework involve four main participants: sensors and sensor owners, sensor data consumers, sensor service providers, and blockchain technology. Figure 1 illustrates the communication flow of the Sensor Integration Model. Further details about their roles are provided below.
3.2. Sensors and Sensor Owners
Typically, sensors are connected to items to detect, measure, or sense a physical occurrence, like the temperature of the environment, relative humidity, moisture level, etc. For example, streets and roads contain sensors that monitor traffic and atmospheric conditions, and microwaves or coffee makers might also have sensors that identify activities like the daily consumption count. Certain anti-disassembled mechanisms are presumed to protect the sensors from being disassembled. Additionally, each sensor is assumed to possess security features for securely storing private keys and managing cryptographic operations. The data collected from deployed sensors can be used to evaluate conditions of different requirements more thoroughly or assist us in quickly identifying user choices and actions. Every sensor often relates to a specific person, referred to as the sensor owner, and that person’s association with the registered sensors can shift from time to time. The sensor owner might offer the sensor data for free without any fee or set a price to recover costs or enhance the user experience. Figure 2 depicts the flow of sensor data provider registration.
3.2.1. Sensor Service Provider
Even though suggested by its name, this entity is in charge of offering specialized services. Initially, it provides a platform for registering such entities, like sensor owners and sensor data consumers [26]. Those individuals that are authorized and registered on the platform are able to purchase or sell their sensor data or get additional services offered on the platform by the sensor service provider. Those features involve finding the targeted sensor’s owner or sensor data consumer, cloud storage is used for safely maintaining the sensor data, tracking accountability for handling disputes, and more [27]. This is important to note that registrations and finding functions are carried through a blockchain ledger, or more accurately, a smart contract. The assumption is made that the sensor service provider may be trustworthy, yet there is uncertainty regarding its dedication to rigorously adhere to responsibilities such as registration, findings, and data storage. Figure 3 illustrates the flow of uploading sensor data.
3.2.2. Sensor Data Consumers
Those members could be governmental bodies, commercial entities, schools, universities, or science and research societies that intend to buy the sensor data for the abovementioned purposes. Owners of the sensors can decide on a recurring payment schedule, a cost-per-consumption model, or even opt to give away the sensor data for free. However, these possibilities are not considered, and instead, a consistent periodic payment strategy is selected. Each individual must sign up individually and request legitimate authorization from the sensor service provider. After that, they can use the blockchain to look up the desired sensor’s owner and buy the sensor data. According to our idea, blockchain smart contracts will perform the transaction procedure seamlessly. Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6 provide a visual representation of the different flows in the system. Figure 4 shows the registration flow for the sensor data consumer, Figure 5 illustrates the search for sensor data flow, and Figure 6 depicts the complete transaction flow.
3.2.3. Blockchain
Any blockchain that supports the implementation of smart contracts, such as Ethereum or Hyperledger, could be implemented into our system [28]. Smart contracts serve two significant purposes. Initially, it will act as a registration mechanism for entities permitted by the sensor service provider and keep track of their pseudonym identification. Secondly, it can mediate between the sensor owner and the sensor data customers, deciding whether or not to transmit the paid amount to the sensor owner. Every time a smart contract is engaged, the transaction would specifically be issued. The detailed set of Algorithms (Algorithm 1 to Algorithm 9) are explained below.
3.3. Security Requirements for the Data Storage Framework System
This section outlines essential measures to ensure sensor data’s integrity, confidentiality, and accountability. This encompasses pseudonym management, unlinkability, traceability, revocation mechanisms, authenticity, confidentiality, and fairness, as detailed in subsequent subsections. These requirements form the foundation for the secure operation of the data storage framework, safeguarding sensitive information and promoting trust in the system’s functionality and governance.
3.3.1. Pseudonyms
The sensor service provider can register several different usernames for both sensor data consumers and sensor data providers [29]. This characteristic indicates a single person can access multiple pseudonyms to use diverse sensor services. Therefore, the objective of protecting identification and confidentiality is achieved; in other words, the actual identity is concealed behind the pseudonyms.
3.3.2. Being Unlinkable and Tracability
Any pseudonym being used various sensor services registered with the same real name are not supposed to be linked to one another. But, the sensor service provider must be capable of disclosing the real identity of such a particular pseudonym to ensure responsibility for such untruthful or even harmful acts.
3.3.3. A Successful Revocation
The platform must additionally include a reliable revocation method that can be used to revoke the authorization for all pseudonyms that belong to the fraudulent entity. Everyone who engages in misleading or malicious behavior would not have the ability to access sensor services and may potentially face punishment.
3.3.4. Authenticity
While transmitting data, the sensing service and sensor must be capable of fully identifying one another, particularly whenever the sensor service provider could verify that perhaps the sensor data received is indeed coming from the actual sensor [30].
3.3.5. Confidentiality
The sensor data must be safely sent and kept because the sensor service provider is trustworthy but interested. Additionally, the operator of the sensor, as well as the data consumer, must covertly exchange the key necessary to decrypt the encrypted sensor data.
3.3.6. Fairness
In the proposed system, fairness must be realized even without the involvement of an additional party. A malicious sensor data consumer cannot get the genuine data of the sensor without paying a fair service cost. If the sensor owner gives the sensor data to consumers with inaccurate sensor information, they are punished.
3.4. Infrastructure
First, we gather sample data of multiple heterogeneous sensors that are used in smart cities then we work on the integration and registration process of sensors on the sensor integration model service, which involves registering all of the information about the sensor and its sensing data. Next, we’ll focus on the sensor data consumer registration process on the sensor integration model service. After that, other features offered by the sensor integration model service will be developed, including finding sensor data owners and consumers and a secure storage framework of sensor data. Our data storage framework system will be built using the encryption algorithm, a secure symmetrical encryption technique, and a secure signature algorithm. Then, we work on the blockchain for our data storage framework. Any blockchain that supports smart contracts (like Ethereum or Hyperledger) can be used in our proposed method for data storage. A smart contract has two functions. It can first act as a registration mechanism for the entities permitted by the sensor service provider, maintaining their pseudonym information. Second, it can mediate between the sensor owner and the data customer, deciding whether or not to transmit the prepaid deposit to the sensor owner. The remix3 browser solidity, which provides an integrated development environment for testing smart contracts, will be used to construct the smart contract prototype. After installing the smart contract, we will test the gas costs of each function. The cost of gas in the Ethereum system serves as a benchmark for the payment of certain related computations or storage.
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Research manuscripts reporting large datasets that are deposited in a publicly available database should specify where the data have been deposited and provide the relevant accession numbers. If the accession numbers have not yet been obtained at the time of submission, please state that they will be provided during review.
Interventional studies involving animals or humans and other studies that require ethical approval must list the authority that provided approval and the corresponding ethical approval code.
4. Implementation and Evaluation
In this section, we present the details of the implementation and experimental setup of the sensor integration model. Additionally presented are the data-gathering techniques and evaluation tools used. The section also addresses the data obtained, evaluation measures, and data-gathering methods to implement the proposed model. The remaining section have been organized as follows: Section 4.1 defines the experimental setup. Section 4.2 defines the implementation of the Sensor integration model. Section 4.3 explains the methods for gathering the data used in the proposed framework. Section 4.4 describes various evaluation metrics that were applied to assess the system’s performance.
4.1. Experimental Setup
Figure 7 presents the complete architecture diagram of the Sensor Integration Model. Moreover, The details of the experimental setup are described in this subsection. It defines the environment configurations and deployment details.
4.1.1. Smart Contract
Initially, the prototype for the smart contract is established using a browser-based Solidity development environment, such as Remix3. The core of our simulation is built upon Solidity for creating smart contracts. It gives users access to the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for deployment and testing of smart contracts. The configurational setup of the smart contract consists of:
- Programming Language: Solidity
- Compiler: Remix IDE - version 0.33.0
- Ethereum virtual machine version: Default version of compiler
- The deployment environment: Ganache
- Cryptocurrency: Ether
- Cryptocurrency wallet: Metamask
- Plugins: Debugging, deploying and running transactions, Solidity statistical analysis, and Solidity testing
Solidity is an object-oriented programming language for building smart contracts on different blockchain systems.
4.1.2. Smart Contract Deployment Environment
Then, we set up the deployment environment of the smart contract. We have deployed the smart contract on Truffle Ganache. For blockchains corresponding with Ethereum and the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), truffle provides a development platform. It functions like a DevOps environment to enable the deployment and testing of smart contracts. Ganache, a component within the "Truffle Suite" of items, works as a local host blockchain where you may securely deploy the smart contracts. Ganache is a private blockchain for developing distributed applications quickly with Filecoin and Ethereum. It may be applied throughout the whole development cycle, allowing you to create, distribute, and evaluate your dApps in a secure and predictable environment. You may develop and test programs using your PC.
4.1.3. Cryptocurrency Wallet - Metamask
We have set up our ganache environment, connected the ganache environment with Metamask, and linked the ganache test accounts on Metamask wallet. MetaMask is used When interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. It enables individuals to communicate with decentralized applications by giving them access to their Ethereum wallet via an extension for their browser. To connect with MetaMask we have provided the Network Name, RPC URL, Chain ID, Currency Symbol, Block Explorer URL, and account private key.
4.1.4. Sensor Integration Model User Interface
To provide the User Interface for our proposed model. A web application has been developed to provide sensor data consumers and sensor data providers access to a management portal for their data. We have developed a web application on .NET core 6.0. .NET is an open-source, cross-platform development environment that can create various applications. Many large-scale programs employ the highly efficient runtime on which.NET is based in their production environments.
4.1.5. Data Management
We have set up the database for the management of the auditing of sensor service providers, sensor data consumers, system-level configurations, and sensor data stored in encrypted form.
4.2. Implementation of Sensor Integration Model
Following the implementation of smart contracts on Solidity Remix and the deployment of these contracts on Ganache, the MetaMask extension was installed on the browser. MetaMask was then connected to Ganache, enabling all transactions to be processed through MetaMask-linked accounts from Ganache. In the Ganache test environment, some test accounts contains test Ethers for testing transactions. For users to interact with our proposed model, we have deployed the web application and APIs on our local PC, deployed the database on the SQL server in 2019, and connected our web application and APIs with the database. The web application serves as a portal for sensor data providers and consumers. It contains operations like registration and Login/authentication, sensor registration, sensor data push, Getting sensor details, Getting transaction details for sensor data providers, and operations like registration and Login/authentication, payment, and searching sensor data for sensor data consumers. The detailed Sensor Integration Model Work Flow is illustrated in Figure 8.
4.3. Methods for Gathering Data
In our proposed model, there are two options for consuming the user’s sensor data.
4.3.1. Sensor’s Direct Push
In this method, we assume that the newly built sensors in the market can connect to our APIs, configure the schedule for pushing the data, register the sensors, register as a data provider through the sensors company portal or apps, and push the sensors data on APIs. For that purpose, we have developed rest APIs to perform the registration of data providers and sensors, upload and get the sensor’s data, perform the transactions, etc
4.3.2. API Call
In this method, the user can extract their sensor data from their sensor management portal or data storage of the device, save the data in the file, and push the data file on our APIs.
4.4. APIs Methods and Types
Following the APIs that contain detailed information of its operations are proposed by our sensor integration model to integrate with any sensor for data provider registration and Login/authentication, sensor registration, sensor data push, Get sensor details, Get transaction details, data consumer registration and Login/authentication, payment, search sensor data. The APIs are developed on .Net core 6.0 with C sharp. All the APIs are rest APIs. ASP.Net core is a lightweight, high-performance, cost-effective approach that provides a modular HTTP request pipeline.
4.5. Evaluation Metrics
This section examines the capabilities of the Sensors Integration Model and highlights its aspects based on the initial information collected. The following characteristics are discussed to validate our proposed framework.
- The computational and communication cost based on smart contract gas cost.
- Fairness of the proposed model.
- Security analysis between traditional sensors data providing
4.5.1. The Computational and Communication Cost Based on Smart Contract Gas Cost
The proposed solution is evaluated using the following performance metrics of communication and computational cost based on the gas cost consumption of smart contracts.
- The amount of gas cost consumed by smart contracts
- Transaction cost.
- Execution cost.
Each function’s gas consumption is described in full, along with the cost in ethers and dollars. Equation 1 is used to determine the total cost in GWEI1.
For the purpose of the smart contract cost test, the standard cost of gas has been selected at 10 GWEI. Given that each function uses a different amount of gas, each function’s cost is also different.
4.5.2. Fairness of the Proposed Model
One of the aspects of the evaluation matrix of our proposed model is fairness. Our proposed model achieves fairness in regular trade without the intervention of any third party. However, the sensor service provider must take action when the claim occurs. In the other situation, the security of the smart contract and our proposed system’s invulnerability guarantee the sensor owner’s fairness.
4.5.3. Security Analysis Between Traditional Sensors Data Providing
Our proposed sensor integration model also compares security analysis with traditional sensor data. We will evaluate our system with conventional systems based on identity management, traceability, confidentiality, blockchain storage, universality, and fairness.
5. Experimental Results and Performance Analysis
The evaluation of the Sensor Integration Model and the key conclusions of our research are presented in this section. The performance of the sensor integration model is first evaluated based on the submitted results. To evaluate the effectiveness of our model, we calculate the computational and communication costs of smart contracts based on gas costs. Second, we present a comparative security analysis of traditional sensors and data-providing systems. The section is divided into three sections. Section 5.1 provides the execution of the experimental setup. Section 5.2 presents a performance evaluation based on computational and communication costs. Section 5.3 elaborates on the fairness of the proposed model as compared to other systems. Section 5.4 presents the security analysis of traditional sensors and data-providing systems.
5.1. Experimental Setup Execution
As discussed, the sensor integration model deployment setup is in section 5. Now, we will experiment with it. We will experiment with the use case of a user who wears a smartwatch that contains sensors to get data on the user’s heartbeats, sleeping time, the number of steps he walks in a day, blood pressure, etc. We have gathered the sensor dataset of the Fitbit device to perform our experiment. First, we register the user as a sensor data provider in the sensor service provider portal. Then, we register the Fitbit device sensor in the list of user sensors. We have experimented with uploading the data using both integration methods.
5.1.1. Sensor’s Direct Push
In this method, after the sensor has been registered, we upload the sensor data on the portal using the user interface by providing its details. After the data is pushed successfully, it is ready to sell.
5.1.2. API Call
In this method, after the sensor has been registered, we upload the sensor data using the API on hourly basis for one day. After the data is pushed successfully, it is ready to sell. Then, we registered as sensor data consumers by providing all the details. We searched for the Fitbit sensor data. After the data appeared in the search results, we purchased the data. After the transaction was performed successfully, we received the data.
5.2. Computational and Communication Cost
In our prototype, bitcoin miners receive the fees for the gas needed to run our proposed sensor integration model system. Specifically, in our prototype, the gas price limit was set at . The rate of the ether at the time of the experiment is per Ether. Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11 shows the result of gas cost, transaction cost and execution cost consumed by each function, respectively. We have seen that the largest gas cost is consumed by deploying and implementing smart contracts, which is about . The rest of the functions do not consume gas costs of more than . In addition, since this smart contract deployment in our architecture is performed only once, the rest of the functions will be executed on every request of the sensor integration system.
Table 2.
GAS cost consumed by smart contract
| GAS Cost | |
| Deployment | 2692355 gas |
| Sensor Data Provider Registration | 296978 gas |
| Search Sensor Data Provider | 0 gas |
| Register sensor | 223260 gas |
| Search Sensor | 0 gas |
| Sensor Data Consumer Registration | 324451 gas |
| Get Sensor Data Consumer | 0 gas |
| Send to contract | 49820 gas |
| Balance Received to contract | 0 gas |
| Contract to Address | 36040 gas |
Table 3.
Transaction cost consumed by smart contract
| Transaction Cost | |
| Deployment | 2341842 gas |
| Sensor Data Provider Registration | 258241 gas |
| Search Sensor Data Provider | 0 gas |
| Register sensor | 194139 gas |
| Search Sensor | 0 gas |
| Sensor Data Consumer Registration | 282131 gas |
| Get Sensor Data Consumer | 0 gas |
| Send to contract | 43321 gas |
| Balance Received to contract | 0 gas |
| Contract to Address | 31339 gas |
Table 4.
Execution cost consumed by smart contract
| Execution Cost | |
| Deployment | 2124602 gas |
| Sensor Data Provider Registration | 234101 gas |
| Search Sensor Data Provider | 21378 gas |
| Register sensor | 170799 gas |
| Search Sensor | 22272 gas |
| Sensor Data Consumer Registration | 257535 gas |
| Get Sensor Data Consumer | 257535 gas |
| Send to contract | 22257 gas |
| Balance Received to contract | 2496 gas |
| Contract to Address | 9907 gas |
5.3. Fairness of The Proposed Model
In regular trading, our proposed sensor integration model approach guarantees fairness without additional use by a third party. However, the sensor service provider must step in whenever the claim occurs. On the other side, the longevity of the sensor integration model system ensures the sensor owner’s fairness and the smart contract’s security and privacy. That is, without paying the necessary service price, no sensor data consumer can submit a request to get the data. As soon as the sensor data consumer understands that the received sensor data is useless, With the assistance of the sensor service provider, it can claim to have obtained the desired outcome or punish the sensor owner.
5.4. Security Analysis Between Traditional Sensors Data Providing Systems
In this section, we have compared our sensor integration model with some existing data storage and data sharing systems to elaborate on the comparison and benefits of our proposed system.
We have denoted the symbol below in Table 5.
The total amount of data saved in the blockchain is referred to as "Blockchain Storage." It contains three types: low, medium, and high. In this case, the level "H" is related directly to maintaining sensor data in the blockchain. "M" indicates storing ciphertext. L represents the linking of the hash data. Furthermore included in our definition of "universality" is the ability to accept continuing blockchain systems, such as Ethereum and Hyperledger, without requiring any changes. As shown by the comparison findings in Table 6, We can recognize that our proposed model provides both necessary security and confidentiality as well as decentralized fairness. This indicates that our sensor integration model can meet all the requirements required to store sensor data systems in smart cities and, hence, is superior to other alternatives that have been previously suggested.
6. Conclusions
In conclusion, this study makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of the challenges associated with handling Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data in smart city settings. This study attempts to overcome financial and technological barriers while putting data security, confidentiality, safety, and fairness first by introducing a comprehensive Sensor Integration Model for Secure Data Sharing and Storage. The suggested approach shows how to use smart contract systems and user-friendly interfaces, like an encrypted database and online application site, to simplify data management and maintain strict security guidelines. Furthermore, it is verified that the suggested model is more advanced than current alternatives and that it is technically feasible through extensive security research and comparative evaluations. This study highlights how important it is to involve stakeholders and encourage equity in data exchanges within the context of smart city ecosystems. Stakeholders’ continued involvement and financial support of the suggested model can aid in its continuous improvement and success. In the future, research projects might concentrate on improving fairness mechanisms even more, reducing dependency on sensor service providers, and investigating cutting-edge encryption methods to improve database security and efficiency. In summary, this study not only provides a workable answer to the problems that smart cities are currently facing with sensor data integration, but it also opens the door for future advancement and innovation in this vital area.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, A.R.S.K. and H.J.S.; methodology, H.J.S. and J.S.; software, J.S. and A.K. ; validation, H.J.S, J.S. and A.K.; formal analysis, H.J.S. and J.S.; investigation, A.R.S.K. and H.J.S.; resources, H.J.S. and J.S.; data curation, A.R.S.K. , H.J.S. and J.S.; writing—original draft preparation, A.R.S.K. and H.J.S.; writing—review and editing, F.Q. and Q.N.N.; visualization, X.X.; supervision, H.J.S. and F.Q.; project administration, F.Q. and Q.N.N.; funding acquisition, F.Q. and Q.N.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme having Grant number FRGS/1/2023/ICT07/UKM/02/1 and FRGS/1/2022/ICT11/UKM/02/1. The research was also supported by Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology Research Grant.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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| 1 | Gwei (pronounced "gwee") is a unit of the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH), used on the Ethereum blockchain network. |
Figure 1.
Sensor Integration Model communication Flow.
Figure 2.
Sensor data provider registration flow.
Figure 3.
Upload Sensor Data Flow.
Figure 4.
Sensor data consumer registration flow.
Figure 5.
Search for sensor data flow.
Figure 6.
Transaction flow.
Figure 7.
Sensor Integration Model Architecture Diagram.
Figure 8.
Sensor Integration ModelWork Flow.
Figure 9.
GAS Cost.
Figure 10.
Transaction Cost.
Figure 11.
Execution Cost.
Table 5.
Comparison symbols
| Features | |
| Y | Supported |
| - | Non-Involving |
| N | Unsupported |
| Levels | |
| H | High |
| M | Medium |
| L | Low |
Table 6.
Comparison with other existing solutions
| Property | Our proposal | Han-Yu et al. [20] | Al Sadawi et al. [25] | Yinghui et al. [18] | Jin-Ghoo et al. [23] | Shuang et al. [21] |
| Identity Management | Y | N | N | Y | N | Y |
| Pseudonymity | Y | N | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Confidentiality | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Traceability | Y | - | - | Y | N | N |
| Fairness | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Universality | Y | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Blockchain storage | M | M | L | M | H | L |
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