Acta Informatica Pragensia 2025, 14(1), 128-154 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aip.2562854
Blockchain Approach for Healthcare Using Fog Topology and Lightweight Consensus
- Laboratory of Networks and Distributed Systems, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Sciences, Ferhat Abbas Sétif University 1, Setif, Algeria
Background: The internet of things (IoT) has transformed healthcare by integrating various devices and systems, fostering innovation in data management and operational efficiency. However, ensuring data integrity, security and trust within IoT networks remains a pressing challenge, particularly in critical sectors such as healthcare.
Objective: This study aims to explore the integration of blockchain technology with IoT systems, focusing on addressing scalability and real-time applicability issues in healthcare data management. By proposing novel solutions, the research seeks to enhance the security and reliability of IoT systems in healthcare environments.
Methods: The proposed framework incorporates a lightweight raft-based consensus protocol and enhanced cryptographic measures, such as Schnorr signatures and hashes, to address existing limitations in scalability and latency. The architecture and algorithms for signature generation, encryption, emergency state actions and consensus are developed and evaluated through extensive simulations using the NS3 toolkit.
Results: The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in improving healthcare IoT systems. The findings demonstrate enhancements in energy efficiency, throughput and network usage, establishing the potential of the framework for revolutionizing healthcare data management by providing secure, scalable and efficient solutions.
Conclusion: The study contributes to advancing secure and reliable decentralized data management systems for IoT in healthcare by making use of blockchain technology. The proposed architecture addresses critical challenges and offers practical benefits such as resource efficiency and system stability. While promising, the framework requires real-world testing and further optimization to overcome potential scalability bottlenecks in large-scale healthcare deployments.
Keywords: IoT; Blockchain; Healthcare; Data integrity; Security; Privacy; Decentralized systems.
Received: August 30, 2024; Revised: November 29, 2024; Accepted: December 7, 2024; Prepublished online: January 18, 2025; Published: January 31, 2025 Show citation
ACS | AIP | APA | ASA | Harvard | Chicago | Chicago Notes | IEEE | ISO690 | MLA | NLM | Turabian | Vancouver |
References
- Abdelmaboud, A., Ahmed, A. I. A., Abaker, M., Eisa, T. A. E., Albasheer, H., Ghorashi, S. A., & Karim, F. K. (2022). Blockchain for IoT applications: taxonomy, platforms, recent advances, challenges and future research directions. Electronics, 11(4), 630. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11040630
Go to original source...
- Adeniyi, E. A., Ogundokun, R. O., & Awotunde, J. B. (2021). IoMT-based wearable body sensors network healthcare monitoring system. In IoT in Healthcare and Ambient Assisted Living, (pp. 103-121). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9897-5_6
Go to original source...
- Adjeroud, I., Cherbal, S., Benrebbouh, C., & Baaraoui, H. (2024). Authentication scheme based on blockchain and Proof-of-Work for IoT. In 2024 6th International Conference on Pattern Analysis and Intelligent Systems, (pp. 1-8). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/PAIS62114.2024.10541147
Go to original source...
- Ali, S., Abdullah, N., Armand, T. P. T., Athar, A., Hussain, A., Ali, M., Yaseen, M., Joo, M., & Kim, H. (2023). Metaverse in Healthcare Integrated with Explainable AI and Blockchain: Enabling Immersiveness, Ensuring Trust, and Providing Patient Data Security. Sensors, 23(2), 565. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020565
Go to original source...
- Allam, A. H., Gomaa, I., Zayed, H. H., & Taha, M. (2024). IoT-based eHealth using blockchain technology: a survey. Cluster Computing, 27(6), 7083-7110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-024-04357-y
Go to original source...
- Alshudukhi, K. S., Khemakhem, M. A., Eassa, F. E., & Jambi, K. M. (2023). An interoperable blockchain security frameworks based on microservices and smart contract in IoT environment. Electronics, 12(3), 776. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12030776
Go to original source...
- Andrew, J., Isravel, D. P., Sagayam, K. M., Bhushan, B., Sei, Y., & Eunice, J. (2023). Blockchain for healthcare systems: Architecture, security challenges, trends and future directions. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 215, 103633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2023.103633
Go to original source...
- Ashraf, E., Areed, N. F. F., Salem, H., Abdelhay, E. H., & Farouk, A. (2022). FIDCHAIN: Federated Intrusion Detection System for Blockchain-Enabled IoT Healthcare Applications. Healthcare, 10(6), 1110. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10061110
Go to original source...
- Chaudhary, R. R. K., & Chatterjee, K. (2020). An efficient lightweight cryptographic technique for IoT based E-healthcare system. In 2020 7th International conference on signal processing and integrated networks, (pp. 991-995). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/SPIN48934.2020.9071421
Go to original source...
- Cherbal, S., & Benchetioui, R. (2023). Scpuak: Smart card-based secure protocol for remote user authentication and key agreement. Computers and Electrical Engineering, 109, 108759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2023.108759
Go to original source...
- Chinbat, T., Madanian, S., Airehrour, D., & Hassandoust, F. (2024). Machine learning cryptography methods for IoT in healthcare. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 24(1), 153. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-024-02548-6
Go to original source...
- Gupta, D. S., Mazumdar, N., Nag, A., & Singh, J. P. (2023). Secure data authentication and access control protocol for industrial healthcare system. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 14(5), 4853-4864. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-022-04370-2
Go to original source...
- Karunarathne, S. M., Saxena, N., & Khan, M. K. (2021). Security and privacy in IoT smart healthcare. IEEE Internet Computing, 25(4), 37-48. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2021.3051675
Go to original source...
- Liu, H., Crespo, R. G., & Martínez, O. S. (2020). Enhancing Privacy and Data Security across Healthcare Applications Using Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Concepts. Healthcare, 8(3), 243. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8030243
Go to original source...
- Mohammadi, R. (2023). A comprehensive Blockchain-oriented secure framework for SDN/Fog-based IoUT. International Journal of Information Security, 22(5), 1163-1175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-023-00683-1
Go to original source...
- Nanda, S. K., Panda, S. K., & Dash, M. (2023). Medical supply chain integrated with blockchain and IoT to track the logistics of medical products. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 82(21), 32917-32939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-14846-8
Go to original source...
- Qu, Q., Xu, R., Chen, Y., Blasch, E., & Aved, A. (2021). Enable fair Proof-of-Work (POW) consensus for blockchains in IoT by Miner Twins (MINT). Future Internet, 13(11), 291. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13110291
Go to original source...
- Raghuvanshi, A., Singh, U. K., & Joshi, C. (2022). A review of various security and privacy innovations for IoT applications in healthcare. In Advanced Healthcare Systems: Empowering Physicians with IoT-Enabled Technologies, (pp. 43-58). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119769293.ch4
Go to original source...
- Ratta, P., Kaur, A., Sharma, S., Shabaz, M., & Dhiman, G. (2021). Application of blockchain and Internet of Things in healthcare and medical sector: applications, challenges, and future perspectives. Journal of Food Quality, 2021, 7608296. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/7608296
Go to original source...
- Rizzardi, A., Sicari, S., M, J. F. C., & Coen-Porisini, A. (2024). IoT-driven blockchain to manage the healthcare supply chain and protect medical records. Future Generation Computer Systems, 161, 415-431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2024.07.039
Go to original source...
- Sadhu, P. K., Yanambaka, V. P., & Abdelgawad, A. (2022). Internet of Things: Security and Solutions Survey. Sensors, 22(19), 7433. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22197433
Go to original source...
- Saleem, T., Janjua, M. U., Hassan, M., Ahmad, T., Tariq, F., Hafeez, K., Salal, M. A., & Bilal, M. D. (2022). ProofChain: An X.509-compatible blockchain-based PKI framework with decentralized trust. Computer Networks, 213, 109069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2022.109069
Go to original source...
- Shari, N. F. M., & Malip, A. (2024). Enhancing privacy and security in smart healthcare: A blockchain-powered decentralized data dissemination scheme. Internet of Things, 27, 101256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2024.101256
Go to original source...
- Stock, F., Kurt Peker, Y., Perez, A. J., & Hearst, J. (2022). Physical visitor access control and authentication using blockchain, smart contracts and internet of things. Cryptography, 6(4), 65. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography6040065
Go to original source...
- Taloba, A. I., Elhadad, A., Rayan, A., El-Aziz, R. M. A., Salem, M., Alzahrani, A. A., Alharithi, F. S., & Park, C. (2023). A blockchain-based hybrid platform for multimedia data processing in IoT-Healthcare. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 65, 263-274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2022.09.031
Go to original source...
- Tiwari, A., Dhiman, V., Iesa, M. a. M., Alsarhan, H., Mehbodniya, A., & Shabaz, M. (2021). Patient Behavioral Analysis with Smart Healthcare and IoT. Behavioural Neurology, 2021, 4028761. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/4028761
Go to original source...
- Tomar, A., Gupta, N., Rani, D., & Tripathi, S. (2023). Blockchain-assisted authenticated key agreement scheme for IoT-based healthcare system. Internet of Things, 23, 100849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2023.100849
Go to original source...
- Zaman, S., Khandaker, M. R. A., Khan, R. T., Tariq, F., & Wong, K. (2022). Thinking out of the blocks: Holochain for distributed security in IoT healthcare. IEEE Access, 10, 37064-37081. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2022.3163580
Go to original source...
- Zerraza, I., Seghir, Z. A., & Hemam, M. (2024). An Efficient Lightweight Authentication and Access Control for IoT Edge Devices. International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering, 14(3), 807-813. https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsse.140313
Go to original source...
- Zhang, L., Li, B., Fang, H., Zhang, G., & Liu, C. (2023). An internet of things access control scheme based on permissioned blockchain and edge computing. Applied Sciences, 13(7), 4167. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13074167
Go to original source...
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.