A novel Dual-Blockchained structure for contract-theoretic LoRa-based information systems. Issue 3 (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yu, Guangsheng; Zhang, Litianyi; Wang, Xu; Yu, Kan; Ni, Wei; Zhang, J. Andrew; Liu, Ren Ping
• Is Part Of: Information processing & management. Volume 58:Issue 3(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: Information system -- Internet-of-Things (IoT) -- Incentive mechanism -- Contract theory -- LoRa -- Blockchain; Information storage and retrieval systems -- Periodicals; Information science -- Periodicals; Systèmes d'information -- Périodiques; Sciences de l'information -- Périodiques; Information science; Information storage and retrieval systems; Periodicals; 658.4038
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2021.102492
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-4573

Abstract

Abstract: LoRa serves as one of the most deployed technologies in Internet-of-Things-based information systems (IoT-IS), and self-motivated deployment is the key to the rollout of LoRa. Proper incentive can play an important role in encouraging the private deployment of LoRa, increasing coverage and promoting effective management of IoT-IS. However, existing incentive mechanisms have the vulnerabilities of insecure centralized architecture and excessive utility loss of LoRa Controllers and Gateways, due to asymmetric information between private owners of gateways and centralized controller (or service providers). Blockchain-based LoRa networks, as a promising solution, have not been comprehensively studied to address the vulnerabilities, let alone the other issues of security, scalability, and flexibility. In this paper, we propose a novel Dual-Chained LoRa-based information system (LoRa-IS) to provide globally cross-validated security. Behaviors, including state-of-the-art contract-theoretic incentive mechanism and new flow control protocol, can be secured with the tamper-resistance of Blockchains. Being part of the proposed incentive mechanism, the new self-driven flow control allows both the Dual-Chain system and the LoRa network to scale. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed system is the first comprehensive Blockchain-based LoRa-IS combined with contract theory. We also provide analysis and simulations, showing that our system can pay fair incentives under information asymmetry. With the new flow control, the system can optimize network coverage while improving the Blockchain scalability and flexibility. Highlights: Information asymmetry hinders the self-motivated deployment in LoRa-IS. Contract theory relieves the effect of information asymmetry, maximizes the profits. Blockchain provides tamper-resistant validation of the contract-theoretic incentive. Dual-Chained structure provides a secure and scalable data storage in LoRa-IS. Flow control of the contract-theoretic incentive scales the Dual-Chained structure.