Secure device-to-device caching with blockchain

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Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2022.3177574

Caching and distributing of network packets among devices has been accepted by the research community as a cost-effective method of transferring especially audio-video data among mobile users. Another newly established technology, blockchain, has been successfully applied to decentralized financial systems like Bitcoin. The research on caching and distributing methods has not focused on the security aspect so far. In this paper, we present an effective scheme to provide security and integrity of network packets in caching and distribution systems by employing blockchain technology. Unlike the existing blockchain applications, the proposed protocol requires a lightweight consensus algorithm. Our scheme also allows peers in the network to make correctly addressed inquiries as the packets’ locations are kept in the blocks which are available to any peer in the network. Considering that cryptographic primitives alone are not adequate to prevent malicious network packets among the peers, the proposed blockchain application presents an invaluable tool to prevent malicious packets from leaking into the system and to address which peers own the desired packets. We demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method by implementing it for Android OS devices and conduct real-time testing on different settings.