Context
The Adelaide IoT testbed is an extensible collection of adaptable and configurable test kits, comprising fog and edge computing devices. These test kits resemble ad-hoc computing infrastructures that are rapidly assembled in the field for purposes such as emergency response after disasters that might have rendered the existing infrastructure inoperable. Such ad-hoc infrastructures can be used to operate and provide computing services to IoT sensors and autonomous systems.
Leveraging blockchain within and across such ad-hoc infrastructures is an emerging trend for securing the related IoT data and services. However, it is unknown the extent to which ad-hoc IoT-centric infrastructures can support a blockchain network.
This project aims to empirically evaluate the performance and resource consumption of operating a blockchain upon an ad-hoc infrastructure. We focus on multi-channel edge blockchains, which are divided into different, potentially overlapping portions handled by different participants in the network. We benchmarked multiple topology, deployment structure, and protocol configurations.
Experiment Design
Hardware Configuration
The experimental hardware infrastructure are made up of two IoT test kits, acting as two clusters. In a real-world scenario, these clusters might cover different areas within a disaster struck region and operated by different entities.
Experiment Blockchain Configurations
We conducted experiments using the Ethereum blockchain platform. Two blockchain protocols were utilised, including Proof-of-Work (PoW) and the Proof-of-Authority (PoA), which is a resource-saving variation.
Instrumentation
- Hyperledger Caliper benchmark suite was used to produce workload and measure the performance of the deployed blockchain
- Prometheus infrastructure monitoring tool was deployed to monitor the deployed clusters and retrieve resource consumption metrics.
Variables
Independent variables: 6 blockchain configurations + baseline (no blockchain)
Dependent variables
- blockchain transaction latency
- blockchain transaction throughput
- total cpu time
- total disk read (bytes)
- total disk write (bytes)
- filesystem sizes (bytes)
- available system memory (bytes)
- total network receive (bytes)
- total network transmit (bytes)
- battery level of Raspberry Pi (percentage)