Events

Public defence in Networking Technology, M.Sc. Santeri Paavolainen

Blockchain and Internet of Things integration
- Public defence from the Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Information and Communications Engineering
Samankaltaisista moduleista rakentunut betonibrutalistinen talo, A concrete brutalist architectural facade composed of similar modular blocksn julkisivu
Copyright: Vadim Artyukhin

The title of the thesis: IoT and DLT Integration—A Choice of Tradeoffs?

Doctoral student: Santeri Paavolainen
Opponent: Prof. Valtteri Niemi, University of Helsinki
Custos: Prof. Jukka Manner, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Information and Communications Engineering
Please note that lectio praecursoria will be presented in English, with the rest of the examination in Finnish.

Blockchain and Internet of Things integration 

Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to describe the ever-increasing number of Internet-connected devices and solutions in our environment, such as electric cars or smart lightbulbs. Blockchains, which have gained a lot of publicity due to their use in cryptocurrencies, are one type of more broad categofy of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). The integration between blockchains, or generically integration of DLT systems, and IoT devices has also been an area of active research. 

The research of IoT-DLT integration has, however, largely focused on functionality of the integration, i.e., whether the desired use case can be implemented with the integration, what mechanisms the integration requires, and what changes are needed of either the IoT devices or the DLT system. Especially constrained IoT devices with limited processor, storage, and network capacities have received little attention. Inspecting the integration challenges from the viewpoint of constrained devices is important for the future development of IoT systems, as the bulk of IoT devices will remain overwhelmingly to be constrained in the resources. The cost pressure for IoT products, especially in the consumer market, means that for every high-price IoT device with ample resources (e.g., electric car) there will be thousands of constrained and low-cost devices (e.g., smart lights). 

This doctoral thesis analyses various challenges with different IoT-DLT integration models, and out of these, focuses in detail on the IoT-DLT integration security on a popular Ethereum blockchain and its so-called light protocol (Light Ethereum Subprotocol, LES). The work characterises a novel threat, a state injection attack, that is especially distressing unattended IoT devices. To defend against a state injection attack, the thesis proposes two new mitigation techniques which an IoT device integrated to a DLT can use to ensure that it maintains a secure and reliable view to the DLT system's state. Overall, the thesis brings the security risks and potentially necessary tradeoffs associated with IoT-DLT integration while providing novel techniques to manage these risks.

Keywords: DLT, blockchains, distributed systems, security, IoT, Internet of Things

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/

Contact:

Sähköposti  [email protected]


 

Doctoral theses in the School of Electrical Engineering: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/53

Zoom Quick Guide: https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/zoom-quick-guide

  • Published:
  • Updated: