IBAM: IPFS and blockchain based authentication for MQTT protocol in IoT

Abstract

Decentralized systems have proven themselves as a dominant authentication and storage paradigm for IoT systems where smartwatches are integrated with MQTT messaging framework for transmitting medical data to doctors. However, the security concerns with centralized frameworks presented vital security challenges regarding data privacy and network security for healthcare systems. This paper will present an integrated framework involving a reliable and lightweight e-health data-sharing framework that combines the decentralized interplanetary file system (IPFS) and blockchain on a smartwatch platform. Particularly, this framework helps in trustworthy control mechanisms which use smart contracts to achieve authentication and storage for both subscribers and publishers. We presented a simulation using Ethereum blockchain and IPFS in a real data-sharing scenario with the MQTT protocol. Our analysis proved that our approach satisfies lightweight access control requirements since it demonstrates the low latency of the framework and optimized energy consumption with high security and data privacy levels.