IBE-BCIOT: an IBE based cross-chain communication mechanism of blockchain in IoT

Cross-platform difficulties, data privacy, and authentication security are common problems in the Internet of Things (IoT) environment. Despite the fact that blockchain technology has brought new opportunities to the development of the IoT by enhancing interoperability, improving privacy and security, there are still problems such as diversity, lack of communication and sharing. To solve the security authentication problem in the IoT environment and the cross-chain communication problem in the blockchain platform, an Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) based cross-chain communication mechanism of Blockchain in IoT (IBE-BCIOT). This mechanism elects the proxy nodes of each blockchain in multiple blockchains, and passes the ID of the proxy node, as the public key, to the cross-chain notary. Then, the cross-chain notary calculates the corresponding private key through the IBE mechanism, and returns it to the proxy node in a secure way, to achieve safe and efficient communication between blockchains. Next, the IBE-BCIOT mechanism provides two cross-chain communication schemes: the direct cross-chain communication scheme among the proxy nodes, and the indirect cross-chain communication scheme through the notary. We also build a blockchain-based on the FICSO BCOS platform to implement the IBE-BCIOT mechanism and analyze its security. The performance of the proposed two cross-chain communication schemes was verified in experiments of the IoT environment. The experimental results show that IBE-BCIOT is an effective IoT cross-chain communication mechanism.