PFI-RP: Building a Modular, Reliable, Scalable, and Secure Internet of Things Infrastructure

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The broader impact /commercial potential of this Partnership for Innovation- Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is to significantly improve the applicability of conventional blockchains to a wider array of use cases, thereby benefiting the United States economy and society. The project proposes to accomplish this objective by building and enhancing an intrusion-tolerant permissioned blockchain system and focusing this PFI program on a high-value application: modular, reliable, scalable, and secure Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure to improve the United States blockchain ecosystem. In addition, the team will develop new curriculum on blockchains, covering technical, ethical, and economic aspects of blockchains. The team will recruit undergraduate students and underrepresented minorities and reach out to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Meyerhoff Scholars program, University of Maryland. Baltimore County Center for Cybersecurity, and the National Science Foundation CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program. The proposed project provides a novel permissioned blockchain-based IoT infrastructure that is expected to be more secure and reliable than existing cloud-based solutions and also more modular and scalable in terms of both servers and IoT devices supported. The intellectual merit of the new infrastructure includes a new permissioned blockchain protocol, a new IoT architecture supporting IoT devices at scale, and an easy-to-use mobile app. The permissioned blockchain protocol provides 1) modular trade-offs for not only the underlying consensus protocols but also confidentiality and access control, and 2) server scalability by designing new reliable distributed systems and cryptographic primitives. The new IoT architecture uses permissioned blockchain as servers and industry edge nodes as immediate brokers to support miscellaneous IoT devices at large scale. It uses fault-tolerant and cryptographic technologies to ensure edge nodes function correctly, without introducing additional points of failure or vulnerabilities. The app supports major IoT functions (sensors, mobile routers, cameras, IoT switches), provides real-time alerts, IoT data analysis, and anomaly detection for IoT devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.