A Robust Sharding-Enabled Blockchain with Efficient Hashgraph Mechanism for MANETs

• Published in: Applied sciences 2023-08, Vol.13 (15), p.8726
• Main Authors: Lai, Ruilin, Zhao, Gansen, He, Yale, Hou, Zhihao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blacklisting; Blockchain; Communication; Distributed ledger; Efficiency; Gossip; hashgraph; Internet of Things; Investment analysis; MANET; reputation; Reputations; sharding
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app13158726

Blockchain establishes security and trust in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Due to the decentralized and opportunistic communication characteristics of MANETs, hashgraph consensus is more applicable to the MANET-based blockchain. Sharding scales the consensus further through disjoint nodes in multiple shards simultaneously updating ledgers. However, the dynamic addition and deletion of nodes in a shard pose challenges regarding robustness and efficiency. Particularly, the shard is vulnerable to Sybil attacks and targeted attacks, and dishonest gossip reduces the efficiency of hashgraph consensus. Therefore, we proposed a behavior-based sharding hashgraph scheme. First, dishonest behaviors of nodes are recorded in a decentralized blacklist. Gossip information is sent to a reliable neighbor, and gossip information from another reliable neighbor is received. Second, a tree-assisted inter-sharding consensus is proposed to prevent Sybil attacks. The combination of shard recovery and reconfiguration based on node state is devised to prevent targeted attacks. Finally, we conducted the performance evaluation including security analysis and experimental evaluation to reveal the security and efficiency of the proposed scheme.