Toward a blockchain cloud manufacturing system as a peer to peer distributed network platform

• Published in: Robotics and computer-integrated manufacturing 2018-12, Vol.54, p.133-144
• Main Authors: Li, Zhi, Barenji, Ali Vatankhah, Huang, George Q.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blockchain; Cloud manufacturing; Computer architecture; Computer networks; Cryptography; Data retrieval; End users; Infrastructure; Peer to peer network; Robotics; Robots; Security; Security and scalability; Social networks
• ISSN: 0736-5845; 1879-2537
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rcim.2018.05.011

•Distributed network for cloud manufacturing is developed.•Blackchain technology was used as standard for proposed system.•Secure data sharing based on blackchain technology in cloud manufacturing is explained. New emerging manufacturing paradigms such as cloud manufacturing, IoT enabled manufacturing and service-oriented manufacturing, have brought many advantages to the manufacturing industry and metamorphosis the industrial IT infrastructure. However, all existing paradigms still suffer from the main problem related to centralized industrial network and third part trust operation. In a nutshell, centralized networking has had issues with flexibility, efficiency, availability, and security. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to present a distributed peer to peer network architecture that improves the security and scalability of the CMfg. The proposed architecture was developed based on blockchain technology, this facilitated the development of a distributed peer to peer network with high security, scalability and a well-structured cloud system. The proposed architecture which was named as the “BCmfg” is made up of five layers namely; resource layer, perception layer, manufacturing layer, infrastructure layer and application layer. In this paper, the concept of its architecture, secure data sharing, and typical characteristic are discussed and investigated as well as the key technologies required for the implementation of this proposed architecture is explained based on demonstrative case study. The proposed architecture is explained based on a case study which contains five service providers and 15 end users with considering 32 OnCloud services. For evaluation purpose, the qualitative and quantitative methods are utilized and the results show that the proposed methodology can bring more advantages to CMfg than the security and scalability.