Cisco files blockchain system patent for IoT device tracking
The application – titled “Block Chain Based IoT Device Identity Verification and Anomaly Detection” – describes a blockchain platform that identifies different connected devices, monitors their activity, and evaluates their trustworthiness when connected to a network. It also automatically registers and assesses new devices that are added to a network.
The application discusses “low-power and lossy networks” (LLNs), which are typically sensor networks, and lists both smart grids and smart cities as examples. Various challenges related to LLNs are mentioned, including lossy links, low bandwidth, battery operation, low memory and/or processing capability of a device, as well as changing environmental conditions.
In the context of the IoT and similar networks, says the filing, “device identity and management is a key building block for a viable end-to-end solution. Depending on the particular use case, a “thing” (e.g., a node) may have to register or authenticate its identity with different service enablers that may use various service-specific procedures.”
The proposed solution offers techniques providing for the use of a blockchain-based mechanism that conveys information regarding the identity of nodes – and/or other metadata regarding the nodes – to control the behavior of the nodes in the networks:
“In some aspects, a fog/edge/root device may act as a proxy to update node information in the block chain on behalf of the nodes, so as not to require nodes with constrained resources to perform the updates themselves. In another aspect, any new and unconfirmed information regarding a particular node can be validated against the block chain before updating the block chain, accordingly. In a further aspect, devices in the network can also use the block chain to control the behavior of a node in the network, e.g., by confirming the identity of the node, associating a trust level with the node, performing anomaly detection, and the like.”
The techniques described, says the filing, may be performed by hardware, software, and/or firmware.
Recently, Cisco co-founded the Trusted IoT Alliance, a consortium of 17 companies to help establish a protocol for a blockchain-based IoT. Earlier this year, members of the group announced an IoT protocol that registers devices using a blockchain-compatible application program interface (API).
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