WDSchain: A Toolbox for Enhancing the Security Using Blockchain Technology in Water Distribution System

Mahmoud, Haitham and Wu, Wenyan and Wang, Yonghao (2021) WDSchain: A Toolbox for Enhancing the Security Using Blockchain Technology in Water Distribution System. Water, 13 (14). ISSN 2073-4441

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Abstract

This work develops a toolbox called WDSchain on MATLAB that can simulate blockchain on water distribution systems (WDS). WDSchain can import data from Excel and EPANET water modeling software. It extends the EPANET to enable simulation blockchain of the hydraulic data at any intended nodes. Using WDSchain will strengthen network automation and security in WDS. WDSchain can process time-series data with two simulation modes: (1) static blockchain, which takes a snapshot of one-time interval data of all nodes in WDS as input and output into chained blocks at a time, and (2) dynamic blockchain, which takes all simulated time-series data of all the nodes as input and establishes chained blocks at the simulated time. Five consensus mechanisms are developed in WDSchain to provide data at different security levels using PoW, PoT, PoV, PoA, and PoAuth. WDS of five different sizes is simulated in WDSchain for performance evaluation. The results show that a trade-off is needed between the system complexity and security level for data validation. The WDSchain provides a methodology to further explore the data validation using Blockchain to WDS. The limitations of WDSchain do not consider the selection of blockchain nodes and broadcasting delay compared to commercial blockchain platforms.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.3390/w13141944
Dates:
DateEvent
27 May 2021Submitted
8 July 2021Accepted
14 July 2021Published
Uncontrolled Keywords: water distribution system; blockchain technology; security; IoT; EPANET; consensus mechanisms
Subjects: CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-03 - information systems
CAH10 - engineering and technology > CAH10-01 - engineering > CAH10-01-01 - engineering (non-specific)
Divisions: Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Engineering and the Built Environment
Depositing User: Wenyan Wu
Date Deposited: 11 Aug 2021 14:46
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2022 05:30
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/11924

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