Scalable off-chain blockchain for vehicular network

Abstract

One way of improving the security of a vehicular network is by incorporating blockchain technology into the network. However, under certain conditions, blockchain-based networks do pose several challenges, such as processing latency and limited throughput. Scalability, that is, the ability of the network to perform as expected with increasing loads, is also a concern. The current work aims to show that the deficiencies of the blockchain-based vehicular network can be reduced by using an off-chain approach where the major computing overhead of the main blockchain is channeled off-chain to speed up processing and provide scalability. Simulations are carried out to measure the performance and scalability of the blockchain network in terms of processing latency and data throughput. Simulations of operation under different conditions (varying number of nodes and members) are carried out using computers to represent roadside units and Rasberry Pis to represent the vehicles. The Ethereum blockchain is used as the main blockchain in the simulation with Raiden Network acting as the off-chain scaling solution for the network. The simulation results of 80 nodes network showed that the off-chain assisted blockchain network performs and scales better than the conventional blockchain network with improving the throughput by 17 times while lowering the latency by 99%.