A conceptual architecture for simulating blockchain-based IoT ecosystems

Abstract

Recently, the convergence between Blockchain and IoT has been appealing in many domains including, but not limited to, healthcare, supply chain, agriculture, and telecommunication. Both Blockchain and IoT are sophisticated technologies whose feasibility and performance in large-scale environments are difficult to evaluate. Consequently, a trustworthy Blockchain-based IoT simulator presents an alternative to costly and complicated actual implementation. Our primary analysis finds that there has not been so far a satisfactory simulator for the creation and assessment of blockchain-based IoT applications, which is the principal impetus for our effort. Therefore, this study gathers the thoughts of experts about the development of a simulation environment for blockchain-based IoT applications. To do this, we conducted two different investigations. First, a questionnaire is created to determine whether the development of such a simulator would be of substantial use. Second, interviews are conducted to obtain participants’ opinions on the most pressing challenges they encounter with blockchain-based IoT applications. The outcome is a conceptual architecture for simulating blockchain-based IoT applications that we evaluate using two research methods; a questionnaire and a focus group with experts. All in all, we find that the proposed architecture is generally well-received due to its comprehensive range of key features and capabilities for blockchain-based IoT purposes.