An Intelligent Blockchain-Assisted Cooperative Framework for Industry 4.0 Service Management

The shift towards Industry 4.0 has seen significant steps forward with the advancements in processing, communication, and storage capabilities of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Cyber-physical systems (CPS) have become more intelligent and withhold advanced processing, storage, and communication capabilities. Rejuvenated network and service management architectures must incorporate the capabilities of intelligent CPS. With that said, this article introduces a cooperative blockchain (BC)-assisted resource and capability sharing approach to fulfill CPS tasks. The solution uses Federated Learning (FL)-enabled Intelligent IoT (IIoT) devices to support Next-Generation Networks (NGNs). A clustering multi-stage blockchain and FL algorithm is used to create local and global models for CPS tasks. Local models are created for each cluster during the first stage. At the second stage, Federated Averaging is used by fog devices to create fog models. A global deep model is then created on the cloud using Federated Aggregation. Blockchain is used to record and validate the added models and ensure that records are not altered under cyber-attacks. Simulation results have shown that the proposed solution outperforms conventional FL and blockchain approaches in terms of accuracy and delay tolerance.

I. Introduction

The fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, will revolutionize the way products and services are manufactured, operated, delivered, and distributed. State-of-the-art technologies that rely heavily on integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) for effective and efficient processing, communication, and storage will enhance manufacturing and production facilities throughout their operations. Coupled with the advances of end-devices, namely Internet of Things (IoT) devices in all their forms (fixed, mobile, user, industry, etc.), real-time and accurate decisions, and enhanced services become possible to provide for consumers. IoT devices are becoming more intelligent, as they begin to incorporate advanced Machine Learning (ML) capabilities that can provide predictable decisions with minimal reliance on centralized entities such as cloud or globalized servers. Additionally, IoT devices are now capable of storing excessive amounts of data and have great capabilities in communication and networking, and hence, can contribute in the network and service management process.