TrustBlkSys: A Trusted and Blockchained Cybersecure System for IIoT

Federated learning for green and sustainable 6G IIoT applications

The dependability of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) system can directly affect the production efficiency of the whole system. In this paper, we design a novel production-centric IIoT system with a digital twin network. The operation process of the IIoT system is proposed to calculate a suitable control command and to make an optimal production scheme and AGV dispatch of the whole factory. Moreover, resilience is used to introduce the system dependability of the IIoT network. The simulation results show that the proposed production-centric IIoT system with a digital twin network can achieve improved dependability for the IIoT system compared with the traditional scheme.

Direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation is essential in many industrial internet of things (IIoT) applications where IoT users may require a high-resolution estimation algorithm for features limited to positioning and device localization. The conventional DoA estimation is challenging as the number of antenna arrays increases leading to an increase in design complexity and cost in RF circuitry. As a result, the conventional DoA estimation algorithms may not be suited for IIoT applications. In this work, a joint DOA and carrier frequency offset (CFO) schemes is introduced for typical uplink IIoT systems by equipping the receiver with a leaky-wave antenna (LWA). By considering that the LWA can simultaneously steer its beam direction towards the active user. As a result, each user is estimated independently. The joint algorithm is developed based on the high-resolution MUSIC scheme, which utilizes the LWA properties to compute the DoA spectrum. Furthermore, we develop an iterative CFO estimation approach as the desired solution to a multi-dimensional search. Subsequently, we further formulate the Cramer–Rao lower bounds (CRLB) to serve as a performance benchmark for the accuracy of the proposed scheme. The SDR platform is provided to validate the proposed algorithm in real-time. Finally, the simulation results and the SDR experiments justify that the proposed scheme offers more robustness than conventional counterparts with linear array antenna, which achieves a root mean square error (RMSE) approach to the derived CLRB, especially at a medium signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) range which suited for IIoT applications.

The manufacturing industry is benefiting a lot since the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deploys sensors and actuators to calibrate, audit, and analyze data to enhance efficiency and profitability, thereby automating systems in the industrial sector. The exponential growth of smart devices in the industrial sector requires real‐time connectivity, low latency, nearby storage, secure communication, and reliability. To meet this demand, fog computing is effectively used in IIoT applications. Fog computing solves most of the problems in the fourth industrial revolution, which is the interface between end‐user devices and cloud/web services. Fog also allows for local processing with minimal acceptable latency. This article focuses on how fog computing becomes part of IIoT and also explores the architecture of fog‐assisted IIoT applications. The taxonomy is built by classifying the existing literature to reveal the salient features of fog computing in IIoT. This article also discusses IIoT security solutions as well as research problems of fog‐assisted IIoT. This article also outlines the research challenges of fog‐assisted IIoT and also discusses the security solutions of IIoT.

Through interconnecting machines, sensors, and devices, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has revolutionized industrial processes by allowing real-time data analysis and decision-making. The implementation of cloud, edge, and fog computing models has followed IIoT development, bringing unique security and privacy challenges in their wake. In this all-encompassing report, the potential risks, complications, and apprehensions of these models are analyzed with respect to IIoT integration. Examining cloud, edge, and fog computing models distinguishes and assesses their benefits when applied to IIoT. The paper analyzes the strengths offered by each model and addresses the risks associated with security and privacy, such as data infringement, malware, and denial-ofservice attacks. IIoT systems, in particular, pose significant challenges in providing protection. Cloud, edge, and fog computing models provide ample benefits but IIoT systems utilizing these models must have strong security and privacy policies in place. This paper highlights specific technical and organizational strategies to tackle potential challenges and risks. By effectively implementing these strategies, organizations can tap into the advantages of these models while ensuring the safety of their IIoT systems. Informed decisions can be made, and IIoT deployments can be safeguarded with the aid of the valuable resource given in this paper, which offers comprehensive analysis and recommendations. For those in the field of IIoT security, including practitioners and researchers, this paper is of great value.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems play a pivotal role in enabling real-time monitoring and analysis of equipment to prevent breakdowns and optimize performance. Predictive maintenance stands as a critical component of IIoT systems, allowing industries to anticipate equipment failures, minimize downtime, and enhance overall equipment effectiveness. This paper investigates the potential of Long Range (LoRa) technology in predictive maintenance applications within IIoT systems. Specifically, the study delves into the utilization of LoRa technology to bolster predictive maintenance capabilities, with a focus on a live prediction analysis demonstration conducted on an industrial robotic arm. The research presents a detailed test bed setup for conducting predictive maintenance, which involves capturing data from the robot, transmitting it to a LoRaWAN gateway, enabling prediction of normal or abnormal behavior in the robotic arm. This study provides insights into the efficacy of LoRa technology in enhancing predictive maintenance capabilities within IIoT systems.

Knowledge inference using knowledge graphs is one of the recent research trends for fault diagnosis. As complex Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems evolve to incorporate distributed subsystems, each subsystem may have local measurements interpreted by a local Knowledge Base (KB). In this work, we propose a distributed fault diagnosis framework with distributed path-based reasoning. In contrast to centralized reasoning that requires merging of the distributed KBs, the proposed framework employs a centralized coordinator to transfer the model among decentralized agents and allows an agent to handover training paths for others to continue training by filling in missing links using their local KBs. Our work is the very first distributed knowledge inference framework to reason among distributed fault diagnosis systems to tackle the KB isolation, scalability and flexibility issues of centralized fault diagnosis systems. To validate our framework with IIoT datasets, we build a fault knowledge graph from the Tennessee Eastman (TE) process simulations. Evaluations show that our framework outperforms the non-cooperative distributed reasoning method in terms of prediction accuracy. With the TE process dataset, the mean reciprocal rank is improved from 0.1612 to 0.19 with transferred models, and further to 0.206 with hand-over queries between agents.

The vision of Industry 4.0, otherwise known as the fourth industrial revolution, is the integration of massively deployed smart computing and network technologies in industrial production and manufacturing settings for the purposes of automation, reliability, and control, implicating the development of an Industrial Internet of Things (I-IoT). Specifically, I-IoT is devoted to adopting the Internet of Things (IoT) to enable the interconnection of anything, anywhere, and at anytime in the manufacturing system context to improve the productivity, efficiency, safety and intelligence. As an emerging technology, I-IoT has distinct properties and requirements that distinguish it from consumer IoT, including the unique types of smart devices incorporated, network technologies and quality of service requirements, and strict needs of command and control. To more clearly understand the complexities of I-IoT and its distinct needs, and to present a unified assessment of the technology from a systems perspective, in this paper we comprehensively survey the body of existing research on I-IoT. Particularly, we first present the I-IoT architecture, I-IoT applications (i.e., factory automation (FA) and process automation (PA)) and their characteristics. We then consider existing research efforts from the three key systems aspects of control, networking and computing. Regarding control, we first categorize industrial control systems and then present recent and relevant research efforts. Next, considering networking, we propose a three-dimensional framework to explore the existing research space, and investigate the adoption of some representative networking technologies, including 5G, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and software defined networking (SDN). Similarly, concerning computing, we again propose a second three-dimensional framework that explores the problem space of computing in I-IoT, and investigate the cloud, edge, and hybrid cloud and edge computing platforms. Finally, we outline particular challenges and future research needs in control, networking, and computing systems, as well as for the adoption of machine learning, in an I-IoT context.

Smart contract over the blockchain accelerates the deployment of decentralized Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. However, the usability of smart contracts is constrained to the data on the blockchain, and has no direct access to the off-chain environment. Consequently, smart contract cannot directly serve as a carrier for the IIoT applications that rely on intensive data exchange and task computation. To cope with this issue, we first propose an oracle-aided IIoT blockchain (OIB) system to facilitate the deployment of smart contract based IIoT applications. Specifically, a distributed oracle network is employed to not only bridge the off-chain environment and smart contracts, but also extend the computing capability of smart contracts. Then, we study important properties of the OIB system, i.e., liveness, safety, and fairness. In particular, we propose a new challenge of fairness to guarantee that each oracle can reap positive utility (i.e., individual rationality), and a new challenge of liveness to meet delay constraints of oracle services (i.e., delay-sensitivity). To address these two challenges, we develop an auction based incentive mechanism for the data-feeding oracles to achieve individual rationality as well as incentive compatibility, and a delay-sensitive matching based incentive mechanism for the computing oracles under specific delay constraints. Simulation results corroborate that the proposed auction based incentive mechanism guarantees not only truthfulness but also individual rationality, and show that the matching based incentive mechanism achieves smaller delay than the random selection scheme used in the Decentralized Oracle Service (DOS) network.

Global CO2 emissions reduction requires industries to manage and understand their CO2 emission levels in real-time. This paper examines the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for real-time monitoring, measurement, and visualization of reducing CO2 emissions in industrial and environmental domains. Methodology: The methodology consists of a literature review based on peer-reviewed publications and use cases to explore the current state and practical implications. Furthermore, a technical analysis of IIoT systems, CO2 sensors, and data processing techniques is also identified. Results: IIoT systems can support CO2 emission monitoring and accuracy optimization in industrial domains by combining CO2 sensors, wireless communication, and data fusion techniques. In addition, machine learning and artificial intelligence can be used to reduce anomalies in CO2 sensor readings and predictive maintenance of systems. Challenges: Challenges include interoperability, data security and system scalability. To resolve these issues standardized communication protocols, data security methods and implementation barriers should be improved. Future Directions: To enhance data processing and security features, future work should focus on integrating edge computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain techniques. In addition, data visualizations and cost-effective solutions should also be in focus, to provide more adoptable IIoT systems in industrial domains. Conclusion: As IIoT systems and CO2 sensor technologies evolve, IIoT systems can contribute significantly to increasing global air quality and CO2 emission control in industry, agricultural, and urban areas.

Intelligent manufacturing is the future development direction of manufacturing industry. There are still some problems lurk in the traditional mode of production, such as “information island” and “network security”, which result in low productivity but high-cost production, and information leakage. With application of the new generation information technology in manufacturing field is expanded, the deep integration of information technology and manufacturing industry promotes the development of production towards intellectualization, networking, and service. Single mode of production is gradually replaced by the way of large-scale collaborative production, so the traditional industrial internet of things (IoT) and manufacturing architecture are not suitable for the needs of actual production any more. For instance, the great challenges of compatibility and coordination of interface protocols, huge data, cost, and safety. In order to solve these problems, a new model of industrial IoT with security mechanism used in intelligent workshop is proposed. Firstly, this article analyzes the current situation of manufacturing industry and information technology, a secure transmission model of industrial IoT was designed based on the new generation information technology. Secondly, combined with the structure of the IoT and the real production demands, a six-tier industrial IoT architecture based on the new generation information technology is proposed. Finally, the three dimensions of the intelligent manufacturing model are expanded according to the architecture of the IoT. Not only a six-tier intelligent manufacturing system framework based on the new generation of information technology is obtained, but also the network security mechanism is introduced. On one hand, it realizes the coordinated operation of industrial chain, supply chain, and value chain of production process, on the other hand, it also improves the networking, intellectualization, and service level of industrial production. What is more the system can also provide the reference model for the various application of IoT.

The fast development of the applications of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) requires the real-time object detection which has the capability to work effectively in energy-restrained edgefog conditions. Unlike the former YOLO-based and lightweight detectors and RL-based edgefog offloading mechanisms, the proposed RAEED framework combines lightweight detection and training-free adaptive inference offloading to optimize the accuracy, latency and energy consumption jointly in IIoT settings. The deep learning-based detectors are very accurate and capable of handling resource-intensive IIoT deployments, however, their systems are frequently computation- and powerintensive, which is not feasible in resource-constrained IIoT applications. In this effort, the present work suggests that a resource-conscious energy-efficient detector (RAEED) system is proposed which allocates inference resources between the edge and fog nodes dynamically projected by resource availability and network characteristics. The framework integrates a convolutional backbone which is lightweight together with adaptive offloading strategy to trade-off between detection accuracy, latency, and energy consumption. The applications to the COCO 2017 dataset under constrained deployment conditions indicate that RAEED can have 82.4% mAP, 83.1% precision and 81.7% recall, with a latency of 47.6 ms and with a consumption of 0.91 mJ/frame. These findings indicate that IIoT systems can greatly manage to find and identify objects with a much better energy and resource savings.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a fusion of industrial automation systems and IoT systems. It features comprehensive sensing, interconnected transmission, intelligent processing, self-organization and self-maintenance. Its applications span intelligent transportation, smart factories, and intelligence. Many areas such as power grid and intelligent environment detection. With the widespread application of IIoT technology, the cyber security threats to industrial IoT systems are increasing day by day, and information security issues have become a major challenge in the development process. In order to protect the industrial IoT system from network attacks, this paper aims to study the industrial IoT information security protection technology, and the typical architecture of industrial Internet of things system, and analyzes the network security threats faced by industrial Internet of things system according to the different levels of the architecture, and designs the security protection strategies applied to different levels of structures based on the specific means of network attack.

Industrial IoT (IIoT) is critical for industrial infrastructure modernization and digitalization. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to provide adequate protection of the IIoT system. A modern IIoT system usually consists of a large number of devices that are deployed in multiple locations and owned/managed by different entities who do not fully trust each other. These features make it harder to manage the system in a coherent manner and utilize existing security mechanisms to offer adequate protection. The emerging blockchain technology provides a powerful tool for IIoT system management and protection because the IIoT nature of distributed deployment and involvement of multiple stakeholders fits the design philosophy of blockchain well. Most existing blockchain construction mechanisms are not scalable enough and too heavy for an IIoT system. One promising way to overcome these limitations is utilizing hardware based trusted execution environment (TEE) in blockchain construction. However, most of the existing works on this direction do not consider the characteristics of IIoT devices (e.g., fixed functionality and limited supply) and face several limitations when they are applied for IIoT system management and protection, such as high energy consumption, single root-of-trust, and low decentralization level. To mitigate these challenges, we propose a novel field programmable gate array (FPGA) based blockchain system. It leverages the FPGA to build a simple but efficient TEE for IIoT devices, and removes the single root-of-trust by allowing all stakeholders to participate in the management of the devices. The FPGA based blockchain system shifts the computation/storage intensive part of blockchain management to more powerful computers but still involves the IIoT devices in the block construction to achieve a high level of decentralization. We implement the major FPGA components of the design and evaluate the performance of the whole system with a simulation tool to demonstrate its feasibility for IIoT applications.

This article addresses cyber security risk assessment in industrial internet of things (IIoT) networks, and particularly the continuous risk assessment (CRA) process, which assumes real-time, dynamic risk evaluation based on the run-time data. IIoT cyber security risks, threats, and attacks are briefly presented. Requirements for cyber security risk assessment of industrial control systems as well as applicability of machine learning for that purpose are considered. The architectural view of the CRA process in the IIoT environment is presented and discussed. Possibilities of deep learning approaches to achieve CRA in IIoT systems are explored. Deep learning can be integrated into edge-computing-based systems and used for feature extraction and risk classification from massive raw data. Several research works are presented and briefly discussed. The article ends with emphasizing the future research directions and concluding remarks.