BlockONS: Blockchain based Object Name Service

Abstract

Today, Internet of Things (IoT) technology is applied to everywhere providing tremendous amounts of IoT service such as home control, facility management, and social public services. The GS1, a non-profit international standard organization, standardized an Object Name Service (ONS) which enables users to manage and discover services in the midst of tremendous amounts of service. However, it has a vulnerability in security and fault tolerance of providing service, because the ONS operates based on the DNS protocol. It is weak against data tampering attacks caused by DNS cache poisoning, spoofing, and local DNS cracking. It has a weak fault tolerance from problems with attack or malfunction. In this paper, we propose a BlockONS, which is novel ONS based on a blockchain. It provides a strength in data tampering attacks allowing a fault tolerance for sustainable service. The BlockONS consists of new service data modeling for an off-chain scaling, data tampering validation method, and fault tolerance mechanism. We designed the BlockONS into two parts: a BlockONS Node part to valid data tampering, and a BlockONS Agent part for scaling and fault tolerance. Finally, we implement the BlockONS prototype using a Hyperledger Sawtooth blockchain and intel i5 NUC. We proof the feasibility of the BlockONS by comparing with performance of an existing ONS.