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Tsinghua Science and Technology 2023, 28(1): 69-81 https://doi.org/10.26599/TST.2021.9010074
Open Access | Issue | Published: 21 July 2022

A Trust-Based Hierarchical Consensus Mechanism for Consortium Blockchain in Smart Grid

Show Author's Information Xingguo Jiang1,  Aidong Sun2( ),  Yan Sun1,  Hong Luo1,  Mohsen Guizani3
School of Computer Science (National Pilot Software Engineering School), Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Institute of Food safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210000, China
Computer Science and Engineering Department, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
Keywords:
Internet of Things (IoT), smart grid, consortium blockchain, consensus algorithm, trust evaluation method
Cite this article:
Jiang X, Sun A, Sun Y, et al. A Trust-Based Hierarchical Consensus Mechanism for Consortium Blockchain in Smart Grid. Tsinghua Science and Technology, 2023, 28(1): 69-81. https://doi.org/10.26599/TST.2021.9010074
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Abstract Full text About this article

As the smart grid develops rapidly, abundant connected devices offer various trading data. This raises higher requirements for secure and effective data storage. Traditional centralized data management does not meet the above requirements. Currently, smart grid with conventional consortium blockchain can solve the above issues. However, in the face of a large number of nodes, existing consensus algorithms often perform poorly in terms of efficiency and throughput. In this paper, we propose a trust-based hierarchical consensus mechanism (THCM) to solve this problem. Firstly, we design a hierarchical mechanism to improve the efficiency and throughput. Then, intra-layer nodes use an improved Raft consensus algorithm and inter-layer nodes use the Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm. Thirdly, we propose a trust evaluation method to improve the election process of Raft. Finally, we implement a prototype system to evaluate the performance of THCM. The results demonstrate that the consensus efficiency is improved by 19.8%, the throughput is improved by 12.34%, and the storage is reduced by 37.9%.


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About this article

A Trust-Based Hierarchical Consensus Mechanism for Consortium Blockchain in Smart Grid

Show Author's information Xingguo Jiang1, Aidong Sun2( ), Yan Sun1, Hong Luo1, Mohsen Guizani3
School of Computer Science (National Pilot Software Engineering School), Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Institute of Food safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210000, China
Computer Science and Engineering Department, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar

Abstract

As the smart grid develops rapidly, abundant connected devices offer various trading data. This raises higher requirements for secure and effective data storage. Traditional centralized data management does not meet the above requirements. Currently, smart grid with conventional consortium blockchain can solve the above issues. However, in the face of a large number of nodes, existing consensus algorithms often perform poorly in terms of efficiency and throughput. In this paper, we propose a trust-based hierarchical consensus mechanism (THCM) to solve this problem. Firstly, we design a hierarchical mechanism to improve the efficiency and throughput. Then, intra-layer nodes use an improved Raft consensus algorithm and inter-layer nodes use the Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm. Thirdly, we propose a trust evaluation method to improve the election process of Raft. Finally, we implement a prototype system to evaluate the performance of THCM. The results demonstrate that the consensus efficiency is improved by 19.8%, the throughput is improved by 12.34%, and the storage is reduced by 37.9%.

Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), smart grid, consortium blockchain, consensus algorithm, trust evaluation method

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 01 October 2021
Accepted: 13 October 2021
Published: 21 July 2022
Issue date: February 2023

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© The author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62172051, 61772085, and 61877005) and Jiangsu Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation Fund (No. CX(18)3054).

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The articles published in this open access journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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