A DLT-based framework for secure IoT infrastructure in smart communities

In the field of smart communities, significant progress has been made in recent years. The objective of constructing smart communities is to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants. To accomplish this objective, technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) were deployed. The data gathered and processed by IoT devices, particularly those with centralized control, are however susceptible to availability, integrity, and privacy risks. Due to its inherent properties of transparency, immutability, and underlying secure-by-design architecture, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Smart Contracts enable distributed, decentralized, automated workflows that can be incorporated to automate the management of the next generation of IoT networks. Using a potential use case, a conceptual architecture for securing smart communities with DLT is developed and explained. In this paper, a framework for IoT eco-systems is proposed that provides seamless integration between IoT and DLT to create a decentralized trusted architecture that ensures the trustworthiness of IoT eco-systems at design time and a trust reputation model based on the architecture to protect it at run-time. In addition, the initial implementation steps are described for this framework.