Authenticated Wireless Links between a Drone and Sensors Using a Blockchain: Case of Smart Farming

Agriculture is confronted with several significant difficulties, such as rising air temperatures and population growth, causing the implementation of smart farming operations as an optimum solution. This research aims to contribute to the growing knowledge of the potential role of blockchain technology in promoting the concept of smart farming by enhancing the efficiency of farming operations by boosting agricultural production, lowering environmental impact, and automating the work of farmers. It proposes a secure blockchain-based framework to establish trust among smart farming users. The framework utilizes asymmetric key exchange mechanism using an ECC authentication algorithm and SHA-256 hash function cryptography to secure communication between sensors and drones in the farm field. The SHA-256 hashing function ensures data integrity as attempts to tamper with data result in a different hash value, breaking the chain of blocks. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework, a proof-of-concept implementation was developed on the Ethereum blockchain, in which smart contracts were used to model the framework operations. The proof of concept's performance was examined using Hyperledger Caliper for latency, throughput, and transaction success rate. The findings clearly indicate that blockchain technology can provide an efficient and scalable mechanism to advance smart farming and address some of the barriers that inhibit smart farming, particularly regarding to data integrity and availability.