This letter presents a federated learning-basd data-accumulation scheme that combines drones and blockchain for remote regions where Internet of Things devices face network scarcity and potential cyber threats. The scheme contains a two-phase authentication mechanism in which requests are first validated using a cuckoo filter, followed by a timestamp nonce. Secure accumulation is achieved by validating models using a Hampel filter and loss checks. To increase the privacy of the model, differential privacy is employed before sharing. Finally, the model is stored in the blockchain after consent is obtained from mining nodes. Experiments are performed in a proper environment, and the results confirm the feasibility of the proposed scheme.

Internet of things (IoT), mobile edge computing (MEC), and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) have attracted significant attention in both industry and academic research. By consolidating these technologies, IoT can be facilitated with improved connectivity, better data transmission, energy saving, and other advantages. However, the communication between these entities is subject to potential cyber threats. In addition, the integrity of the data must be maintained after storing into local storage. Blockchain is a data structure that supports features like pseudonymity, data integrity etc. This paper represents a blockchain based data acquisition process in which information is gathered from IoTs using UAV as a relay and is securely kept in blockchain at MEC server. In the proposed scheme, data are encrypted prior to transfer to MEC server with the assistance of a UAV. Upon receiving the data, MEC server validates the data and the identity of the sender. Successful validation is followed by stocking of the data into blockchain, subsequent to obtaining consent from the validators. Security analysis is conducted in order to show the feasibility of the proposed secure scheme. Finally, the performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed via simulation and implementation.

This paper presents a blockchain enabled secure data acquisition scheme utilizing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarm where data are collected from internet of things (IoT) devices and subsequently, forwarded to the nearest server through the UAV swarm. Before initiating data acquisition, the UAV swarm shares a shared key with IoT devices in order to maintain communications. However, prior to transmitting data, IoT devices encrypt the data and forward it to the UAV swarm. Upon receiving the data, the UAV swarm implements a two-phase validation utilizing the π-hash bloom filter and the digital signature algorithm to validate the sender; in addition, prior to forwarding data to the nearest server, it performs encryption. However, before adding data in blockchain, consent from all validators is required. Finally, the data are stored in blockchain with the approval of validators. A security analysis is performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is manifested through implementation and simulation. The security analysis and the performance results show that UAV assist IoT devices both in terms of connectivity and energy consumption, and provides security against the threats mentioned in the paper.

Contagious disease pandemics present a significant threat worldwide in terms of both human health and economic damage. New diseases emerge annually and place enormous burdens on many countries. Additionally, using humans to handle pandemic situations increases the chances of disease spreading. Therefore, various technologies that do not directly involve humans should be employed to handle pandemic situations. The Internet of Drones (IoDT), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain are emerging technologies that have revolutionized the modern world. This article presents a blockchain-based AI-empowered pandemic situation supervision scheme in which a swarm of drones embedded with AI is engaged to autonomously monitor pandemic outbreaks, thereby keeping human involvement as low as possible. A use case based on a recent pandemic (i.e., COVID-19) is discussed. Two types of drone swarms are used to handle multiple tasks (e.g., checking face masks and imposing lockdowns). A lightweight blockchain is considered to handle situations in remote areas with poor network connectivity. Additionally, a two-phase lightweight security mechanism is adopted to validate the entities in the proposed scheme. A proof of concept is established using an experimental environment setup and dataset training. An analysis of the experimental results demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed scheme.