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Using FIWARE and blockchain in smart cities solutions

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Abstract

Nowadays, Blockchain has been widely used to store decentralized and secure transactions involving cryptocurrency, e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. However, Blockchain can also store other types of information besides monetary transactions. On the other hand, innovative solutions for smart cities are concerned with how services and information can be safely stored and shared. For this reason, smart city systems can benefit from using Blockchain to integrate their data and services. These smart solutions also demand consistency and standardization across the industry. However, this Blockchain integration varies according to its implementation. FIWARE, a framework of an open-source platform for smart solutions, adopts NGSI Standards (Context Information Management (CIM); NGSI-LD API: Tech. Rep., CIM and ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG), 2020) to enable the integration of components and provides the basis for interoperability and portability among smart solutions. Unfortunately, FIWARE does not support any integration with Blockchain technology. Hence, this paper proposes a set of new components to allow FIWARE to be integrated with Blockchain technology. With these proposed components, it is possible to support Blockchain technology with smart city applications via the FIWARE platform. For instance, we have designed and implemented a FIWARE Blockchain adapter to submit/listen to transactions from/to FIWARE Context Broker to/from any Blockchain implementation without human intervention. In addition, we present a global post-pandemic vaccination case study to evaluate the proposed approach in the Smart City context.

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Data availability

The code and datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Available at: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/.

  2. https://www.kaaproject.org/.

  3. https://artemis-ia.eu/project/4-sofia.html.

  4. www.fiware.org.

  5. https://www.iota.org/.

  6. https://fiware.github.io/specifications/ngsiv2/stable/.

  7. https://ngsi-ld-tutorials.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

  8. https://fiware-pep-proxy.readthedocs.io/.

  9. https://fiware-idm.readthedocs.io/.

  10. https://github.com/FIWARE/context.Orion-LD.

  11. https://geth.ethereum.org/.

  12. https://consensys.net/quorum/.

  13. https://www.hyperledger.org/use/besu.

  14. https://docs.soliditylang.org/.

  15. https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-721.

  16. https://blog.iota.org/introducing-masked-authenticated-messaging-e55c1822d50e/.

  17. https://ipfs.io/.

  18. https://www.javatpoint.com/blockchain-merkle-tree.

  19. Using an eth_sendRawTransaction to create your own Smart Contract.

  20. https://web3js.readthedocs.io/.

  21. https://fiware-draco.readthedocs.io/.

  22. https://www.hyperledger.org/use/fabric.

  23. https://www.fiware.org/developers/catalogue/.

  24. https://github.com/smart-data-models/dataModel.COVID19/.

  25. https://docs.docker.com/compose/.

  26. https://jmeter.apache.org/.

  27. http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/344456.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Smart Metropolis Project http://smartmetropolis.imd.ufrn.br.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

    Stefano Loss & Nélio Cacho

  2. FIWARE Foundation, Berlin, Germany

    Har Preet Singh

  3. Metropole Digital Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

    Frederico Lopes

Authors
  1. Stefano Loss
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  2. Har Preet Singh
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  3. Nélio Cacho
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  4. Frederico Lopes
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design of Canis Major and Taurus. HPS and SL performed the GE implementation and contributed to writing the manuscript. SL wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Stefano Loss.

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Loss, S., Singh, H.P., Cacho, N. et al. Using FIWARE and blockchain in smart cities solutions. Cluster Comput 26, 2115–2128 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-022-03732-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-022-03732-x

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