2021 IEEE 6th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA)
Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania. Dec 17-19, 2021
A Review on Cyber-Physical Systems based on
Blockchain: Possibilities and Challenges
Bhawana
School of Computer and Systems Sciences (SC&SS)
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India-110067
bhawan63_scs@jnu.ac.in
2021 IEEE 6th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA) | 978-1-6654-1473-9/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICCCA52192.2021.9666299
Abstract—Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and the Internet
of Things (IoT) are booming technologies for researchers and
industries that are closely correlated to each other to perform
task-oriented operations. The IoT is a collection of smart
sensor devices connected with the internet whereas, the CPS
incorporates the computation, networking, control, and
monitoring of these smart sensor devices remotely. As a result,
privacy and security are deeply affected due to eavesdroppers
or attackers. Further, the range of CPS applications
comprising IoT suffers from various challenges, including
robustness, trust, data breach, availability, single point of
failure, and interoperability because of the existing centralized
architecture. Therefore, incorporating decentralized
technology such as blockchain is required to overcome the CPS
challenges and ensure immutability, fault tolerance, and
consistency using the consensus mechanism and smart contract
implementation. In this context, this paper provides a
systematic review of blockchain and CPS incorporating IoT.
The provided survey is divided into three categories such as
security, privacy, and trust. These three categories explain the
use of blockchain to overcome security attacks and threats,
privacy preservation, and trust management issues by
combining different latest techniques such as cloud computing,
edge computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, side-
chain, etc.
Keywords—Cyber-physical Systems, Internet of Things,
Blockchain, Security, Privacy, Trust.
I. INTRODUCTION
The fast development in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)
evolved many new applications such as smart industrial
control systems, smart grid systems, smart transportation
systems, smart healthcare systems, etc. These applications
connect the cyber and physical world to perform efficient
operations. The term CPS was initially mentioned by Helen
Gill around 2006 at the US National Science Foundation [1].
CPS means connecting the cyber and physical world by
combining sensing, computing, networking, and actuation
processes with the potential to transform the way we interact
with the surrounding [2]-[3]. The CPS consists of various
components, i.e., sensors and actuators connected and
integrated under a centralized smart decision-making system
to fulfill a specific task. In recent years, the CPS strongly
connects with multi-disciplinary realms such as Wireless
Sensor Networks (WSN), Internet of Things (IoT), Next-
generation CPS (Next-gen CPS), and focusing on
redesigning the existing centralized system architectures [4].
Among all the realms, the IoT gives rise to Next-gen
CPS, which indicates the industry 4.0 to empower interactive
functionality between the physical and cyber worlds. The
bringing of IoT in Next-gen CPS enables the manipulation or
978-1-6654-1473-9/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
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Sushil Kumar
School of Computer and Systems Sciences (SC&SS)
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India-110067
skdohare@mail.jnu.ac.in
updation in the physical systems with seamless network
connectivity and refinement to control actuation operations
by the end-users. Kelvin Ashton first coined the term IoT in
1999 [5] to explain a system where the physical world is
connected with the internet via smart sensor devices or smart
IoT devices [6]. The things in the IoT indicate the physical or
virtual entity that exists and moves in the physical space and
can be distinguished [7]. The IoT generates a massive
amount of data using smart sensor devices and forwards this
data to the centralized system for processing to perform real-
time actuation operations. However, these smart sensor
devices pose several challenges, such as security and
privacy, due to their resource constraint nature. The current
centralized system used for the CPS is suitable for small-
scale applications but shortly unable to fulfill the need of
continuously growing large-scale Next-gen CPS. Also, a
single point of failure, data breaches, operation delay,
scalability, lack of trust, and transparency are common issues
associated with the centralized system of CPS. Therefore,
moving the CPS to the decentralized system will resolve
many problems [8].
Today’s most popular decentralized system is blockchain
which has gained much attention in recent years due to its
distributed architecture and removal of centralized regulatory
authority. The blockchain is a peer-to-peer (P2P) network
that records all the timestamp transactions generated by CPS
smart devices and users. Every transaction is stored in an
immutable ledger maintained by network participants
belonging to the ecosystem of the CPS to avoid
disagreement. The distributed architecture of the blockchain
solves many challenges associated with CPS, such as
scalability, security, data integrity, trust, and transparency, as
well as reduces the installation and maintenance cost
associated with the centralized system. A generalized view of
blockchain for reconstructing CPS to overcome various
challenges, consisting of WSN and IoT, as shown in Fig. 1.
Blockchain
Enable decentralized
security and privacy
Enable decentralized
trust
Integrates
WSN
IoT
CPS
Next-gen CPS
Fig. 1: Diagrammatic View of Blockchain for CPS
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 The motivation behind this paper is to provide a detailed
description of blockchain and integration of blockchain in
the CPS with other emerging technologies as machine
learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid computing,
edger computing, etc., by the mean of published research
papers. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section
II explains the background related to blockchain. The related
review is presented in Section III. Section IV presents a
proposed systematic review on blockchain and CPS based on
three properties, i.e., privacy, security, and trust. Section V
describes the blockchain challenges and possible solutions.
Finally, the paper concluded in Section VI.
II. BACKGROUND
A. Blockchain Evolution Overview and Definition
The evolution of blockchain starts to promote a new
digital cryptocurrency called Bitcoin for commercial
transactions independent of banks and countries proposed by
an unknown person named Satoshi Nakamoto [9]. Bitcoin is
a cryptocurrency that uses blockchain technology to circulate
Bitcoin globally without including any trusted intermediary,
e.g., banks. However, to achieve confidentiality among
people while using Bitcoin, numerous cryptographic
functions and security are used to protect against the double-
spend problem [10]. After analyzing the Bitcoin blockchain,
the other developer and researcher communities explore the
possibilities of developing new blockchain platforms and
applications in the financial sector [11] and vertical
industries [12] other than cryptocurrencies. The blockchain is
a distributed ledger technology that stores the provenance of
records using transaction blocks to remove control of trusted
centralized authorities.
B. Block Structure
The block is the fundamental unit of blockchain, divided
into two parts, i.e., block header and block body [13]. The
block header consists of block version, present block hash,
merkle tree hash, timestamp, nBits, and nonce. In contrast,
the block body comprises a set of transactions that holds
related information. The merkle tree hash indicates a hash
value corresponding to the collection of transactions
proposed in the same block generated using hashing
techniques, e.g., SHA256, digital signature, MD5, etc.
C. Smart Contract
The idea behind the smart contract is not new and was
initially invented by Nick Szabo in 1994 [14] before the
evolution of blockchain. The smart contract is an opinion to
translate the conceptual clauses into the script to eliminate
the intermediary role. According to the blockchain, the
smart contract is a self-executable code that executes an
agreement’s terms once the predetermined conditions are
satisfied. Thus, the smart contract promises a low
transaction fee w.r.t. centralized system that requires a
trusted intermediary to execute an agreement’s terms and
conditions [15].
D. Types of Blockchain
The blockchain is primarily classified into three
categories, i.e., public, private, and consortium blockchain
[16], which are described below.
a) Public/Permissionless Blockchain: The public
blockchain is open to everyone. The participants do not
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require permission from the centralized authority to join the
blockchain network or become valid blockchain nodes.
Further, they can leave the blockchain network at any point
in time without affecting blockchain functioning. The most
common public blockchains are Ethereum, Bitcoin,
Litecoin, IOTA, etc.
b) Private/Permissioned Blockchain: The private
blockchain permits only known participants to become
authorized blockchain nodes. It requires permission from a
centralized authority to join the blockchain network for
accessing block transactions and participation in the
consensus process. The very well-known private blockchain
are Hyperledger, Multichain, etc.
c) Consortium/Federated Blockchain: The consortium
blockchain is an extension of private blockchain managed
by a group of pre-selected participants instead of a single
authority. This type of blockchain is semi-decentralized or
semi-private, which is not open for everyone having each
participant with equal power. The very famous consortium
blockchains are Quorum, R3 Corda, etc.
E. Characteristics of Blockchain
Blockchain combines many vital features [17] to make
itself unique from other emerging technology to fit into the
CPS domain to solve many issues discussed below.
Decentralization: The decentralized architecture provides
many advantages over a centralized system, such as
scalability, fault tolerance, immutability, trust, tractability,
transparency, and robustness.
Tamper-proofing: Each block in blockchain links to the
previous block through a cryptographic hash to form a chain
of trust. For instance, if any malicious node tries to modify
the block’s content, it requires to changes the hash of all
subsequent blocks. That is easy to trace, which makes
blockchain more secure and tamper-proof.
Anonymity: To interact with the blockchain network, each
user requires blockchain-generated public/private key pairs.
These key pairs hide the user’s real-world identity efficiently
with no centralized control by a trusted third party.
Transparency: Blockchain provides a high level of
transparency by sharing transaction information on the
blockchain network, visible to all authorized blockchain
nodes.
Better security: Blockchain provides better protection using
cryptographic techniques such as ECDSA, SHA-256, digital
signature, etc., to protect against malicious actions which
lead to change in information.
III. RELATED REVIEW
This section presents the existing literature surveys
published by many authors based on the blockchain and
CPS. Some authors considered the IoT applications while
mentioning the advantage of using blockchain technology in
different CPS domains. In [18], the authors systematically
reviewed various CPS applications where blockchain has
been utilized. A mathematical model is proposed based on a
decision support system to identify the benefit of bringing
the blockchain to CPS applications. In [19], the authors
presented an in-depth review of blockchain-enabled CPS.
The advantage of using blockchain for CPS is indicated via
subjective logic. Further, nine blockchain-based operations
are considered w.r.t. CPS applications. These operations are
classified according to sensitivity and throughput, which are
correlated with the blockchain. In [20], the authors suggested
a blockchain-based CPS according to security and
operational viewpoints. In addition, a graphical
representation is indicated to show the research work, which
summarizes the existing study in an organized manner. In
[21], the authors suggest using blockchain for cyber threats
w.r.t. industry 4.0. It is evident from the results that only
60% of the work ensures confidentiality and integrity, and
the rest of the 20% confirm availability and privacy. In [22],
the authors detailed existing state-of-art consensus
algorithms and highlighted their strengths and weakness in
decentralized CPS applications. The importance of
blockchain-enabled consensus mechanisms is presented in
various verticals of CPS applications
To date, various surveys are conducted by authors that
fulfill their objective by explaining the bringing of
blockchain in CPS with IoT. Most of the authors are focused
on CPS applications, while others on security and privacy.
In this context, we presented a systematic survey on
blockchain and CPS by highlighting privacy preservation,
cybersecurity attacks and threats, and trust mechanisms. To
provide better visibility by explaining the use of blockchain
to cure various CPS issues.
IV. ROLE OF BLOCKCHAIN FOR CPS
The blockchain-based solution has been adopted to
address the CPS challenges, eliminating the trusted third
parties to safeguard the information in a decentralized way.
This section provides a systematic survey of using
blockchain in the CPS domain with IoT, including future
direction. The study review is categorized into three areas,
i.e., privacy, security, and trust, as shown in Fig. 2. In the
privacy section, we focus on privacy preservation using
blockchain. On the other side, the security section is further
subdivided into two sub-sections, describing the use of
blockchain to preserve various cybersecurity attacks and
threats, Furthermore, the trust section contains the trust
system, trust management, and trust protocol driven by
distributed technology for CPS, is explained below.
Blockchain for CPS
Privacy Security
x Privacy Preservation
Cybersecurity
Attacks
Cybersecurity
Threats
x Trust system
x Trust management
x Trust protocol
x DoS or DDoS attack x Malware detection
x Eavesdropping x Anomaly detection
attack x Intruction detection
x Man-in-middle-
attack
x Replay attack
x Spoofing attack
Fig. 2: Classification of Survey Research Method
A. Blockchain for Privacy Preservation in CPS
In [23], the authors designed a blockchain-facilitated
smart grid system that incorporates three layers. The
integration of blockchain achieves decentralization and
reliable data provenance whereas, an attribute-enabled token
verification scheme based on identity mixer technology is
used for privacy preservation of end-users interface. In the
future, deploy an architecture in an emulated smart grid
environment to evaluate performance. In [24], the authors
proposed a blockchain-enabled framework for smart power
networks, including two-level privacy-preserving and
anomaly detection modules. An enhanced proof of work and
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variational autoencoder algorithms are applied in the
privacy-preserving module to protect data integrity and
inference attack. Further, a recurrent neural network
algorithm is used in the anomaly detection module for
anomaly detection. In the future, apply the proposed
framework on various datasets from smart power networks to
evaluate scalability and utility. In [25], the authors presented
a decentralized pseudonym management scheme for the
internet of connected vehicles, which uses public key
infrastructure and shuffle operation for privacy-preserving
for different vehicles. In [26], the authors developed a
privacy-preserving publish/subscribe model based on
blockchain for the IoT system. A lightweight public key
encryption with equality test protocol is employed to encrypt
the topic for subscriber privacy. In [27], the authors proposed
a privacy-preserving support vector machine (SVM) training
scheme based on blockchain called secureSVM. Further, a
secure building block is designed using holomorphic
cryptosystem and Paillier properties to ensure the privacy of
numerous IoT data providers. In the future, various privacy-
preserving ML algorithms will develop on multipart
encrypted datasets. In [28], the authors presented a
trustworthy privacy-preserving secured framework (TP2SF)
for the smart city using blockchain and ML techniques.
Further, a CloudBlock-FogBlock architecture is utilized to
deploy TP2SF, which integrated blockchain-IPFS strategy to
support traceability, immutability, verifiability, etc. In [29],
the authors proposed a secure and privacy-preserving meter
data aggregation framework based on a two-tier hierarchal
blockchain for the smart grid. An adaptive homomorphism
encryption technique is used to protect from attackers, and
PBFT consensus is adopted to improve framework
efficiency. In the future, refinement of consensus algorithm
is suggested.
B. Blockchain for Cybersecurity Attacks in CPS
In [30], the authors proposed a blockchain-enabled
framework for IoT devices to detect and prevent denial of
service (DoS) attacks in a group of compromised IoT devices
using a smart contract and static resource allocation
mechanism. In [31], the authors presented a blockchain-
enabled framework to detect distributed denial of service
(DDoS) attacks in the IoT network through lightweight
Trust
agents. These agents shared outbound traffic information and
utilized the consensus algorithm to collaboratively identify
the possible victims, i.e., infected IoT devices. Further, to
make the proposed system more robust and resilient against
faulty nodes (e.g., agents). A validity checking mechanism is
employed to protect from hiding any sensitive information
related to the DDoS attack and the integrity of provided
information. In [32], the authors designed an IoT smart home
architecture using blockchain and cloud computing called
SH-BlockCC. A security analysis algorithm, namely
multivariate correlation based on extraction technique, is
proposed to analyse the network traffic and identify
DoS/DDOS attacks in an IoT smart home network. Further, a
Diffie-Hellman encryption algorithm and lightweight
hashing are utilized to achieve integrity and confidentially. In
[33], the authors proposed a blockchain-based ad-hoc
vehicular network architecture to bring trust, security, and
reliability among connected vehicles while sharing
information and network resources. In the proposed scheme,
various analyses are performed to protect against malicious
activity in which an encryption mechanism is utilized based
on the secondary key. In [34], the authors presented an IoT-
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based decentralized network production environment using
private blockchain to solve trusty and secure data
management issues. Every entity receives a digital identity
using cryptographic key pair based on secp256k1 ECDSA to
authenticate each other in a decentralized manner to mitigate
several attacks. In the future, privacy-enhancing techniques
will apply on top of the private blockchain. In [35], the
authors proposed a secure and lightweight device
authentication protocol for the medical cyber-physical
system (MCPS) using blockchain. Meanwhile, the BAN (i.e.,
Burrow, Abadi, and Needham) logic is utilized to check the
feasibility of the proposed protocol, security of session key,
and mutual authentication process. The author suggested
extending the protocol logic to the other application domains
and integrating private blockchain in the future. In [36], the
authors presented a blockchain-enabled framework to
uniquely identify the edge devices using physical unclonable
functions in IoT systems. Additionally, a secure
communication protocol is proposed for edge devices using a
cryptographic secure random number generator and one-time
password to protect numerous attacks. N gateways utilize to
access a given device in the future, which justifies the use of
local blockchain infrastructure data set. In [37], the authors
designed an efficient lightweight blockchain-based
radiofrequency identification-enabled authentication protocol
for the supply chain in the 5G mobile computing
environment called LBRAPS. This secure authentication
protocol manages the initialization and mutual authentication
phase, utilizing one-way cryptographic hash, XOR, and
bitwise rotation operations to secure against various attacks.
In the future, plan to implement the LBRAPS in a real-time
environment. In [38], the authors presented a blockchain-
enabled IoT device-to-device authentication protocol for
smart city applications using 5G technology called
BIDASCA5G. Designing proposed protocol SHA-1 and
ECC primitives are used for authentication between IoT
devices without involving gateway nodes. In the future,
consider a blockchain environment for IoT device
authentication. In [39], the authors presented a delay-
sensitive blockchain-enabled access control and
authentication mechanism for lightweight IoT devices in an
IoT system. The proposed mechanism is based on proof-of-
concept consensus, fog computing, and ECDSA algorithm to
protect from cyber-attacks. In the future, focus on the
development of a new lightweight consensus algorithm. In
[40], the authors designed a two-tier system model to explain
the secure storage and sharing of medical records in MCPS.
Further, a certificateless aggregate signature scheme is
proposed based on multiple trapdoor hash functions to
enhance the blockchain-enabled MCPS. In the future, to
improve security, the lattice-based digital signature will be
utilized.
C. Blockchain for Cybersecurity Threats in CPS
In [41], the authors presented a cloud-based deep
blockchain model for intrusion detection, which utilized
bidirectional long short-term memory deep learning
algorithm to discover cyber-attacks. In [42], the authors
presented blockchain-based tracking and liability attribute
framework to facilitate tracking for CPS object behaviors
within the smart controlled business environment to support
resilience by enabling proactive insider threat detection. In
[43], the authors proposed a model using permissioned
blockchain and ML to enhance malware detection for
android IoT devices. The ML approach extracts the malware
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information based on clustering and multi-feature Naïve
Bayes classifier algorithm, which further stores the malware
information into the blockchain for future analysis. In [44],
the authors suggested a blockchain and multi-level deep
learning-enabled framework for android IoT devices to
detect malware activities. Additionally, the smart contracts
are used to verify the malicious application and approve or
deny for downloading and uploading the harmful android
applications, which helps to provide better security for the
IoT devices. In [45], the author proposed a collaborative
instruction detection approach using blockchain for
mutilmicrogrid (MMG). For enhancing the accuracy of
instruction detection in the MMG, a multi-pattern-based
proposal generation is presented. Further, an improved
delegated proof-of-stake consensus algorithm is designed to
achieve agreement and removal of trusted centralized
authority/server. In [46], the author designed a lightweight
blockchain-enabled collaborative anomaly detection
framework (CIoTA) for IoT devices. A self-attestation and
consensus mechanism is utilized to update the anomaly
information in a trusted manner via blockchain. In the future,
upgrade CIoTA to support various frameworks and
improvisation in its anomaly detection capabilities.
D. Blockchain for Trust in CPS
In [47], the authors designed a blockchain-enabled
signature storage model to store the signature information of
the devices exchanging data to ensure trust among the
participants. In the future, focus on lowering the transaction
cost of the proposed solution. In [48], the authors presented a
three-level blockchain architecture for data integrity
verification produced by IoT devices in the IoT-CPS
environment. A proof-of-trust mechanism based on
lightweight trustful space-time protocol is proposed to
achieve time-deterministic, energy-efficient, and secure
communication. In the future, investigate the utilization of
hash functions to verify the integrity of specific data. In [49],
the authors presented a trust enabling system based on
blockchain for the cyber-physical trust system (CPTS). A
public-key cryptographic approach is suggested for data
exchange between IoT devices and blockchain to bring trust.
In the future, perform in-depth formal and informal security
analysis. In [50], the authors designed a distributed trust
management model for an IoT network using holochain to
overcome scalability issues. The model is divided into two
layers to securely update and distribute trust information
between IoT devices without including a centralized
administrator. Also, address the integrity and security
problems by using a unique private digital signature scheme.
In the future, a demonstration w.r.t. achieving scalability and
security against misleading trust assessment and code
injection is performed. In [51], the authors proposed a
federated trust management architecture for sensor devices of
the IoT network. The fog/edge nodes are used to evaluate a
trust value corresponding to each resource-constraint sensor
node. Further, a request-reply protocol with an encryption
technique is employed to avoid eavesdropping. A digital
signature is considered to protect against malicious code
injection activity. In [52], the authors presented a
blockchain-enabled trustworthy edge caching mechanism for
mobile users in the mobile cyber-physical system. A trust
management mechanism is proposed for mobile users to
access edge node’s trust information. Further, a min-max
logic-based resource allocation algorithm is designed for
allocating caching resources according to the mobile user’s
optimal demands. In the future, focus on increasing edge
nodes profits and quality of experience for mobile users by
considering the content caching monitor approach. In [53],
the authors proposed a trust enabling system component for
CPTS using distributed ledger technology. A proof-of-
concept is implemented to conduct an in-depth performance
analysis based on Dev-system, surface-Go, and Raspberry-
pi. Also, the security analysis was performed for formal and
informal approaches based on the Dolev-Yao adversary
attack model. In [54], the authors presented a distrusted trust
model for the IoT to bring trust between the IoT devices
without depending on any common root of trust.
Furthermore, a protocol is used for bridging trust based on a
three-way handshaking protocol composed of setup, spend,
and fulfilling phases to protect from security attacks.
V. BLOCKCHAIN CHALLENGES FOR CPS
As shown in Fig. 3, there are numerous challenges to
applying blockchain directly in the CPS domain or
applications [55]. The smart sensor devices embedded in the
CPS are responsible for generating huge data volume.
However, storing this continuously growing information of
CPS onto the blockchain may raise the high storage cost for
the mining nodes (i.e., manage complete details of
blockchain). Further, the mining process in the blockchain
requires high computational resources and dedicated
hardware to validate the newly created block, which
introduces high energy consumption. Thus, these dedicated
hardware poses scalability issues. In the P2P or distributed
network, the increasing number of CPS smart devices
indirectly influences the consensus process, which adds
delays in the transaction confirmation time. Furthermore, in
the blockchain-based CPS applications, an adversary can
backtrack a participant’s (i.e., user) real identity for misuse
by observing the transaction details, which leads to privacy
issues. On the other side, there is a huge problem of fake
block generation in the blockchain, also refers as forking.
Blockchain
challenges
High High Storage High Energy Lack of
Delay
Forking
Cost Consumption Privacy
Scalability
Fig. 3: Different Blockchain Challenges
The latest technologies such as ML and AI can be
incorporated with the blockchain to resolve the above-raised
challenges. These technologies help CPS to protect from
multiple attacks by analyzing the different attacks patterns.
Also, cloud computing, edge computing, hybrid clouds, or
side-chains concept could be used with blockchain as an
alternative solution for the storage and scalability issues.
Finally, zero-knowledge proofs, ring signatures, and group
signatures can be utilized for the privacy problem while
designing a solution for the CPS to bring anonymity to the
distributed network.
VI. CONCLUSION
The CPS brings the capabilities to reorganize, coordinate
and communicate with the physical and cyber world through
smart sensors, actuators, and control devices. The
interconnection between cyber and physical environment is
achieved through centralized architecture leading to a single
point of failure which interrupts various operations and
services. On the other side, integration of IoT with CPS
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covers things in the physical space and utilizes its
capabilities to fetch data and fulfill time-oriented operations
more efficiently. Moreover, various security, privacy, and
trust challenges are currently associated with existing CPS
models. In this context, an alternative decentralized approach
is required to overcome all these issues. Blockchain and its
inherent property, such as decentralization data storage,
secure protocol, consensus algorithm, and smart contracts,
are suitable for building a secure, robust and reliable system
by integrating other latest technologies that fit well with
CPS. This paper provides a systematic survey of CPS based
on blockchain incorporating IoT. The paper is categorized
into three sections, i.e., privacy, security, and trust. In the
privacy section, various privacy-preserving techniques are
described proposed by numerous authors. The security
section focuses on the security attacks and threats present in
the CPS and their solution using blockchain. Apart from this,
trust is an important factor in the CPS. In this context, a
detailed review of trust management and trust system is
presented in the trust system using a distributed system.
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