A Walkthrough of Blockchain-Based Internet of Drones Architectures

The open and unreliable environment of drones could make data transfer and authentication challenging. Given the proliferation of drone applications, the Internet of Drones (IoD) represents a promising phenomenon to enhance flight reliability and security. IoD has recently acquired pace due to its exceptional flexibility in numerous challenging circumstances. Furthermore, the incorporation of drones holds the potential to enhance many network systems’ performance metrics, such as throughput, scalability, connection, and latency. Regardless of its diverse domain, IoD is susceptible to malicious attacks owing to the wireless medium’s inherent unreliability. Drone communication can be made secure, reliable, and affordable by utilizing blockchain (BC) concepts that can be used to develop security mechanisms for addressing IoD’s shortcomings. This article reviews emerging BC-powered schemes, focusing on their application in drone communication, authentication, and security. Our study explores various drone applications and intricacies associated with BC-based drone technology. By leveraging BC concepts, security mechanisms can mitigate IoD’s shortcomings. Unlike previous works, this survey offers a detailed examination of BC applications in drone technology. The research includes a thorough investigation into current IoD challenges and proposes insightful recommendations to fortify its security framework. Additionally, we conduct experiments on the runtime of consensus algorithms, providing a detailed comparison along with various security models. An analysis of recent work shows diverse approaches in BC for IoD, with a comparative study aimed at mitigating challenges. An overview of machine learning in IoD along with insightful research recommendations are also given that provide ways to improve IoD’s security.