Early-Stage Conflict Resolution Mechanism for HLF-Based Delay-Critical IoT Network

Conflicting transactions pose significant challenges in Hyperledger Fabric (HLF)-based IoT networks, affecting performance and introducing security vulnerabilities that can facilitate malicious attacks. Traditional conflict resolution mechanisms resolve conflicts in the later stages of transaction processing (i.e., the ordering or validation stages), resulting in increased transaction latency, which impacts delay-critical IoT applications. This paper proposes an Early Conflict Resolution (ECR) mechanism that integrates conflict detection and resolution at the endorsement stage, enhancing throughput and reducing transaction latency. This paper also explores the impact of conflicting transactions on blockchain attack vectors, focusing on four pivotal attacks-block withholding, double spending, balance attacks, and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS)-simulated to analyze their exploitation of transaction conflicts and their impact on IoT networks. The results show that the ECR mechanism significantly improves the success rate and transaction latency compared to existing mechanisms.