Efficient Resource Allocation in Blockchain-Assisted Health Care Systems

Abstract

Smart health care will be a major application in future smart cities. Timely and precise delivery of patients’ data to their medical consultant, to allow the necessary actions, is one of the basic needs in health care systems. Blockchain technology, with the provisioning of recording and tracking of data blocks, guarantees secure and error-free data delivery. The vital sign data from patients’ sensors are placed in different data blocks. To become a part of the blockchain, the block must contain a valid key, based on a hash function. Mining nodes with high processing capabilities generate the required key using a 32-bit number, known as a nonce, which is changed for every new block. Finding a nonce that meets the hash function requirements is a time-intensive process in blockchain technology and is performed by several fog mining nodes. However, an efficient resource allocation that results in the fair placement of data in these fog mining nodes, while maintaining the priority and sensitivity of patients’ data, is a challenge. This work proposes two algorithms for the resource allocation of mining nodes. The first algorithm uses a load balancing technique to distribute the load of nonce computing tasks. The second algorithm utilizes the knapsack algorithm to allocate the caching space of the mining nodes. The simulation results highlighted that the proposed resource allocation techniques outperformed the existing techniques, in terms of quick mining of the most sensitive patient data blocks.

Smart City Actions Integrated into Urban Planning: Management of Urban Environments by Thematic Areas

“…Furthermore, in smart cities, the availability of high-speed communication networks, cloud computing, and multimedia services offers potential for action development in the telemedicine field, remote medical services, and medical data analysis and movement, contributing to quality of life. Regarding healthcare, [54] highlighted the importance of blockchain technology for the safe and rapid transfer of data to healthcare centers, which contributes to the rapid and secure transfer of patient information through smart records in hospitals.…”