Elevating e-health excellence with IOTA distributed ledger technology: Sustaining data integrity in next-gen fog-driven systems

Abstract

Ensuring data integrity is crucial for IoT-based healthcare and emotion care services, which utilize Fog computing to bring resources and services closer to the network edge. This proximity, however, increases the risks of data tampering, loss, and unauthorized access. To mitigate these risks, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platforms such as Hash graph, Big chain-DB, IOTA (Internet of Things Application) and Blockchain are being investigated for their potential to enhance data integrity within Fog computing environments. This study presents a framework designed to ensure data integrity in IoT-based healthcare and emotion care services by leveraging IOTA technology. IOTA, which employs a directed a-cyclic graph (DAG) structure known as the Tangle, provides a secure, decentralized and tamper-resistant method for data storage and sharing. Unlike traditional blockchain, IOTA’s consensus mechanism operates without miners, offering improved scalability and efficiency suitable for IoT environments. Our proposed framework exploits IOTA’s capabilities to deliver a robust solution for maintaining data integrity in Fog computing contexts. The evaluation results demonstrate the framework’s feasibility and effectiveness in enhancing data integrity for IoT-based healthcare and emotion care services. Although IOTA significantly improves data integrity by complicating unauthorized data alterations, it is essential to acknowledge that complete immutability is influenced by various factors, such as consensus mechanisms and the number of network participants, similar to the limitations observed in other DLTs.