Enhancing the Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mechanism for secure and efficient data storage in the Industrial Internet of Things

Chen, W., Wang, J., Pan, J.-S., Sherratt, R. S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7899-4445 and Wang, J. (2026) Enhancing the Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mechanism for secure and efficient data storage in the Industrial Internet of Things. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 23. pp. 1842-1862. ISSN 1932-4537 doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2025.3650612

Abstract/Summary

The rapid advancement of Industry 5.0 has accelerated the adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). However, challenges such as data privacy breaches, malicious attacks, and the absence of trustworthy mechanisms continue to hinder its secure and efficient operation. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes an enhanced blockchain-based data storage framework and systematically improves the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. A four-party evolutionary game model is developed, involving agent nodes, voting nodes, malicious nodes, and supervisory nodes, to comprehensively analyze the dynamic effects of key factors—including bribery intensity, malicious costs, supervision, and reputation mechanisms—on system stability. Furthermore, novel incentive and punishment strategies are introduced to foster node collaboration and suppress malicious behaviors. The simulation results show that the improved DPoS mechanism achieves significant enhancements across multiple performance dimensions. Under high-load conditions, the system increases transaction throughput by approximately 5%, reduces consensus latency, and maintains stable operation even as the network scale expands. In adversarial scenarios, the double-spending attack success rate decreases to about 2.6%, indicating strengthened security resilience. In addition, the convergence of strategy evolution is notably accelerated, enabling the system to reach cooperative and stable states more efficiently. These results demonstrate that the proposed mechanism effectively improves the efficiency, security, and dynamic stability of IIoT data storage systems, providing strong support for reliable operation in complex industrial environments.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/128034
Identification Number/DOI	10.1109/TNSM.2025.3650612
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Biomedical Sciences Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Department of Bio-Engineering
Publisher	IEEE
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item