ZTE Communications ›› 2021, Vol. 19 ›› Issue (1): 30-38.doi: 10.12142/ZTECOM.202101005

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Cluster Head Selection Algorithm for UAV Assisted Clustered IoT Network Utilizing Blockchain

LIN Xinhua, ZHANG Jing(), LI Qiang   

  1. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
  • Received:2020-12-10 Online:2021-03-25 Published:2021-04-09
  • About author:LIN Xinhua is a graduate student of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. His main research interests include UAV communications, blockchain technology and IoT networks.|ZHANG Jing (zhangjing@hust.edu.cn) received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronics and information engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China in 2002 and 2010, respectively. He is currently an associate professor with HUST. He has conducted research in the areas of multiple-input multiple-output, CoMP, beamforming, and next-generation mobile communications. His current research interests include HetNet in 5G, green communications, energy harvesting, IoT network, optimization and performance analysis in networks.|LI Qiang received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore in 2011. He is currently an associate professor with Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China. His current research interests include next generation mobile communications, fog computing, edge caching, cognitive radios/spectrum sharing, wireless cooperative communications, full-duplex techniques, simultaneous wireless information and power transfer.

Abstract:

To guarantee the security of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the blockchain technology is often applied to clustered IoT networks. However, cluster heads (CHs) need to undertake additional control tasks. For battery-powered IoT devices, the conventional CH selection algorithm is limited. Based on the above problem, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network assisted clustered IoT system is proposed, and a corresponding UAV CH selection algorithm is designed. In this scheme, UAVs are selected as CHs to serve IoT clusters. The proposed CH selection algorithm considers the maximal transmit power, residual energy and distance information of UAVs, which can greatly extend the working life of IoT clusters. Through Monte Carlo simulation, the key performance indexes of the system, including energy consumption, average secrecy rate and the maximal number of data packets received by the base station (BS), are evaluated. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has great advantages compared with the existing CH selection algorithms.

Key words: cluster head selection, unmanned aerial vehicle, blockchain, IoT, average secrecy rate