Blockchain and SGX-Enabled Edge-Computing-Empowered Secure IoMT Data Analysis

Abstract

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is an important application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the health field, including remote health monitoring and remote medical diagnosis. This not only brings convenience to the patient but also reduces the cost of the patient. However, the surge of data brought by mobile health monitoring equipment challenges the traditional centralized data processing model. In particular, medical data are closely related to patient privacy. Therefore, only part of the specific medical data should be provided to the medical institutions in need, rather than all the data, to ensure the confidentiality of the data to the greatest extent. But curious data processing centers can easily lead to data leakage. To tackle these challenges, we use edge computing and blockchain to build a new framework. In particular, the trusted execution environment, namely, software guard extension (SGX) technology, is introduced into edge computing to ensure the confidentiality of the data analysis process. The blockchain authenticates the IoMT devices and cloud service providers that are added to the network and provides an access policy management mechanism for IoMT data. Moreover, a prototype of the proposed framework is implemented using Hyperledger Fabric and Intel SGX, and the analysis of the blockchain and SGX performance are also presented.