Permissioned Blockchain Distributed Computing Fault Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Distributed computing systems face challenges in achieving accountability, trust, and robustness without relying on centralized logging and elevated node privileges, which increases vulnerability to malicious actors and computational costs.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a permissioned blockchain network with smart contracts, kernel-level instrumentation, and participant categorization to detect and isolate malicious behavior, allowing for secure, tamper-resistant, and transparent audit logging without requiring elevated privileges, and enabling efficient fault removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If centralized logging and elevated node privileges are used to achieve accountability, then system security and auditability are improved, but vulnerability to malicious actors and computational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the logging function from centralized authorities and distributes it across all nodes through blockchain technology. Each node independently logs and verifies transactions, eliminating the single point of failure and reducing vulnerability to malicious actors while maintaining accountability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the centralized logging authority into multiple distributed nodes. Each node maintains its own copy of the ledger and can independently verify transactions, distributing trust and reducing the impact of any single compromised node.
2Reliability
If Byzantine Fault Tolerance approaches are implemented to make the distributed system resilient to Byzantine faults, then fault tolerance is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service through automated consensus mechanisms where nodes independently validate transactions and reach agreement without external coordination. The blockchain protocol automatically handles fault detection and consensus achievement, reducing the operational complexity despite the sophisticated underlying BFT algorithms.
3Reliability
If audit logs are made strict and secure through centralized approaches, then trust in audit logs is improved, but the issue of trust transfers to the administrator of the audit log
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the trust anchor from the centralized administrator and distributes it across the decentralized network. Trust is no longer placed in a single administrator but in the cryptographic protocols and distributed consensus mechanism that govern the blockchain system.
Solution Approach 2:
The blockchain protocol acts as an intermediary that mediates trust between nodes. Instead of nodes directly trusting administrators, they trust the cryptographic verification and consensus mechanisms that enforce audit log integrity.
4Reliability
If digital ledgers are used to secure and store audit data in a decentralized method, then user trust and transparency are improved, but computational cost and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements partial verification where nodes only need to verify critical aspects of transactions rather than performing complete computational validation of all data. This reduces the computational burden while maintaining sufficient trust and security guarantees.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and a system for fault detection and removal in a distributed computing system, implemented as a permissioned blockchain network, is disclosed. The method fault detection comprising compiling and executing a smart contract common for all nodes of the permissioned blockchain network. The smart contract is configured to perform at least one operation from a series of operations comprising: (1) appending transactions including logs indicative of exchanging of messages between the nodes of permissioned blockchain network, (2) detecting malicious behavior of a node in reaching a consensus, and (3) revoking the access of the node upon detecting the malicious behavior. Further, once malicious behavior (and corresponding malicious node) is detected, a consensus is reached between the networked computers of the permissioned blockchain network, by executing a distributed computing program.