Distributed Ledger Storage for Trusted Measurement Data Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a lack of trust between data contributors, such as process plants, and storage centers, due to concerns about data privacy and security, leading to vulnerabilities in data storage and sharing.
Innovation Solution
The use of a distributed ledger, or blockchain, in process control systems and storage centers to securely store and share encrypted measurement data, ensuring data integrity and privacy through encryption and immutable transaction records.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If data is stored in centralized databases or storage centers, then data storage efficiency is improved, but data security and privacy are compromised due to lack of trust between data contributors and storage centers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized storage system into a distributed network of storage nodes. Data is divided into multiple parts and stored across different nodes in the distributed ledger network, eliminating the single point of failure and trust bottleneck. Each node maintains a copy of the ledger, ensuring data security through decentralization while maintaining storage efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The distributed ledger acts as an intermediary layer between data contributors and storage centers. It provides cryptographic verification and immutable transaction records that mediate the trust relationship, allowing data to be stored efficiently in distributed storage while maintaining security through cryptographic proofs and consensus mechanisms.
2Reliability
If data is encrypted and stored in distributed ledgers, then data privacy and security are improved, but data access and retrieval complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing cryptographic key pairs and storing public keys in the distributed ledger before data access is needed. Data contributors encrypt their data with their public key, and the decryption process is streamlined because the corresponding private key is already associated with the contributor's identity in the ledger, reducing access complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The distributed ledger provides feedback mechanisms through cryptographic verification. When data is accessed, the system verifies the requester's authorization through cryptographic proofs recorded in the ledger, providing automatic feedback on whether access should be granted. This automated verification reduces the complexity of manual access control while maintaining strong privacy protections.
Data Source
AI summary
To provide a trusted, secure, and immutable record of storage operations executed by a storage center for storing measurement data provided by a process plant, techniques are described for utilizing a distributed ledger. When a data contributor such as a process plant generates measurement data, an encrypted version of a set of measurement data is transmitted to a storage center for secure storage of the measurement data. In some instances, the data contributor divides the set of measurement data into several subsets and transmits each subset of encrypted measurement data to a different storage center. Furthermore, the storage center generates a transaction for the storage operation which is recorded in a distributed ledger. When a data subscriber retrieves the encrypted measurement data from a storage center, the data subscriber can verify the authenticity of the data based on the information recorded in the distributed ledger.