Blockchain Applications for Engineering Systems
Mubashir Husain Rehmani11Correspondence: Mubashir Husain
Rehmani, Department of Computer Science, Munster Technological
University, Cork, Ireland. Email:
mshrehmani@gmail.com
Munster Technological University (MTU), Ireland
Engineering systems have been designed to facilitate society. These
systems can be seen everywhere in our daily lives ranging from
electrical systems to mechanical systems, and from bio-medical systems
to industrial systems. With tight coupling with information and
communication technology (ICT), these engineering systems can be even
controlled and monitored remotely. These systems are supported massively
with sensors through which they capture enormous data, which is then
used to improve the performance of the systems. Moreover, complex
processes are involved in the overall functioning of these engineering
systems. The management of data and processes within these engineering
systems has been done through traditional ways such as database
management systems or spread sheets, however, involvement of multiple
parties makes these engineering systems more complex to operate, track,
and audit.
Blockchain technology has the potential to replace traditional database
systems and offers a level of trust in an untrusted environment. Satoshi
Nakamoto is recognized as the father of blockchain technology when he
first introduced Bitcoin Cryptocurrency and used this blockchain
technology to store the transactions related to Bitcoin. Among thousands
of cryptocurrencies in the market, Bitcoin is still one of the largest
cryptocurrencies in the market terms of market capital. However,
cryptocurrencies are not the only use-case where blockchain technology
has been in use. There are many other application areas where blockchain
technology has been in used such as education, telecommunication,
health, government, logistics, and asset management, just to name a few.
With features of immutability, traceability, transparency, availability,
and decentralization, blockchain technology is a good match for
engineering systems. Blockchain technology can help in supply chain in
these engineering systems, but it can also be used to facilitate data,
process, and parties. Considering enormous applications of blockchain
technology in engineering systems, this Special Issue in Wiley
Engineering Reports invited for the original scientific and technical
contributions.
In this Special Issue, we received eight submissions, out of which,
after rigorous peer-review process, three high-quality papers were
accepted. In the first paper entitled ”Machine-as-a-Service:
Blockchain-based management and maintenance of industrial appliances” by
Viet Hoang Tran et al., authors considered an industrial setting where
an emerging service model i.e., Machine-as-a-Service has been considered
in which industrial machines are rented and then track through
blockchain based system. In the proposed system, authors suggested to
use Ethereum, and Inter Planetary File System (IFPS) and a reference
architecture was also proposed. Interestingly, both experiments on
Microsoft Azure Cloud platform and network emulation over Enoslib were
conducted to show the performance of the proposed architecture.
The second paper entitled ”SENSIBLE: SEquestered aNd SynergIstic
BLockchain Ecosystem” by Meghana Kshirsagar et al., authors proposed a
personalized patient healthcare framework using blockchain technology.
Using the open-source synthetic patient dataset generator Synthea, the
proposed framework was evaluated on Ethereum to show the effectiveness
of secured data access in this setting.
The third and last paper entitle ”A blockchain-enabled solution to
improve intra-inter organizational innovation processes in software
small medium enterprises” by Chetna Gupta et al., authors considered
blockchain technology to manage security, knowledge sharing, and
information management of software small medium enterprises (SSMEs).
In the end, we would like to thank the authors who submitted their works
in this Special Issue and to the reviewers, who provided their in-depth
reviews, which ultimately helped the authors enhance the quality of
their work. The Guest Editor is also thankful to the Editor-in-Chief and
Editorial Office Staff of Wiley Engineering Reports for their guidance
and help during the whole process of this Special Issue. We have you
enjoy reading this Special Issue.
Mubashir Husain Rehmani , Munster Technological University
(MTU), Ireland