Ensuring Quality of Service in Blockchain-Based Healthcare System

Abstract

Blockchain is a distributed secure ledger that eliminates the need for centralized authority to store data. It provides decentralized, secure and trustless framework that does not require a third party for transaction processing, while enhancing fault tolerance. In this thesis, we investigate the potentials of customizing the behavior of Blockchain network for versatile healthcare applications’ requirements. Firstly, we conduct several experiments to evaluate the performance of the Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) – a permissioned Blockchain framework. Several scenarios were evaluated to depict the Blockchain behavior in terms of end-to-end transaction latency and network throughput. In the second phase, we leverage a Blockchain framework that provides Quality of Service (QoS) by integrating it with smart health system where the edge gateway decides how the data will be sent to the Blockchain network by prioritizing the transactions based on the patient’s case using the notion of Blockchain channels. We design a system with three-channel Blockchain network, each has different configuration, which enables some transactions to be processed faster than the others. The results show that channels can be configured to provide fast track with minimal latency regardless of the frequency of the transactions, which guarantees that urgent transactions will have highest priority. On the other hand, other channels’ performance varies depending on the number of transactions received and the frequency of sending them.