Network Architecture: Basis for Scalability and Availability
The identified design requirements correspond with properties typically solved through cryptography. To embed cryptographic methods securely, an IoT network needs to identify both a network architecture and an identity management paradigm.
Microsoft Azure: Trust Zones and Trust Boundaries
Microsoft's IoT security architecture is based on the idea that different contiguous parts of the network operate in distinct security environments and need to be shielded against each other. Gateways control the attached devices and services within their zone.
Software-Defined Networking
Software-defined networking (SDN) provides the desired level of abstraction for an IoT network. Unlike Microsoft's Trust Zones, data processing is not reliant on a specific cloud architecture, allowing for a wider variety of use cases.
Blockchain-Based Access Management
More recent ideas leverage distributed access management: resource access and control can be tokenized, so that resource owners create unique access tokens (NFTs) on a blockchain.
The "Bubbles of Trust" concept provides a straightforward mechanism to manage a multitude of devices – powerful for dynamic and standardized access management.
Compared to SDN, blockchain-based access management increases resilience and availability as there is no single point of failure.
Read Part 3 to learn how Self-Sovereign Identity revolutionizes the identity component of the network.