Digital Twin Consensus for Blockchain-Enabled Intelligent Transportation Systems in Smart Cities

Digital Twin (DT) has become the key technology in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in smart cities to keep the health and reliability of various DT requesters, such as private vehicles, public transportation, energy systems, etc. The combination of DT and ITS can further release the potential of participants in smart cities and guarantee their efficiency and reliability. Despite the advantages of DT-enabled ITS, not all requesters need the same level of DT service due to the highly dynamic nature of ITS. Safe and reliable matching between DT and ITS still needs to be resolved. To address these issues, we propose the blockchain-enabled Digital Twin as a Service (DTaaS) for ITS. First, we propose an on-demand DTaaS architecture to fully utilize the sensing capabilities of ITS and the macro perspective of DT. Second, a double-auction model and a price adjustment algorithm are proposed to realize the optimal DT matching for ITS requesters and ensure the benefits of participants. Third, a permissioned blockchain and a novel DT-DPoS consensus mechanism are established to enhance the security and efficiency of DTaaS. Simulation shows that the proposed DTaaS and double-auction can efficiently stimulate and facilitate DT transactions. The proposed DT-DPoS also has obvious advantages.