Work place: Center for Cyber-Physical Food, Energy, and Water Systems, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
E-mail: nnwulu@uj.ac.za
Website: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2607-7439
Research Interests:
Biography
Nnamdi I. Nwulu (Senior Member, IEEE) is currently a Full Professor with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, and the Director of the Centre for Cyber Physical Food, Energy and Water Systems (CCP-FEWS). His research interests include the application of digital technologies, mathematical optimization techniques, and machine learning algorithms in food, energy, and water systems. He is a Professional Engineer registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), a Senior Member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SMSAIEE), and a Y-Rated Researcher by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Digital Food Energy and Water Systems (JDFEWS) and an Associate Editor of IET Renewable Power Generation (IET-RPG) and African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID).
By Samuel A. Oyenuga Brendan C. Ubochi Okechi Onuoha Nnamdi Nwulu
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijeme.2025.05.05, Pub. Date: 8 Oct. 2025
The rapid growth in IoT applications has brought enormous challenges especially with achieving scalability and security in communicating devices. Traditional centralized security models are inadequate for managing the vast volume of data and diverse communication protocols in IoT environments, making them vulnerable to attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and unauthorized access. Blockchain technology offers a decentralized alternative with its inherent properties of immutability, transparency, and decentralized consensus, providing a robust security solution for IoT communication. This paper presents a novel blockchain-based framework designed to secure IoT communication by addressing key challenges such as data integrity, privacy, and scalability. The proposed system integrates Ethereum’s blockchain, Zero Knowledge (ZK)-Rollups for Layer 2 scaling, and edge computing to optimise both performance and energy efficiency in large-scale IoT networks. The framework achieves a transaction throughput of 2,500 transactions per second with a median latency of 850 milliseconds. ZK-Rollups ensure that 99.8% of transactional data remains off-chain, improving privacy while reducing computational overhead. The system maintains 99.7% uptime during DDoS attacks and reduces energy consumption by 95% compared to traditional Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain systems. These findings indicate that the proposed blockchain-based framework is scalable, energy-efficient, and secure, making it a promising solution for large-scale IoT deployments in sectors such as smart cities, industrial automation, and healthcare.
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