{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:50:23Z","timestamp":1760237423364,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,10]],"date-time":"2020-04-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1586476800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>P     4    UIoT\u2014pay-per-piece patch update delivery for IoT using gradual release\u2014introduces a distributed framework for delivering patch updates to IoT devices. The framework facilitates distribution via peer-to-peer delivery networks and incentivizes the distribution operation. The peer-to-peer delivery network reduces load by delegating the patch distribution to the nodes of the network, thereby protecting against a single point of failure and reducing costs. Distributed file-sharing solutions currently available in the literature are limited to sharing popular files among peers. In contrast, the proposed protocol incentivizes peers to distribute patch updates, which might be relevant only to IoT devices, using a blockchain-based lightning network. A manufacturer\/owner named vendor of the IoT device commits a bid on the blockchain, which can be publicly verified by the members of the network. The nodes, called distributors, interested in delivering the patch update, compete among each other to exchange a piece of patch update with cryptocurrency payment. The pay-per-piece payments protocol addresses the problem of misbehavior between IoT devices and distributors as either of them may try to take advantage of the other. The pay-per-piece protocol is a form of a gradual release of a commodity like a patch update, where the commodity can be divided into small pieces and exchanged between the sender and the receiver building trust at each step as the transactions progress into rounds. The permissionless nature of the framework enables the proposal to scale as it incentivizes the participation of individual distributors. Thus, compared to the previous solutions, the proposed framework can scale better without any overhead and with reduced costs. A combination of the Bitcoin lightning network for cryptocurrency incentives with the BitTorrent delivery network is used to present a prototype of the proposed framework. Finally, a financial and scalability evaluation of the proposed framework is presented.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s20072156","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,13]],"date-time":"2020-04-13T10:41:52Z","timestamp":1586774512000},"page":"2156","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["P4UIoT: Pay-Per-Piece Patch Update Delivery for IoT Using Gradual Release"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7860-8572","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nachiket","family":"Tapas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Messina, Contrada Di Dio (S. Agata), 98166 Messina, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yechiav","family":"Yitzchak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 84105 Be\u2019er Sheva 653, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6299-140X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesco","family":"Longo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Messina, Contrada Di Dio (S. Agata), 98166 Messina, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0385-2711","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonio","family":"Puliafito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Messina, Contrada Di Dio (S. Agata), 98166 Messina, Italy"},{"name":"CINI: National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics, Via Ariosto 25, 00185 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Asaf","family":"Shabtai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 84105 Be\u2019er Sheva 653, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Laurence, G. (2020, January 24). Gartner Says 5.8 Billion Enterprise and Automotive IoT Endpoints Will Be in Use in 2020. Available online: https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2019-08-29-gartner-says-5-8-billion-enterprise-and-automotive-io."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Christo, P. (2020, January 24). Internet Of Things Statistics 2020 [The Rise Of IoT]. 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