JISE


  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]


Journal of Information Science and Engineering, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 943-955


Evaluating Network Structures in Byzantine-based Consensus Algorithms for Sarawak’s Digitalized Pepper Value Chain


RENG-YI KUEH1,+, FU-EE TANG2, HUO-CHONG LING1,3,
YEE-YONG TAN2 AND CARRIE LEE-ING HO2
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2Department of Civil and Construction Engineering
Curtin University, 98009 Malaysia

3School of Science, Engineering and Technology
RMIT University, 70000 Vietnam
E-mail: augustinekueh@postgrad.curtin.edu.my
+; tang.fu.ee@curtin.edu.my;
huochong.ling@rmit.edu.vn; {tan.yee.yong; carrie.ho}@curtin.edu.my


Known as the “King of Spice”, pepper (Piper nigrum) is the most widely used and traded agricultural product in the world. In Sarawak, pepper is listed as the few industrial crops in producing and contributing the most to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, Malaysia. However, the recent price fluctuation in the global pepper market has caused some farmers to abandon pepper farms due to the lower pepper prices against the high cost of input materials and farm maintenance, in addition to limited marketing choices and bargaining power when dealing with buyers due to their geographic remoteness, small production quantity, and variable product. To improve the circumstances, the use of blockchain technology with Byzantine-based consensus algorithm is proposed in this paper to minimize some of the constraints faced by the smallholder farmers. With the PBFT consensus algorithm on-board, the blockchain network (BCN) operates without miners as it relies on the message-transfer mechanism to achieve the total consensus. Besides, the PBFT consensus algorithm with varying network structures were evaluated. Upon comparison between network structures, the group network structure dominated the entirety of the experiment and presented as the proposed network structure, with the addition of specific nodes such as relay, storage, administer and brackets: bench and penalty to facilitate and maintain the longevity of the BCN. The implementation of blockchain technology in Sarawak’s pepper industry has the potential to improve the linkages and cohesion between pepper stakeholders but its overall integration would have to be further explored.


Keywords: blockchain technology, consensus algorithm, linkages, network structures, pepper, Sarawak, stakeholders

  Retrieve PDF document (JISE_202405_01.pdf)