An Automated Customization and Performance Profiling Framework for Permissioned Blockchains in a Virtualized Environment

The permissioned blockchains have demonstrated their potential to provide trustworthy and security services in various industrial scenarios, especially in the Cloud-based virtualized environments. To customize the configuration of a blockchain application, an operator needs the performance characteristics of a blockchain network in different Cloud environments. However, manually profiling the performance characteristics of a blockchain network is very time-consuming. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a BlockchaIn-infRAstructure CustomIzation and Auto-profiLing (BIRACIAL) framework to automate the whole process of blockchain deployment and performance profiling. Based on the profile and performance requirements of a blockchain application, the framework aims to plan the virtual infrastructure for permissioned blockchain, to automate the provision of the required infrastructure, to deploy the customized permissioned blockchain, and to enable continuous monitoring of blockchain performance. Our evaluation results show that the proposed framework can achieve automated deployment of different permissioned blockchain networks under certain overheads. The performance profiling results can be used to compare and select the appropriate blockchain platforms and consensus algorithms.