The Role of Private Blockchain Architectures and Smart Contracts for Decentralized 5G Militarized Networks

Abstract

The use of private blockchains is proposed to enhance decentralized 5G-based DoD wireless network security, auditability, governance, and overall performance. This paper explores and validates methods for leveraging smart contracts and decentralized consensus mechanisms inherent to blockchain approaches to securely enhance wireless network performance. A real-time, decentralized architectural software implementation is postulated with detailed interfaces to determine how blockchain and smart contracts apply to real-world wireless networks based on a patented approach developed by the authors. Methods are presented for decentralized wireless networks to perform network arbitration, spectrum service level agreements, and business logic through low latency blockchain transactions. Simulation results characterize the performance of typical blockchain transaction latencies in decentralized wireless network paradigms to determine feasibility. Use case studies of federal and non-federal spectrum sharing are discussed that demonstrate how a private decentralized blockchain architecture and smart contracts can provide considerably improved wireless network performance.