Trusted Access Scheme Based on Blockchain

Abstract

System information (SI) broadcast is an essential element in 5G, which acts as a bridge between user’s equipment (UE) and gNB, providing users with the critical information to access networks. However, as a typical security attack in ratio access network (RAN), the fake base station (FBS) attack precisely exploits SI’s characteristics in terms of unencrypted broadcast to tamper or replay it to lure users to join. Therefore, protecting SI from being exploited by FBS is still an important issue facing the field of wireless network security. Blockchain, as an emerging distributed ledger technology, has shown great potential with its unique security features in many domains. Therefore, in this paper, we leverage blockchain to secure SI and prove its effectiveness in securing information from an information theory perspective. Specifically, we propose a concise theoretical model to measure the effectiveness of blockchain in wireless network security by mapping blockchain security assurance mechanisms into a physical layer security model. Through numerical analysis, we prove the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism under the condition of many network parameter changes.