Datanet: Enabling Seamless, Metered and Trusted Internet Connectivity without Subscriptions

Abstract

Relying on dedicated contracts with specific network operators for Internet access significantly limits connectivity options for devices. As new usecases for internet access emerge, e.g., with the Internet of Things in smart-cities, managing such individual contracts for each deployed device with varying data needs is prohibitively cumbersome and highly expensive. In this work, we enable contract-less connectivity between end-devices and access points/networks that have no a-priori trust relationship. Our core insight is that exchange of services and payments can be trustlessly enforced by distributed ledger technologies; the credentials that blockchains use for account management can also be used for TLS-based authentication in networks. However, the blockchain's ability to enforce transaction rules is limited by the extent to which the underlying exchange of services is digitally trackable, which is susceptible to manipulation in this case. Requiring blockchain-integrated trusted hardware at the access points for bandwidth metering significantly hinders adoption; even software modifications required at the access points to process blockchain-based auth and payments incur practical deployment and scalability challenges. In designing Datanet, we address these challenges and enable seamless and incentivized connectivity between unknown end-devices and APs, using existing standards that allow for interoperability with current and future networks, and without significant overhead for client devices.