Admission control governs Quality of Service (QoS) in cognitive IoT networks (CIoTNs) in which secondary nodes opportunistically share spectrum with preemptive primary users. The optimal policy is of threshold type, but the threshold table is indexed by the 2N fully occupied channel configurations, so both model-free learning and on-chain enforcement scale poorly in N. We show that this table has low intrinsic complexity: across 55 randomised continuous-time Markov decision process (CTMDP) instances, a monotone step function of the aggregate secondary-user drain rate Ď(n) carrying only 1.6â2.3 distinct levels reproduces 81â87% of the 2N table entries exactly, the remainder erring by a single queue slot. We give a quasi-static argument for why Ď(n) is the right scalar summary. Using this regularity as an inductive bias, an index-pooled Q-learning read-out reduces discounted policy-value loss by up to 4.4Ă (1.55% to 0.36% at N=4, six seeds) at the largest sample budget, but adds variance and was worse than the per-configuration baseline in one of eight cells; we therefore also specify a deployment gate and report it as untested. We further report a negative result: projecting learned value differences onto the concave cone guaranteed by the structural theorem is inert at N=4 and yields at most a 0.22 percentage-point gain at N=3, because recovery is limited by configuration coverage rather than by shape violation. Finally, we implement Service Level Agreement (SLA) enforcement as a Solidity contract and measure it on a local Ethereum Virtual Machine. Index compression cuts policy-installation gas by 241.8Ă at N=16 (48.79M to 0.20M gas) and keeps installation in one transaction, but raises the per-decision cost by 14.4â18.4k gas; it is therefore a feasibility mechanism for large N and for frequently re-committed policies, not a uniform improvement.
Shaoyu Li, Hexuan Yu, Shanghao Shi, Md Mohaimin Al Barat ¡ 7 authors
With the growing demand for wireless spectrum, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) frameworks such as the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) have emerged as practical solutions to improve utilization while protecting incumbent users (IUs) such as military radars. However, current incumbent protection mechanisms face critical limitations. The Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) requires costly sensor deployments and remains vulnerable to interference and security risks. Alternatively, the Incumbent Informing Capability (IIC) requires IUs to disclose their identities and operational parameters to the Spectrum Coordination System (SCS), creating linkable records that compromise operational privacy and mission secrecy. We propose IU-GUARD, a privacy-preserving spectrum sharing framework that enables IUs to access spectrum without revealing their identities. Leveraging verifiable credentials (VCs) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), IU-GUARD allows IUs to prove their authorization to the SCS while disclosing only essential operational parameters. This decouples IU identity from spectrum access, prevents cross-request linkage, and mitigates the risk of centralized SCS data leakage. We implement a prototype, and our evaluation shows that IU-GUARD achieves strong privacy guarantees with practical computation and communication overhead, making it suitable for real-time DSS deployment.
Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) is essential for 6G networks, yet existing blockchain-based DSS solutions often lack an integrated approach that simultaneously addresses trust, allocation fairness, and system scalability. This paper proposes HierSpectrumChain, a hierarchical blockchain framework that incorporates a global main chain, localized sub-chains, and a smart-contract based Stackelberg auction for credible and automated spectrum allocation. The system model formalizes interactions among spectrum holders, secondary users, and sub-chain validators, enabling transparent bidding and decentralized coordination. A proof-of-concept implementation on an Ethereum Ganache environment evaluates the functional correctness of the auction workflow and measures throughput under varying client loads. While the evaluation is limited to a single-node testbed, the results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed architecture and establish a basis for future multi-peer experiments on permissioned blockchains. This work provides a coherent design and initial validation for blockchain-enabled DSS in 6G networks.
One of the greatest ways to guarantee that networks designed for fifth generation (5G) and beyond reach the required levels of spectrum efficiency (SE) is through nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA). This work presents two new blockchain-based techniques that take advantage of massive multiple input multiple output in a single-cell network to improve performance. NOMA power domain is used in the 5G cooperative cognitive radio network (CCRN) to improve the SE of the downlink. This study investigates a novel cooperative NOMA-based CCRN for underlay spectrum sharing. A cooperative NOMA technique is proposed by considering the access modes of relays and secondary users (SUs) on the secondary network. The proposed system's performance is assessed with respect to random channel characteristics, frequency-selective Rayleigh fading and perfect successive interference cancellation (SIC). The first signal decoded by SU identifies the relay states with the best channel quality between users and the destination users to offset the bit error rate. The throughput dropped during the period because of the perfect SIC. The precise closed-form expressions for the system throughput of the secondary network are derived under the interference constraint of the primary network to evaluate the efficacy of the suggested cooperative strategy. The suggested approaches are assessed under various conditions using the MATLAB application by considering varying transmit power levels, power location coefficients and lengths. In every case, four users are assumed to be using a 90 MHz bandwidth and M-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation technology. ⢠Each user (PU and SU) is transformed into blockchain-like blocks that collaborate to create a decentralised network. ⢠The cooperative users' authentication verifies the energy detection technique for spectrum sensing and its results. ⢠Blockchain technology is used to leverage the security of the massive-MIMO network and improve user performance by using digital signatures to confirm PU and MU's identities and preventing MU from using PUs bandwidth. ⢠The identification of an in individual sensing for broadcast channel, cooperative channel for M-MIMO DL PD NOMA with relay CCRN is use to validate the energy detection, throughput, spectrum efficiency, and BER.
Cognitive Radio Network uses the available spectrum resources wisely. Spectrum sensing is the central element of a cognitive radio network. However, spectrum sensing is susceptible to multiple security breaches caused by malicious users. These attackers attempt to change the sensed result in order to decrease network performance. In our proposed approach, with the help of Blockchain-based technology, the fusion center is able to detect and prevent such criminal activities. The method of our model makes use of blockchain-based malicious user detection with SHA-3 hashing and energy detection-based Spectrum sensing. The detection strategy takes place in two stages: Block updation phase and iron out phase. The simulation results of the proposed method demonstrate 3.125%, 6.5% and 8.8% more detection probability at -5 dB SNR in the presence of malicious users, when compared to other methods like equal gain combining (EGC), blockchain based coperative spectrum sensing (BCSS) and fault-tolerant cooperative spectrum sensing (FTCSS) respectively. Thus, the security of cognitive radio blockchain network is proved to be significantly improved.
Litao Ye, Bin Chen, Shrivastava Shivanshu, Chen Sun ¡ 7 authors
Centralized Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) faces challenges like data security, high management costs, and limited scalability. To address these issues, a blockchain-based DSS scheme has been proposed in this paper. First, we utilize the ERC4907 standard to mint Non-Fungible Spectrum Tokens (NFSTs) that serve as unique identifiers for spectrum resources and facilitate renting. Next, we develop a smart contract for NFST auctions, ensuring secure spectrum transactions through the auction process. Lastly, we create a Web3 spectrum auction platform where users can access idle spectrum data and participate in auctions for NFST leases corresponding to the available spectrum. Experimental results demonstrate that our NFST, designed according to the ERC4907 standard, effectively meets users' secure and efficient DSS requirements, making it a feasible solution.
Cognitive Radio Ad-hoc Networks (CRAHNs) are under constant attacks from compromised primary & secondary nodes. These attacks focus on bandwidth manipulation, internal configuration manipulation, and selective spoofing, which can disturb the normal working of the CRAHNs. Researchers propose various security models to mitigate these attacks, each with limitations. Most of these models have higher complexity, while others cannot be used to mitigate multiple attack types. To overcome these issues while maintaining higher security and Quality of Service (QoS) under attacks, this text proposes a design of a novel blockchain-based security model for improving attack resilience in CRAHNs. The model initially collects multiple information sets from different cognitive radio controllers and creates active & redundant miners for the storage of these sets. The number of active & redundant miners is decided via a Mayfly Optimizer (MO) Model, which assists in improving resource utilization while reducing deployment costs. Cognitive rules and configurations are stored on these nodes and updated via a secure blockchain verification. Due to this, the proposed model demonstrated significant improvements in cognitive radio communications across various metrics, even under different attack scenarios. It reduced communication delay by up to 18.5%, increased communication throughput by up to 19.5%, and improved the Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) by up to 19.4% when compared with existing models such as SRC [2], Prob Less [4], and DDQL [13]. Additionally, the model achieved energy savings of up to 12.5%. These enhancements were made possible by the optimized selection of miner nodes, enabling quicker mining for high-speed communication, low-energy mining tasks for prolonged use, and high-performance mining for consistency. The results affirm the modelâs suitability for various real-time cognitive radio scenarios. Due to the integration of the MO Model, the CRAHN showcases better communication speed, lower energy consumption, higher throughput, and higher packet delivery performance when compared with existing methods under real-time scenarios.
David Cuellar, Muntadher Sallal, Christopher B. Williams
The radio frequency spectrum serves as a fundamental resource for wireless communication, encompassing various frequency bands allocated for diverse services and applications. Dynamic spectrum management (DSM) is essential to optimise the utilisation of this limited and valuable natural resource, with the aim of improving performance and adapting to changing wireless communication demands. Traditional static spectrum allocation methods have shown inefficiencies, leading to spectrum scarcity and under-utilisation. To address these challenges, the integration of blockchain and Cognitive Radio (CR) technologies has emerged as a promising approach. Blockchain, with its decentralised and secure attributes, can improve transparency and trust in spectrum allocation processes, while CR enables intelligent spectrum sensing and allocation to maximise utilisation. However, this promising approach comes with its own critical challenges, especially when dealing with the 6th Generation (6G) mobile communication. These challenges are related to the fact that the blockchain ecosystem needs to be interoperable and scalable enough to be compatible with the 6G high-demand and substantial resources. Specifically, integrating blockchain with CR requires efficient interoperability techniques where blockchain can easily and effectively interact with the CR platforms as well as radio spectrum environments. Furthermore, the spectrum management system over 6G networks needs to be designed in a way where massive 6G resources can be accommodated and managed without having any service performance degradation. This paper introduces a novel radio spectrum management model in 6G networks, named as BSM-6G, which integrates blockchain technology with CR where interoperability is preserved and scalability is maximised. Specifically, the proposed BSM-6G model merges blockchainâs transparent record keeping with CRâs intelligent spectrum management capabilities. To overcome the interoperability issue, BSM-6G provides an interoperable blockchain Oracle approach which facilitates the real-time interaction among the blockchain platform, the CR, and any data sources off-chain. This paper details all the technical and procedural challenges when implementing the proposed interoperability Oracle approach. To address the scalability challenge, BSM-6G utilizes the Proof-of-History (PoH) consensus protocol to align with the requirements of DSM in advanced networks like Beyond 5th Generation (B5G) and 6G. Evaluation results indicate that BSM-6G offers viable and less complex blockchain Oracle integration architecture measured by the technical implementation of BSM-6G, as well as low interoperability cost measured by transaction response time and transaction fee cost. Compared to state-of-the-art spectrum-based blockchain systems, BSM-6G shows a high scalable DSM-based blockchain in 6G networks measured by transactions per second (TPS).
The rapid increase in mobile users, the IoT, and data-hungry applications have brought forth unprecedented demand on the spectrum, which is scarce; on top of that, the existing static spectrum allocation schemes have resulted in a heavily underutilized spectrum which can be mitigated with a Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) scheme with unlicensed users gaining access to the idle spectrum bands of licensed spectrum users opportunistically. Such a DSA and Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) scheme would significantly increase spectral efficiency while facilitating new services and applications beyond 5G (B5G) networks. Even with access to new spectrum bands like terahertz (THz) and Visible light communication and enabling technologies such as Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Cognitive Radio (CR), implementing a fully realized DSM requires rapid sensing, coordination, and management, and sharing of idle spectrum bands in a fair manner while preserving the security and privacy aspects, limiting interferences. With their decentralized, immutable nature, blockchains promise the execution of spectrum access and sharing in a fully transparent, fair manner while preserving privacy and security. Furthermore, blockchain-based Smart Contracts (SCs) allow automation of DSM, cryptocurrencies, and tokens to facilitate the trading of spectrum and related resources. In addition to that, blockchains act as an interface for integrating AI and Machine Learning (ML) techniques into DSM, which provides a certain level of intelligence to the underlying architecture. Although several attempts have been carried out to analyze the research gaps in DSM, a comprehensive analysis addressing the blockchains as the primary solution to address DSM has not been carried out. In this survey, we address the potential of a blockchain-based approach toward realizing a decentralized DSM while presenting future directives to improve the use of blockchains for DSM.
Cognitive radio (CR) is the best way to improve the efficiency of spectrum consumption for wireless multimedia communications. Spectrum sensing, which allows legitimate secondary users (SU) to find vacant bands in the spectrum, plays a vital role in CR networks. When cooperative sensing is used in CR networks, spectrum availability must be taken into account. In many ways, the shared cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) data among SU. The presence of a malicious user (MU) in the system and sending false sensing data can degrade the performance of cooperative CR. The sharp rise in mobile data traffic causes congestion in the licensed band for the transmission of signals. Handling this security issue in real time, on top of spectrum sharing, is a challenge in such networks. In order to manage the spectrum and identify MU, blockchain-based CSS is developed in this article. To gauge the efficiency of the proposed topology, performance metrics like sensitivity, node selection, throughput measurement, and energy efficiency are used. This work suggests a unique, easier-to-use CSS method with MU suppression that outperforms the current one. According to simulation studies, the suggested topology can increase the likelihood of MU detection by roughly 15% when 40% of system users are malicious.
Nischal Aryal, Fariba Ghaffari, E. Bertin, NoĂŤl Crespi
The Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) introduces openness and intelligence into the existing, tightly-coupled RAN ecosystem. Openness promotes collaboration among various vendors to provide diverse components (hardware, software, or both) for the RAN ecosystem, while intelligence handles complex network activities using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Although O-RAN design addresses many issues in traditional RANs, such as vendor lock-in, lack of flexibility, and limited innovation, it raises several management and security concerns related to collaboration, access management, privacy, trust, and availability. Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) offer a viable method of establishing trust among entities, managing resources efficiently, and automating complex network tasks. Several DLT properties, such as distributed architecture, high automation through smart contracts, immutability, and transparency, could position DLT-based ideas as game changers in a multi-vendor O-RAN ecosystem. Furthermore, this technology has the potential to introduce new business models and establish secure and trusted micro-payments among vendors and network participants. In this paper, we first present a taxonomy for discussing existing O-RAN challenges. Based on the taxonomy, we then examine the possibility of incorporating DLT-based solutions in O-RAN architecture to address these challenges.
I Evelyn Ezhilarasi, J. Christopher Clement, Joseph M. Arul
Abstract Cognitive radio network is a promising technology to enhance the spectrum utilization and to resolve the spectrum scarcity issues. But the malicious users play havoc with the network during spectrum sensing and demean the network performance. It is mandatory to identify such malicious attacks and address it. There have been many traditional methods to mitigate the cognitive radio network attacks. In this paper, we have surveyed advanced attack mitigation techniques like machine learning, deep learning and blockchain. Thus, by detecting and addressing the malicious activities, the throughput and overall network performance can be improved.
The future of communication technology is moving from 5G to 6G with new innovations. Blockchain (BC) is a such immersive technology that significantly impacts the betterment of communication technology. BC-based spectrum-sharing solutions can be used in Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) systems to fulfill the need for secure and efficient communication. With the invention of cognitive radio networks, DSA became a popular topic for the scientific community. Spectrum misuse/violations can occur due to the rapid growth of spectrum sharing. As the system is open to malicious attacks, licensed spectrum owners must be identified and verified. However, the existing BC-based DSA solutions are more expensive, non-optimized, and lack spectrum misuse detection. This paper proposes a novel consensus algorithm called âProof of Equationâ for spectrum misuse detection. The core of the proposed algorithm is a consensus score calculation based on a numerical equation with three parameters rather than using cryptographic calculations. The performance of the proposed algorithm is studied using Python simulations, and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithms in terms of block production time.
Cognitive radio networks allow opportunistic spectrum access to the unlicensed users, which rely on effective spectrum sensing. Recently, cooperative sensing has been found to improve sensing reliability. However, sometimes the selfish users do not cooperate, and therefore, different incentive design mechanisms like contract theory have been proposed recently, where the cooperation is encouraged by offering appropriate reward to the sensing participants. However, still no secure structure exists for the reward distribution after a successful contract completion, and a user may also deny sensing even after accepting the contract. This work proposes the use of blockchain-based smart contracts, which are based upon a permissioned blockchain that helps in making the transactions private among the participants. Further, the efficiency of this approach is improved by introducing a reputation parameter for the users. This measures the trustworthiness of a particular user based upon the accuracy of their recent sensing results. Further, a money locking approach is proposed from which a penalty is deducted if the user denies or fails to submit a correct reading. Performance analysis of the proposed scheme is done to show the superiority of the scheme.
Abstract In this article, the authors proposed a novel blockchainâoriented location privacyâpreserving (BoLPP) for the Cooperative Spectrum Sensing (CSS) in 6G networks. In order to attain the sustainability of privacy and security for 6G wireless networks, it is a great challenge in this sensing as it faces various malicious attacks while the secondary user (SU) is active. To tackle these issues, the authors proposed a novel framework for blockchainâoriented Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) for CSS using an energy detection technique. Moreover, the authors implemented another novel paradigm BoLPP, to attain the privacy of SUs location for CSS in 6G networks. This approach preserves the SUsâ location and makes the BoLPP framework immune to all malicious attackers. The simulation results have been undergone based on the performance metrics such as response time, consistency, probability of false alarm, frame loss (%), average network throughput, energy efficiency, and security. The outcomes reveal that the proposed scheme achieves high security, privacy, energy efficiency, average network throughput, and low probability of false alarm and frame loss (%) when compared with the existing frameworks such as Friend or Foe (FoF) and Tidal Trust Algorithm (TTA) mechanisms. It is observed that the proposed BoLPP mechanism provides better security and privacy in 6G wireless networks.
Esraa M. Ghourab, Lina Bariah, Sami Muhaidat, Paschalis C. Sofotasios ¡ 6 authors
The highly dynamic nature of cognitive radio systems (CR) and their stringent latency requirements pose a major challenge in the realization of efficient intelligent transportation systems. In this paper, we investigate relay selection and opportunistic spectrum access in conjunction with blockchain technology. In particular, we propose a cross-layer method for secure relay selection, where secondary relays (SRs) are granted access to available spectrum bands based on the balance of their respective virtual wallets. These virtual wallets, which are built based on the SRs' secrecy capacity and their behavior in the network, are the predominant factors that allow SRs to participate in an auction model. To quantify the trustworthiness of SRs, we formulate a mathematical framework to evaluate the trust value of each SR, which is then leveraged for rewarding or penalizing the SR. We develop an offline module blockchain framework to store the real-time information of participating relays and make it available for future operations. The information is checked and verified by miners. Our system is able to detect reputable and non-reputable relays in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. We present a thorough numerical analysis to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme in terms of security, credibility, and integrity. On average, the secrecy capacity rate of the overall system increased by 70% compared to the traditional systems. Further, the propsed model perform better in low SNR compared to traditional one.
Lina AlâSahan, Noureddine Lasla, Mohamed Abdallah, Bo Wang
Abstract The licensed band is crowded and suffers from immense mobile data traffic growth, which exceeded 58 exabytes per month in 5 years. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the unlicensed band is underutilized and not coordinated efficiently. Experiments in some urban areas of the world have shown that only 5% of the unlicensed 5 GHz band is being used. 5G NRâU technology supports 5G networks in the unlicensed band to alleviate the traffic congestion and boosts 5G networks capacity. Different heterogeneous network access technologies already use the unlicensed band. Consequently, 5G NRâU networks will operate in the proximity of the other coexisting networks, such as WiFi networks in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. In such environments, assessing the shared spectrum becomes challenging and necessitates adequate protocols to identify idle slots for successful transmissions. Cooperative Spectrum Sensing (CSS) improves the spectrum assessment process, as the decision about the spectrum state is rendered based on the local decisions of multiple sensing nodes. CSS is exploited by integrating it with Blockchain technology to design a decentralized cooperative spectrum management system called: BlockchainâBased Cooperative Spectrum Management (BCSM). The system is attributed to ameliorating 5G NRâU awareness about the neighboring WiFi networks traffic in the unlicensed band. An algorithm is designed for performing distributed cooperative spectrum assessment between the 5G NRâU base stations to profile the WiFi networks traffic in their proximity. To ensure fairness based on the effort expended in assessing the spectrum, a priorityâbased algorithm is designed for spectrum access scheduling. A proofâofâconcept is implemented using private Ethereum Blockchain and NS3 simulator. Finally, the system's accuracy is evaluated empirically along with theoretical security analysis.
Spectrum sensing is the key technology of cognitive radio. In this article, we apply blockchain technology in spectrum sensing process and propose a related algorithm based on reputation. The algorithm builds a system model based on smart contract in blockchain and applies blockchain asymmetric encryption algorithm and digital signature technology in the process of secondary usersâ transmitting local judgments to the secondary user base station. The algorithm can resist spectrum sensing data falsification (SSDF) attack launched by malicious users. This article comprehensively considers the channel error rate, detection probability, secondary user base station budget and remaining energy of the secondary users (SUs) and then establishes the SUâs utility function as well as the game model. By solving the Nash equilibrium, the SU determines whether it uploads sensing data. Finally, the SU base station selects registered SUs by calculating and updating their reputation, obtaining the final judgment by voting rule. With simulations, we prove that the algorithm proposed in this article increases the accuracy and security of spectrum sensing and can effectively resist SSDF attack.
Matthew K. Luka, Okpo U. Okereke, Elijah E. Omizegba, Ejike C. Anene
Regulatory radio spectrum management is evolving from traditional static frequency allocation and assignment schemes towards dynamic spectrum management and access schemes. This evolution is necessitated by a number of factors including underutilization of licensed spectrum bands, changing market and technological developments and increased demand for spectrum for emerging applications in multimedia communications, internet-of-things and fifth generation (5G) wireless networks. In simple terms dynamic spectrum management involves allowing unlicensed users known as secondary users (SUs) to access the licensed spectrum of a licensed user also known as primary user (PU). This is primarily achieved using spectrum sharing schemes that leverage spectrum database and cognitive radio techniques. However, the use of spectrum database and cognitive radio techniques faces reliability, security and privacy concerns for spectrum sharing. There is also a need to support other requirements of dynamic spectrum management such as secondary spectrum trading market and dynamic spectrum access coordination. In this work, we review the use of blockchains for enabling spectrum sharing and other aspects of dynamic spectrum management. The review covers the use of blockchain to record spectrum management information such as spectrum sensing results and spectrum auction transactions in a secure manner. The article also covers the use of smart contracts to support complex service-levelagreements (SLAs) between network operators which is key to supporting a self-organized secondary spectrum sharing market and enforcement of regulatory policies. A taxonomy of the intersection between blockchain and various concepts of dynamic spectrum management is also provided
Spectrum is a kind of non-reproducible scarce strategic resource. A secure wideband spectrum sensing technology provides the possibility for the next generation of ultra-dense, ultra-large-capacity communications to realize the shared utilization of spectrum resources. However, for the open collaborative sensing in cognitive radio networks, the collusion attacks of malicious users greatly affect the accuracy of the sensing results and the security of the entire network. To address this problem, this paper proposes a weighted fusion decision algorithm by using the blockchain technology. The proposed algorithm divides the single-node reputation into active reputation and passive reputation. Through the proposed token threshold concept, the active reputation is set to increase the malicious cost of the node; the passive reputation of the node is determined according to the historical data and recent performance of the blockchain. The final node weight is obtained by considering both kinds of reputation. The proposed scheme can build a trust-free platform for the cognitive radio collaborative networks. Compared with the traditional equal-gain combination algorithm and the centralized sensing algorithm based on the beta reputation system, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain reliable sensing results with a lower number of assistants and sampling rate, and can effectively resist malicious usersâ collusion attacks. Therefore, the security and the accuracy of cooperative spectrum sensing can be significantly improved in cognitive radio networks.
The convergence of dynamic spectrum access (DSA) and blockchain has been regarded as the new paradigm of spectrum management. Because of the inherent properties of blockchain, such as decentralization and tamper-resistance, the deployment of blockchain in future networks has advantages to address problems exposed in traditional centralized spectrum management systems, such as high security risk and low allocation efficiency. In this article, we first compare blockchain-based spectrum management with the traditional centralized approach and then present a reference architecture for blockchain-based spectrum management. In particular, we propose an interference-based consensus mechanism, which can be employed to improve transaction efficiency and reduce system overhead while promoting spectrum sharing. The proposed consensus mechanism is based on the comparison of aggregated interference experienced by each node, such that the node that suffers the most aggregated interference will obtain the accounting right as a compensation. Furthermore, to avoid harmful interference caused by spectrum traders, an interference-based transaction validation mechanism is designed to validate the spectrum transactions stored in the blocks. Different from existing transaction validation mechanisms in which every transaction needs to be validated by all nodes, a âtransaction validation areaâ is determined for each spectrum transaction, and only the nodes located in the validation area need to validate the transaction. The simulation results show that the system fairness and nodesâ signal-to-interference-and-noise power ratio (SINR) can be improved by adopting the proposed mechanisms while reducing the system overhead.
Mubbashar Altaf Khan, Mohsin M. Jamali, Taras Maksymyuk, Juraj Gazda
Cognitive radio (CR) technology offers the possibility of an increase in spectrum utilization efficiency to resolve the prevalent spectrum scarcity problem. The economic survival of secondary spectrum markets (SSMs) is heavily dependent on the sharing of both the licensed spectrum and spectrum infrastructure by primary licensed operators (PLOs). In this research, an automated pricing model using a blockchain token called the spectrum dollar has been implemented for secondary radio spectrum trade. The use of spectrum dollars enables noncash-based secondary spectrum trade among PLOs based on a floor-and-trade rule. The pricing of spectrum dollars and the associated revenue shares are based on the underlying secondary spectrum trading behaviours of PLOs. PLOs that do not contribute enough secondary spectra to the SSM (to satisfy demand) suffer a loss proportional to the difference between their earned revenues and the specified floor value in the SSM. The secondary spectrum trade is assumed to be centrally managed by a spectrum broker, which announces the floor value for each bidding period while ensuring nonnegative revenue for the market itself. The use of the spectrum dollar along with the floor-and-trade methodology eliminates the possibilities for economic malpractice by PLOs that could increase spectrum reuse costs. In addition, the floor value provides automatic regulatory control to ensure the economic viability and prevent the technological hijacking of future SSMs.
This paper proposes a blockchain-based automated frequency coordination system (BAFCS) for secure and reliable spectrum sharing without causing any harmful interference to an existing system. For the exact assessment of whether the incumbent is interfered with by the spectrum sharer, the received signal strength (RSS) associated with the incumbent should be measured with sufficient accuracy at every location within the area of interest. However, since it requires brute force to carry out empirical measurements around an entire region, to lessen the burden, only the confined portion of the RSSs associated with the incumbent as a kind of primary user are observed and the omitted residuals are conventionally estimated by carrying out the well-known Kriging interpolation with regard to the geostatistical characteristics. This paper proposes a frequency coordination system capable of identifying whether a requested frequency band can be eligible for spectrum sharing while exchanging adequate information over blockchain network to confirm the usability. This paper proposes the Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based Kriging interpolation for recapitulating the radio environment map (REM) when only a fraction of the RSS measurements is acquired by the voluntary sensing participant (VSP). The nonparametric modeling approach for variograms proposed in this paper was determined to have a vital role in making a confident decision regarding spectrum sharing. The simulation result confirmed the effectiveness and the superiority of the proposed BAFCS with several affirmative features, such as enabling the consensus-based approval of spectrum sharing, the secure transaction of the information, and reliable assurance of no harmful interference.
Open access
Distributed Sensor Networks and Detection Algorithms
Emanuele Di Pascale, Hamed Ahmadi, Linda Doyle, Irene Macaluso
Neutral Host Small Cell Providers (SCP) represent a key element of the 5G\nvision of ultra-dense mobile networks. However, current business models mostly\nfocus on multi-year agreements for large venues, such as stadiums and hotel\nchains. These business agreements are regulated through binding Service Level\nAgreements (SLAs), which tend to be too cumbersome and costly for smaller scale\nSCPs. As a result, the neutral host model does not scale up to its full\npotential. In this paper, we propose a framework to enable the participation of\nsmall- to medium-sized players in the cellular market as providers offering\nnetwork resources to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). To this purpose, we\nreview the current and emerging spectrum and technology opportunities that SCPs\ncan use for neutral host deployments. We also propose the use of\nblockchain-enabled smart contracts as a simple and cost-efficient alternative\nto traditional SLAs for small-scale SCPs. To demonstrate this, we describe a\nproof of concept implementation of an Ethereum-based smart contract platform\nfor best-effort service between an SCP and an MNO. Our simulations on potential\nsmart contract-based deployments in city centre Dublin show that the received\nsignal strength in the considered area will increase by an average of $10$\npercent.\n