Abstract In this article, the authors proposed a novel blockchain‐oriented location privacy‐preserving (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 blockchain‐oriented 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 SUs’ 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.
Ubiquitous Internet of Things (UIoT) is required a 3-D network that stretches from space to air to earth. It involves numerous network components, such as satellites, HAPs, UAVs, terrestrial cellular networks, data centers, terrestrial gateways, as well as sharing and openness among operators. Correspondingly, wireless spectrum sharing becomes essential to energy efficiency and, thus, has to be investigated for green UIoT. Meanwhile, both blockchain and sixth-generation mobile communication technology hybrid cloud are recently intriguing technologies, and the enormous potential of combining the two has grown in prominence. For the reason of dependability and security, these two technologies are proposed to apply to spectrum sharing among UIoT devices. Particularly the blockchain’s unique smart contract technology can well complete the spectrum sharing procedure, as verified by the numerical results from our simulation study.
Meroua Moussaoui, Nischal Aryal, E. Bertin, Noël Crespi
Cellular networks have played a critical role in building today’s Internet. However, they are facing more and more challenges such as softwarization and programmability, decentralization, as well as opening to new business models, while keeping a very high level of trust and reliability. DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) is a promising field to address these challenges in an innovative way. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of DLT applications for cellular networks, covering the Radio Access Network (RAN), Core Network (CN), Applications & services, as well as Inter-actor communication & cooperation.
Meng Li, F. Richard Yu, Pengbo Si, Yanhua Zhang · 5 authors
Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted great interests. The accuracy of data training model in AI is vital for further development of IoT. In addition, with the increasing number of intelligent IoT devices, the amounts of data available for transmission, learning and training can lead to serious communication burdens and data reliability issues. In order to address these issues, we study novel network architectures in future 6G networks to support the intelligent IoT. Moreover, inspired by the collective learning of humans, we introduce and adopt a novel method named as collective reinforcement learning (CRL) in the intelligent IoT to realize the sharing of learning and training results. To ensure security and privacy, as well as improve computing efficiency, blockchain, mobile edge computing (MEC) and cloud computing are applied to protect data security and enrich computing resources. On this basis, we formulate an optimization problem in the intelligent IoT based on the proposed framework to optimize transmission latency and energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that the system performance has improved significantly. At last, some research challenges and open issues are pointed out to the intelligent IoT in future networks.
In this paper, we propose a dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) scheme DeepBlocks at the backdrop of sixth-generation (6G) communication networks that address the challenges of fixed spectrum allocations (FSA). The scheme exploits the advantages of deep-Q-network (DQN) and minimizes the search state explosion through a reward-penalty framework. A dynamic allocation of unallocated resource blocks (RBs) to mobile units (MUs) is carried out and once the allocation of RBs is complete, we integrate blockchain (BC) to record the transactional ledgers. The resource usage of MUs is recorded through smart contracts (SCs). We model the proposed scheme as a convex optimization problem, and subproblems are decomposed into a Pareto-optimal solution via Techebyecheff decomposition. In the simulation, we compare our scheme against FSA, and fifth-generation (5G) based DSA schemes like reinforcement learning (RL), deep neural networks (DNN)-based, and duelling DQN based schemes. The comparative analysis of 6G-DQN is modeled in terms of reward formulation, scalability of 6G-DQN-assisted DSA, and profit scenarios of BC-based allocation through intelligent channel control. The scheme proposes significant findings, with the best fit learning rate of 0.0001, and takes 500 episodes to converge to 60 total resource blocks. The servicing latency of the scheme is 272.4 ms, compared to 2010 ms in the duelling DQN approach. In spectrum allocation, an improvement of 26.32% is observed against non-DQN approaches, and 13.57% in the fairness parameter for spectrum allocation due to BC inclusion. The findings present the scheme efficacy for DSA over the aforementioned conventional approaches.
The advancement of Fifth-generation networks has enabled service-specific resource provisioning through Network slicing. Moving forward, Beyond 5G (B5G) is the key enabling factor for the next generation of computing networks catering to the needs of seamless connectivity with ultra-reliable performance and security. But the deployment of such systems to provide various services through dynamic network slicing needs network densification, leading to increased operational cost. This requirement has bid to enable infrastructure sharing between multiple operators and HetNets through Blockchain as a promising solution with secure and distributed ledger-based operations. This work presents a comprehensive simulation environment providing blockchain integration with B5G networks. In particular, this work identifies key challenges to creating such a simulation environment and handles several operational details, including spectrum sharing, network slicing and dealing with orphan blocks. In the end, we have presented the evaluation of the simulator on 5G blockchain-based spectrum sharing. Furthermore, this work can facilitate further research on blockchain in B5G networks and help in providing a common framework for operators in analyzing such operations on a large scale.
Lina Al‐Sahan, 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 NR‐U 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 NR‐U 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: Blockchain‐Based Cooperative Spectrum Management (BCSM). The system is attributed to ameliorating 5G NR‐U awareness about the neighboring WiFi networks traffic in the unlicensed band. An algorithm is designed for performing distributed cooperative spectrum assessment between the 5G NR‐U base stations to profile the WiFi networks traffic in their proximity. To ensure fairness based on the effort expended in assessing the spectrum, a priority‐based algorithm is designed for spectrum access scheduling. A proof‐of‐concept is implemented using private Ethereum Blockchain and NS3 simulator. Finally, the system's accuracy is evaluated empirically along with theoretical security analysis.
Despite numerous prior attempts to boost transaction per second (TPS) of blockchain systems, many sacrifice decentralization and security. This paper proposes a bodyless block propagation (BBP) scheme for which the blockbody is not validated and transmitted during block propagation, to increase TPS without compromising security. Nodes in the blockchain network anticipate the transactions and their ordering in the next upcoming block so that these transactions can be pre-executed and pre-validated before the block is born. For a network with $N$ nodes, our theoretical analysis reveals that BBP can improve TPS scalability from $O(1/log(N))$ to $O(1)$. Ensuring consensus on the next block's transaction content is crucial. We propose a transaction selection, ordering, and synchronization algorithm to drive this consensus. To address the undetermined Coinbase address issue, we further present an algorithm for such unresolvable transactions, ensuring a consistent and TPS-efficient scheme. With BBP, most transactions require neither validation nor transmission during block propagation, liberating system from transaction-block dependencies and rendering TPS scalable. Both theoretical analysis and experiments underscore BBP's potential for full TPS scalability. Experimental results reveal a 4x reduction in block propagation time compared to Ethereum blockchain, with TPS performance being limited by node hardware rather than block propagation.
As a frontier in dynamic spectrum sharing, the citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) system has been proposed by FCC, where three-tiered users are allowed to share the same spectrum. To manage the interference among different layered users, a centralized spectrum access system (SAS) combined with a central database is utilized to coordinate the spectrum access of lower-tiered users. Therefore, the centralized management architecture of the CBRS system cannot efficiently manage very large scale and large quantity of users, and may also suffer severe security and privacy issues. To address these problems, in this paper, we propose a new blockchain-assisted dynamic spectrum management model based on existing CBRS model, where the blockchain technology is leveraged to improve the spectrum management efficiency and quality-of-service of the GAA users. Furthermore, we design a detailed flow of the spectrum management of GAA users, where a dedicated graph coloring algorithm is proposed to obtain the optimal channel assignment strategy. Simulation results have increased the ratio of GAA users licensed and improved spectrum utilization under the proposed algorithm.
In this article, we address the problem of prolonging the battery life of Internet of Things (IoT) nodes by introducing a smart energy harvesting framework for IoT networks supported by femtocell access points (FAPs) based on the principles of Contract Theory and Reinforcement Learning. Initially, the IoT nodes' social and physical characteristics are identified and captured through the concept of IoT node types. Then, Contract Theory is adopted to capture the interactions among the FAPs, who provide personalized rewards, i.e., charging power, to the IoT nodes to incentivize them to invest their effort, i.e., transmission power, to report their data to the FAPs. The IoT nodes' and FAPs' contract-theoretic utility functions are formulated, following the network economic concept of the involved entities' personalized profit. A contract-theoretic optimization problem is introduced to determine the optimal personalized contracts among each IoT node connected to a FAP, i.e., a pair of transmission and charging power, aiming to jointly guarantee the optimal satisfaction of all the involved entities in the examined IoT system. An artificial intelligent framework based on reinforcement learning is introduced to support the IoT nodes' autonomous association to the most beneficial FAP in terms of long-term gained rewards. Finally, a detailed simulation and comparative results are presented to show the pure operation performance of the proposed framework, as well as its drawbacks and benefits, compared to other approaches. Our findings show that the personalized contracts offered to the IoT nodes outperform by a factor of four compared to an agnostic type approach in terms of the achieved IoT system's social welfare.
Onel L. Alcaraz López, Hirley Alves, Richard Demo Souza, Samuel Montejo‐Sánchez · 6 authors
Recent advances on wireless energy transfer (WET) make it a promising solution for powering future Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices enabled by the upcoming sixth-generation (6G) era. The main architectures, challenges and techniques for efficient and scalable wireless powering are overviewed in this article. Candidates enablers, such as energy beamforming (EB), distributed antenna systems (DASs), advances on devices' hardware and programmable medium, new spectrum opportunities, resource scheduling, and distributed ledger technology are outlined. Special emphasis is placed on discussing the suitability of channel state information (CSI)-limited/free strategies when powering simultaneously a massive number of devices. The benefits from combining DAS and EB, and from using average CSI whenever available, are numerically illustrated. The pros and cons of the state-of-the-art CSI-free WET techniques in ultralow power setups are thoroughly revised, and some possible future enhancements are outlined. Finally, key research directions toward realizing WET-enabled massive IoT networks in the 6G era are identified and discussed in detail.
Wireless network virtualization is a promising solution to improve spectrum efficiency. For a wireless downlink communication system with multiple mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), we propose a decentralized blockchain-based dynamic spectrum acquisition scheme. Our proposed scheme aims to minimize the sum transmit power at all MVNOs while satisfying the average data transmission rate thresholds. For each MVNO, the required wireless spectrum to provide customized services to the mobile users (MUs) is predicted using the half-range Gauss-Hermite quadrature. Based on the predicted values, all the MVNOs carry out a blockchain-based distributed alternative direction method of multipliers to obtain the global optimal solution to the aforementioned sum transmit power minimization problem. To examine the effectiveness of our proposed scheme, with known system parameters, we also theoretically derive the semi-closed-form solution to the actually required sum transmit power minimization problem subject to data transmission rate constraints. Simulation results illustrate that our proposed dynamic spectrum acquisition scheme achieves almost the same minimum sum power as the non-causal scheme, which assumes the number of active MUs in all cells and all the channels are known non-causally for the optimal dynamic spectrum allocation.
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 “transaction validation area” 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 nodes’ signal-to-interference-and-noise power ratio (SINR) can be improved by adopting the proposed mechanisms while reducing the system overhead.
Adaptive capacity with cost-efficient resource provisioning is a crucial capability for future 6G networks. In this work, we conceptualize "expansive networks" which refers to a networking paradigm where networks should be able to extend their resource base by opportunistic but self-controlled expansive actions. To this end, we elaborate on a key aspect of an expansive network as a concrete example: Spectrum resource at the PHY layer. Evidently, future wireless networks need to provide efficient mechanisms to coexist in the licensed and unlicensed bands and operate in expansive mode. In this work, we first describe spectrum sharing issues and possibilities in 6G networks for expansive networks. We then present security implications of expansive networks, an important concern due to more open and coupled systems in expansive networks. We also discuss two key enablers, namely distributed ledger technology (DLT) and network intelligence via machine learning, which are promising to realize expansive networks for the spectrum sharing aspect.
5G networks are expected to provide cost-efficient, reliable, and flexible services for industrial productions and applications potentially, by introducing emerging network technologies like blockchain and network functions virtualization (NFV), which virtualizes network functions and runs them on standard infrastructure rather than customized hardware. However, how to deal with the emerging security challenges and fulfil the requirement of ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) has not been fully resolved. In this article, we present an NFV-enabled 5G paradigm for the industry with the guarantee of URLLC through service chain acceleration and dynamic blockchain-based spectrum resource sharing among a variety of industry applications running in NVF-based equipment. First, we elaborate the benefits and shortcomings of NFV for industry, by executing an industry application experiment in virtualized and nonvirtualized data center networks. Then, we illustrate an NFV-enabled 5G paradigm for URLLC in detail, with a special focus on the service chain acceleration and spectrum sharing built on NFV, blockchain, software-defined networking, and mobile edge computing. Finally, we establish a mathematical model to study the worst-cast transmission latency of NFV-enabled 5G with the input of the bursty traffic. The proposed model can be exploited to support the plan, management, and optimization of NFV-enabled 5G URLLC systems for industry.
The fifth-generation (5G) cellular technology aims at providing network services at high speed with reliable Quality of Service (QoS). To enable this, 5G deploys Massive Multi-Input Multi-Out-put (MIMO) to increase the capacity of a Base Station (BS) and the efficiency of the network. Provisioning guaranteed and reliable services to support MIMO requires effective resource management. Blockchain is a highly promising solution to enable multi-dimensional management of various resources such as spectrum allocation and user association. It can potentially mitigate spectrum under-utilization and can help in scaling up the deployment of different 5G services. In this article, we present a model for Blockchain-based multi-operator service provisioning for 5G users with Intra and Inter spectrum management among multiple telecom operators. In particular, we present a Blockchain-based implementation model for spectrum sharing between the operators to minimize spectrum under-utilization.
5G in the United States has been rapidly growing this past year as the New Radio (NR) standards have been finalized. The top three US cellular carriers cover most major cities in 2019, and the plans are to cover most of the nation by the close of 2020. Field testing shows that 5G is meeting the promise of gigabit speeds and single digit latency over millimeter wave. 5G Security is ever so more critical with the expectation of massive IoT, M2M, VANET, and High-Speed Fixed Wireless. More devices will rely on commercially available wireless internet, it should be expected that 5G Security will be thoroughly tested by unscrupulous individuals. To enhance security, this paper will cover utilizing Blockchain for identity management of the next generation NodeB (gNB) for the user equipment (UE) would make Rogue Cellsite, man-in-the-middle-attacks, or Stingray much harder to perform. This would prevent the UE from blindly connecting to any gNB it sees and sharing sensitive information because of the connection requested from an untrusted source. While there are other potential security flaws in 5G, implementing Blockchain in a commercial network would enhance attach and handover security for all devices that use 5G.
Neutral host SCPs represent a key element of the 5G vision of ultra-dense mobile networks. However, current business models mostly focus on multi-year agreements for large venues, such as stadiums and hotel chains. These business agreements are regulated through binding SLAs, which tend to be too cumbersome and costly for smaller-scale SCPs. As a result, the neutral host model does not scale up to its full potential. In this article, we propose a framework to enable the participation of small- to medium-sized players in the cellular market as providers offering network resources to MNOs. To this purpose, we review the current and emerging spectrum and technology opportunities that SCPs can use for neutral host deployments. We also propose the use of blockchain-enabled smart contracts as a simple and cost-efficient alternative to traditional SLAs for small-scale SCPs. To demonstrate this, we describe a proof of concept implementation of an Ethereum-based smart contract platform for best effort service between an SCP and an MNO. Our simulations on potential smart contract-based deployments in city center Dublin show that the received signal strength in the considered area will increase by an average of 10 percent.
Emanuele Di Pascale, Hamed Ahmadi, Linda Doyle, Irene Macaluso
Neutral host SCPs represent a key element of the 5G vision of ultra-dense mobile networks. However, current business models mostly focus on multi-year agreements for large venues, such as stadiums and hotel chains. These business agreements are regulated through binding SLAs, which tend to be too cumbersome and costly for smaller-scale SCPs. As a result, the neutral host model does not scale up to its full potential. In this article, we propose a framework to enable the participation of small- to medium-sized players in the cellular market as providers offering network resources to MNOs. To this purpose, we review the current and emerging spectrum and technology opportunities that SCPs can use for neutral host deployments. We also propose the use of blockchain-enabled smart contracts as a simple and cost-efficient alternative to traditional SLAs for small-scale SCPs. To demonstrate this, we describe a proof of concept implementation of an Ethereum-based smart contract platform for best effort service between an SCP and an MNO. Our simulations on potential smart contract-based deployments in city center Dublin show that the received signal strength in the considered area will increase by an average of 10 percent.
Asuquo A. Okon, Nishant Jagannath, Ibrahim Elgendi, Jaafar M. H. Elmirghani · 6 authors
Despite increase in deployment of BS, MNOs are still faced with the daunting challenge of providing adequate coverage and capacity in indoor environments. Furthermore, the trust-less environment in which MNOs operate makes it further challenging to achieve interoperability across carriers. Recently the concept of mOs has emerged as a promising solution through deployment of small cells. However, their success has been severely hampered by the absence of a framework for creating and managing business agreements between key stakeholders, i.e., MNOs and mOs. This article proposes a blockchain-enabled SDN approach for managing radio spectrum access between MNOs using smart contracts over small cell networks. Specifically, our solution uses a smart contract to validate transactions between MNOs. Simulation results show that our solution guarantees seamless handoff and high availability between different operators in contrast to a break in connectivity in the absence of an agreement.
With the increasing requirement of spectral efficiency in 6G mobile networks, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considered as the potential dynamic spectrum sharing solution. Traditional CBRS suffers high administrative expense and privacy risk. In addition, conventional consensus methods in blockchain consume excessive computing power or lack well-founded consensus standard. In this paper, we propose a distributed CBRS-Blockchain model with a specialized consensus method, which is able to reduce administrative expense of dynamic access system. Based on the ring signature techniques, a privacy protection method is proposed. Furthermore, we design a new consensus method named as proof-of-strategy, which combines with the process of spectrum allocation. The proposed method not only provides well-founded consensus mechanism, but also prevents spectrum allocation system from the event of single point failure. Simulation results show the divergent privacy protection for legal users and malicious users, as well as the system utility under the proposed consensus method.