Blockchain-enabled Resource Management and Sharing for 6G Communications

The sixth generation (6G) network must provide performance superior to previous generations in order to meet the requirements of emerging services and applications, such as multi-gigabit transmission rate, even higher reliability, sub 1 millisecond latency and ubiquitous connection for Internet of Everything. However, with the scarcity of spectrum resources, efficient resource management and sharing is crucial to achieve all these ambitious requirements. One possible technology to enable all of this is blockchain, which has recently gained significance and will be of paramount importance to 6G networks and beyond due to its inherent properties. In particular, the integration of blockchain in 6G will enable the network to monitor and manage resource utilization and sharing efficiently. Hence, in this article, we discuss the potentials of blockchain for resource management and sharing in 6G using multiple application scenarios namely, Internet of things, device-to-device communications, network slicing, and inter-domain blockchain ecosystems.

[1]  Juan Benet,et al.  IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System , 2014, ArXiv.

[2]  Ralph C. Merkle,et al.  A Certified Digital Signature , 1989, CRYPTO.

[3]  Bin Cao,et al.  Artificial Intelligence Aided Joint Bit Rate Selection and Radio Resource Allocation for Adaptive Video Streaming over F-RANs , 2020, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[4]  Khashayar Kotobi,et al.  Secure Blockchains for Dynamic Spectrum Access: A Decentralized Database in Moving Cognitive Radio Networks Enhances Security and User Access , 2018, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine.

[5]  J. Grosspietsch,et al.  Geo-Location Database Techniques for Incumbent Protection in the TV White Space , 2008, 2008 3rd IEEE Symposium on New Frontiers in Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks.

[6]  Sarah Underwood,et al.  Blockchain beyond bitcoin , 2016, Commun. ACM.

[7]  Guangjie Han,et al.  Channel Hopping Protocols for Dynamic Spectrum Management in 5G Technology , 2017, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[8]  Walid Saad,et al.  A Vision of 6G Wireless Systems: Applications, Trends, Technologies, and Open Research Problems , 2019, IEEE Network.

[9]  P. Landsbergen Feasibility, beneficiality, and institutional compatibility of a micro-CHP virtual power plant in the Netherlands , 2009 .

[10]  Zibin Zheng,et al.  Blockchain for Internet of Things: A Survey , 2019, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[11]  Mehdi Bennis,et al.  A Speculative Study on 6G , 2019, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[12]  Ke Zhang,et al.  Proof-of-Reputation Based-Consortium Blockchain for Trust Resource Sharing in Internet of Vehicles , 2019, IEEE Access.

[13]  Qian He,et al.  Blockchain and Deep Reinforcement Learning Empowered Intelligent 5G Beyond , 2019, IEEE Network.

[14]  Pronaya Bhattacharya,et al.  Mobile Edge Computing-Enabled Blockchain Framework—A Survey , 2019, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering.

[15]  Shaoqian Li,et al.  6G Wireless Communications: Vision and Potential Techniques , 2019, IEEE Network.

[16]  Zhili Sun,et al.  Blockchain-Based Dynamic Key Management for Heterogeneous Intelligent Transportation Systems , 2017, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[17]  Michael Devetsikiotis,et al.  Blockchains and Smart Contracts for the Internet of Things , 2016, IEEE Access.

[18]  Yao Sun,et al.  Performance Analysis for Blockchain Driven Wireless IoT Systems Based on Tempo-Spatial Model , 2019, 2019 International Conference on Cyber-Enabled Distributed Computing and Knowledge Discovery (CyberC).

[19]  R. D'amico Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison , 1978, Telos.

[20]  Martin B. H. Weiss,et al.  On the Application of Blockchains to Spectrum Management , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking.

[21]  Qihui Wu,et al.  Blockchain-Based Secure Spectrum Trading for Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle-Assisted Cellular Networks: An Operator’s Perspective , 2020, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[22]  Ying-Chang Liang,et al.  Blockchain for Dynamic Spectrum Management , 2019, Dynamic Spectrum Management.

[23]  Stefan Parkvall,et al.  Design aspects of network assisted device-to-device communications , 2012, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[24]  Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés,et al.  A Review on the Use of Blockchain for the Internet of Things , 2018, IEEE Access.

[25]  Mohamed-Slim Alouini,et al.  A Key 6G Challenge and Opportunity - Connecting the Remaining 4 Billions: A Survey on Rural Connectivity , 2019, ArXiv.

[26]  Ying Wang,et al.  A Data-Driven Architecture for Personalized QoE Management in 5G Wireless Networks , 2017, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[27]  Khashayar Kotobi,et al.  Blockchain-enabled spectrum access in cognitive radio networks , 2017, 2017 Wireless Telecommunications Symposium (WTS).

[28]  M. Foucault,et al.  Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. , 1978 .

[29]  Miguel Oom Temudo de Castro,et al.  Practical Byzantine fault tolerance , 1999, OSDI '99.

[30]  Klaus David,et al.  6G Vision and Requirements: Is There Any Need for Beyond 5G? , 2018, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine.

[31]  Amitava Ghosh,et al.  NB-IoT deployment study for low power wide area cellular IoT , 2016, 2016 IEEE 27th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC).

[32]  John K. Ousterhout,et al.  In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm , 2014, USENIX ATC.

[33]  Pingzhi Fan,et al.  6G Wireless Networks: Vision, Requirements, Architecture, and Key Technologies , 2019, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine.

[34]  Jeffrey G. Andrews,et al.  What Will 5G Be? , 2014, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[35]  Hao Xu,et al.  RAFT Based Wireless Blockchain Networks in the Presence of Malicious Jamming , 2020, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters.

[36]  Tsuyoshi Murata,et al.  {m , 1934, ACML.

[37]  K. Werbach The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust , 2018 .

[38]  Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin : A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System , 2009 .

[39]  Massimo Sargiacomo Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison , 2009 .

[40]  Liying Li,et al.  Optimizing Resource Allocation in URLLC for Real-Time Wireless Control Systems , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

[41]  Vincenzo Sciancalepore,et al.  From network sharing to multi-tenancy: The 5G network slice broker , 2016, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[42]  Chonho Lee,et al.  Auction Approaches for Resource Allocation in Wireless Systems: A Survey , 2013, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.

[43]  Lei Zhang,et al.  On the Viable Area of Wireless Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) Blockchain Networks , 2019, 2019 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM).

[44]  Lei Zhang,et al.  Blockchain-Enabled Wireless Internet of Things: Performance Analysis and Optimal Communication Node Deployment , 2019, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[45]  Mugen Peng,et al.  How Does CSMA/CA Affect the Performance and Security in Wireless Blockchain Networks , 2020, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.

[46]  Zhili Sun,et al.  Pseudonym Management Through Blockchain: Cost-Efficient Privacy Preservation on Intelligent Transportation Systems , 2019, IEEE Access.

[47]  Jere Backman,et al.  Blockchain network slice broker in 5G: Slice leasing in factory of the future use case , 2017, 2017 Internet of Things Business Models, Users, and Networks.

[48]  Jatinder Singh,et al.  Blockchain as a Service (BaaS): Providers and Trust , 2018, 2018 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW).

[49]  Hong Liu,et al.  Blockchain-Enabled Security in Electric Vehicles Cloud and Edge Computing , 2018, IEEE Network.

[50]  Mahesh K. Marina,et al.  Network Slicing in 5G: Survey and Challenges , 2017, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[51]  Lie Xu,et al.  A Reliable Microgrid With Seamless Transition Between Grid Connected and Islanded Mode for Residential Community With Enhanced Power Quality , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[52]  Yu-Chih Huang,et al.  Analysis of Nakamoto Consensus, Revisited , 2019, IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch..

[53]  Shahid Mumtaz,et al.  When Internet of Things Meets Blockchain: Challenges in Distributed Consensus , 2019, IEEE Network.