Blockchain-Based Licensed Spectrum Fair Distribution Method towards 6G-Envisioned Communications

Abstract

Spectrum distribution is a classical licensed spectrum accessing method in mobile communication networks. The licensed idle spectrum resources are authorized and distributed from spectrum owners to mobile users. However, the exponential growth of user capacity brings excessive load pressure on the traditional centralized network architecture. With a lack of sufficient supervision and penalty measures, dishonest behaviors of spectrum owners and spectrum users will lead to an unfair status in the distribution process. As a result, the honest participants’ interest will be harmed. As an important supporting infrastructure of Internet of Things technology, 6G cannot completely follow the existing spectrum distribution method. Towards 6G network spectrum distribution, a blockchain-based licensed spectrum fair distribution method is proposed. A lightweight consensus mechanism named proof of trust (PoT) is applied to reduce computational power consumption and consensus time overhead. We deploy the method on the Ethereum test chain; a theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate the fairness, effectiveness and security of the method.