Blockchain Radio Access Network (B-RAN): Towards Decentralized Secure Radio Access Paradigm

The relentless growth of wireless applications and data traffic continues to accentuate the long felt need for decentralized, self-managed, and cooperative network architectures. Enlightened by the power of blockchain technology, we propose a blockchain radio access network (B-RAN) architecture and develop decentralized, secure, and efficient mechanisms to manage network access and authentication among inherently trustless network entities. We further identify promising advanced functions made possible by adopting blockchain for open radio access networks. Our test results demonstrate the benefits of the B-RAN architecture. We also present a number of challenges and future research directions.