Blockchain-driven mobile data access towards fully decentralized mobile video trading in 5G networks
Dionysis Xenakis, Ioannis Zarifis, Pantelis Petrogiannakis, Anastasia Tsiota, Nikos I. Passas · 2020
The today's heterogeneous wireless network infrastructure is managed by different stakeholders that allow mobile data access to a prescribed set of end users. This network access model not only enforces end users to accept network-driven service provisioning but also raises critical burdens towards flexible utilization of the numerous 5G network assets (content, storage, radio resources, etc.). In this paper, we investigate on-the-fly user-driven network-assisted mobile video content delivery in 5G and Beyond networks using blockchain technologies enabling multi-million transactions per second. To this end, we present the RE-CENT crypto-currency platform enabling infrastructure providers, end users and content providers to be actively engaged in the blockchain consensus. Detailed discussions on the implementation of the proposed platform through smart contracts are provided and analytical results are used to quantify performance gains of the proposed mobile data access model.