What is Blockchain Radio Access Network?*
Xintong Ling, Yuwei Le, Jiaheng Wang, Zhi Jun Ding, Xiqi Gao · 2021
The continually rising demand for wireless services and applications in the era of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence ( AI ) presents a significant number of unprecedented challenges to existing network structures. To meet the rapid growth need of mobile data services, blockchain radio access network (B-RAN) has emerged as a decentralized, trustworthy radio access paradigm spurred by blockchain technologies. However, many characteristics of B-RAN remain unclear and hard to characterize. In this chapter, we develop an analytical framework to model B-RAN and provide fundamental analysis. Starting from the block generation process, we establish a queuing model based on a time-homogeneous Markov chain. Through the queuing model, we evaluate the performance of B-RAN with respect to latency and security considerations. We further uncover a more comprehensive picture of the achievable performance of B-RAN by connecting latency and security. At last, we present experimental results via an innovative prototype and validate the proposed model.