Hierarchical Blockchain Radio Access Networks: Architecture, Modelling, and Performance Assessment

TL;DR

The paper introduces HB-RAN, a hierarchical blockchain-based radio access network that integrates blockchain, MEC, and AI to secure dynamic connectivity and support intermediate nodes for coverage expansion. A Markov-chain model with two queues captures block formation and service dynamics, extended to nested primary/secondary blockchains to analyze end-to-end latency across scenarios. Closed-form latency expressions and a probabilistic security metric for alternative-history attacks quantify performance under fixed-topology, coverage expansion, and mobile connectivity use cases. Numerical results reveal trade-offs between block size, confirmation count, and hash-power differences, highlighting HB-RAN’s potential for secure, scalable 6G-like networks and guiding practical deployment decisions.

Abstract

Demands for secure, ubiquitous, and always-available connectivity have been identified as the pillar design parameters of the next generation radio access networks (RANs). Motivated by this, the current contribution introduces a network architecture that leverages blockchain technologies to augment security in RANs, while enabling dynamic coverage expansion through the use of intermediate commercial or private wireless nodes. To assess the efficiency and limitations of the architecture, we employ Markov chain theory in order to extract a theoretical model with increased engineering insights. Building upon this model, we quantify the latency as well as the security capabilities in terms of probability of successful attack, for three scenarios, namely fixed topology fronthaul network, advanced coverage expansion and advanced mobile node connectivity, which reveal the scalability of the blockchain-RAN architecture.

Figures (15)

• Figure 1: Paper organization.
• Figure 2: Network topology.
• Figure 3: B-RAN architecture.
• Figure 4: B-RAN Markov chain model.
• Figure 5: Hierarchical blockchain architecture.