On the application of blockchains to spectrum management
Abstract
Spectrum sharing mechanisms have evolved to meet different needs related to increasing spectrum use efficiency. At first, decentralized and opportunistic cognitive radios (and cognitive radio networks) were the primary focus of research for these mechanisms. This gradually transitioned toward the development of cooperative sharing methods based on databases, typified by TV white spaces databases. Spectrum sharing is now the basis for the dynamic and fine-grained spectrum rights regime for the citizen's band radio service (CBRS) as well as for license shared access (LSA). The emergence of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has stimulated interest in applying its underlying technology, blockchain, to other applications as well, such as securities trading and supply chain management. This paper explores the application of blockchain to radio spectrum management. While blockchains could underlie radio spectrum management more broadly, we will focus on dynamic spectrum sharing applications. Like the cooperative approaches currently in use, blockchain is a database technology. However, a blockchain is a decentralized database in which the owner of the data maintains control. We consider the benefits and limitations of blockchain solutions in general, and then examine their potential application to four major categories of spectrum sharing.
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Smart contracts can authenticate and verify vehicular transactions by triggering programmed logic functions, enabling direct authentication for registered vehicles without revealing device privacy and preventing attacks from malicious vehicles.
“In this regard, smart contract would be a notable approach which can authenticate and verify vehicular transactions by triggering the programmed logic functions [259]. This enables direct authentication for registered vehicles without revealing device privacy and effectively prevents potential attacks from malicious vehicles.”
From Blockchain for 5G and beyond networks: A state of the art survey (2020) · cites this paper as [259]
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- Authors
- Weiss, M. B. H., Werbach, K., Sicker, D. C., & Bastidas, C. E. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking
- Published
- 2019-06
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 193-205
- ISSN
- 2332-7731 (ISSN-L)
- 2372-2045
- OpenAlex
- W2913091928
- Semantic Scholar
- 234ac807ae19670aa9cf0991b528beba2cd6b70e
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 12.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1443796, 1642949)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Cognitive Radio Networks and Spectrum Sensing
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)
- Keywords
- blockchain, spectrum management, dynamic spectrum sharing, spectrum sharing, decentralized databases, cognitive radio networks, cooperative spectrum sharing
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