Blockchain for 5G Advanced Wireless Networks

Yingjun Zhou1,2, Yin Gao1,2, Jiajun Chen1,2, Dapeng Li1,2, Zhuang Liu1,2, Yiran Wei1,2, Zijiang Ma1,2
1
State Key Laboratory of Mobile Network and Mobile Multimedia Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China
2
Algorithm Department, Wireless Product R&D Institute, ZTE Corporation, Shanghai, 201203, China
Email:{zhou.yingjun, gao.yin1, chen.jiajun1, li.dapeng, liu.zhuang2, wei.yiran, ma.zijiang}@zte.com.cn

Abstract—Fifth generation (5G) wireless network can provide
wide network coverage, high transmission rate, low
communication latency, and support massive connections.
However, it is not able to support user privacy information
security and virtual intellectual property protection.
Furthermore, the 5G system is centralized which is easy to be
attacked and cause data monopoly. Thus, 5G advanced is
expected to solve the above issues. Applying blockchain in 5G
advanced will provide decentralized service and ensure the
2022 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (IWCMC) | 978-1-6654-6749-0/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IWCMC55113.2022.9825182
technology enables distributed data storage in a chain of
blocks including block headers and block bodies. Each block
header consists of the hash value of the previous block,
merkle root, timestamp and nonce value. Transaction records
are stored in the block bodies. Each block is hashed and
linked with other blocks, and therefore the content of each
block is immutable. Another key property of blockchain is
the consensus mechanism. When a new block is appended to

the chain of blocks, all the blockchain nodes managed by the

trustworthiness. In this paper, applications for blockchain
enabled 5G advanced are presented. In addition, this paper
participants must reach a consensus, which means that all the
also investigates the solutions to support bolckchain based on participants have equal rights to avoid security issues and
5G RAN (radio access network) architecture. maintain a high degree of immutability. In addition, smart
contracts are used in blockchain to automatically operate the
Keywords—blockchain, 5G advanced, wireless network stored data based on the predefined rules and agreements,
which cannot be altered by any third party. This ensures high
I. INTRODUCTION resistance to external attacks. Blockchain has the ability to
In recent years, 5G wireless networks have been achieve secure, immutable and decentralized data storage
commercially utilized worldwide. Meanwhile, both academia with low latency in 5G advanced.
and industry are starting to work on 5G advanced wireless
networks [1-2]. 5G advanced is expected to achieve a
dramatic enhancement in system capacity, performance and
latency to support a variety of new deployments [3].
Therefore, some shortcomings in 5G are anticipated to be
improved in 5G advanced. One critical issue is that 5G
system is centralized, thus data is stored in a central node.
However, the entire network can be destroyed if the central
node is attacked. Furthermore, this may cause data monopoly,
e.g. user privacy may not be ensured especially with the
increasing IoT demands. The privacy, security, and trust
issues are also desired to be settled to improve
trustworthiness and optimize operation in 5G advanced
network.
Nowadays, blockchain has become a research hotspot
and applied in various applications, such as Internet of things
(IoT), edge computing, and industries [4-6]. It can be
considered as a promising technology to guarantee the above
requirements to be integrated with the 5G advanced system Fig. 1. Blockchain structure
[7-8], which can provide decentralized service and improve
trustworthiness for 5G advanced. With this technology, the III. BLOCKCHAIN ENABLED APPLICATIONS
network security risks can be reduced because the network is A. Vertical Industry
maintained by multiple nodes with equal rights, and it will
not cause much impact if there is any problem with one of In a smart factory as shown in Fig. 2, there are automatic
the nodes. Data monopoly can also be effectively avoided mobile devices, such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs)
with this mechanism. Additionally, the enterprises will and intelligent guided vehicles (IGVs). The service
benefit from the trustworthy data, such as in the network subscribers need to monitor on these devices in real time and
sharing scenario, private network deployments, IoT also need to find the accountability once a collision happens.
deployments and vehicle to everything (V2X) deployments. Furthermore, the utilization of robotic arms require real-time
Blockchain is a decentralized and privacy-protected technical monitoring of their motion information and the
tool to achieve credible and irreversible data storage for 5G corresponding control commands in case of failures. The
advanced. Thus, this paper investigates the applications of collected monitoring data requires to be distributedly stored
blockchain for 5G advanced wireless network, and how to and credibly shared among multiple service subscribers. The
support blockchain based on 5G RAN architecture. existing 5G system can’t meet these requirements. However
with blockchain enabled 5G advanced technology, the real-
II. BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY time location data, trajectory data, emergency/fault report of
Blockchain is a kind of digital ledge technology that has these devices can be collected and reported to the smart
the advantages of distributed storage, high security, and high factory control center which can be used for real-time data
immutability [9-11]. As shown in Fig. 1, blockchain processing, monitoring and control. The trustworthiness of

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 the collected data can be ensured when transmitted to the
smart factory control center.
Fig. 2. Smart factory framework
B. Network Sharing
The high cost of infrastructure deployment, operation and
maintenance in 5G advanced is an urgent problem to be
solved. Network sharing among the operators is the most
feasible way to reduce the capital expenditure (CAPEX) and
operational expenditure (OPEX). Network sharing can be
achieved in various ways, such as site infrastructure sharing
and multi-operator core network (MOCN) sharing. Site
infrastructure sharing is the most common form of network
sharing. In this sharing case, operators share site locations,
equipment rooms, and towers, and operate and maintain their
networks independently. MOCN sharing means that a RAN
can be connected to core networks of multiple operators. It
can be constructed by multiple operators or constructed by
only one operator, while rent by the other operators. An
example of network sharing is shown in Fig. 3.
However, network sharing is not a simple task in
traditional network due to reliability challenges, inefficient
information exchange, relatively centralized storage of data,
and long offline discussion and negotiation processes. Thus,
a neutral platform is needed to support traceable data
viewing, immutable data storage and trusted point-to-point
transmission by operators to achieve trustworthy data sharing.
Blockchain can be considered as a promising technology to
solve these problems in a secure, efficient and decentralized
way. Participating operators can use blockchain technology
to access trusted data with different purposes.
Fig. 3. Network sharing framework
IV. BLOCKCHAIN ENABLED 5G ADVANCED
The blockchain enabled service flow is depicted in Fig. 4.
Take network sharing as an example, some key data, such as
resource utilization, is uploaded to the blockchain platform
through the shared base stations of the hosting operator. The
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blockchain platform is used to ensure the credibility and
transparency of network sharing, and avoid disputes between
operators. Participating operators and other service
subscribers can obtain the trusted data via the blockchain
platform. In addition, the hosting operator can efficiently
optimize the allocation of system resources based on the real
resource occupancy of operators obtained from the
blockchain platform. Reliable service failure reporting can
also be achieved using this mechanism. The host operator is
responsible for serving the customers of participating
operators in network sharing and reporting the service failure
of those customers to the blockchain platform to prove they
are treated equally with the customers of the hosting operator.
Participating operators can obtain the trusted failure reports
of their customers through the blockchain platform.
Fig. 4. Blcokchain enabled service flow
V. BLOCKCHAIN BASED MEASUREMENT REPORTING
The schematic diagram of blockchain based
measurement reporting is shown in Fig. 5. The activation,
deactivation, suspension and resumption procedures can be
achieved through the exchange of the blockchain
configuration information between the operation
administration and maintenance (OAM) system, access
management function (AMF), base station, and user
equipment (UE). In the following contents, next generation
nodeB (gNB) will be used as an example of a base station.
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of blockchain based measurement reporting
A. Activation procedure
As shown in Fig. 6, the activation procedure of
blockchain based measurement reporting has two types,
including signalling-based activation and management-based
activation. The signalling-based activation is configured by
the OAM and triggered by the AMF, while the management-
based activation is configured and triggered by the OAM.
In the signalling-based activation procedure, OAM
initiates the activation configuration and sends the activation
 Fig. 6 Blockchain based activation procedure
configuration information to the AMF. The activation
configuration information may include the blockchain server
IP address, blockchain measurement contents (e.g., cell load
information per public land mobile network (PLMN), cell
spectrum usage, and UE behavior information), blockchain
encryption algorithm configuration information,
measurement type (event measurement or periodic
measurement), measurement type based reporting
configuration, data format, block size information,
blockchain session identity (ID), UE ID, etc. Then, AMF
triggers the activation by sending the activation configuration
information to the gNB. This step can be achieved by using
the legacy Initial Context Setup Request, Handover Request
or Trace Start message, or constructing a new message. After
internal processing, the gNB sends the measurement
configuration information to the UE, and reports the received
UE measurement to the blockchain platform. The gNB can
also report the collected measurement to the blockchain
platform directly without interacting with the UE.
In the management-based activation procedure, if the
gNB receives the user authorization information from the
AMF, it stores this information. The OAM initiates the
activation configuration and sends the activation
configuration information to the gNB directly without the
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involvement of AMF. The remaining steps are the same as
the signalling-based activation procedure.
B. Deactivation procedure
As shown in Fig. 7, the deactivation procedure of
blockchain based measurement reporting also includes the
signalling-based deactivation and management-based
deactivation, which is similar to the activation procedure.
The signalling-based deactivation is configured by the OAM
and triggered by the AMF, while the management-based
deactivation is configured and triggered by the OAM.
In the signalling-based deactivation procedure, OAM
initiates the deactivation configuration and sends the
deactivation configuration information to the AMF. The
deactivation configuration information may include the
blockchain session ID, UE ID, etc. Then, AMF triggers the
deactivation by sending the deactivation configuration
information to the gNB. This step can be achieved by using
the legacy Handover Request or Trace Start message, or
constructing a new message. After receiving the deactivation
configuration information, gNB stops the measurement
reporting to the blockchain platform. In the management-
based deactivation procedure, OAM initiates the deactivation
configuration and sends the deactivation configuration
 Fig. 7 Blockchain based deactivation procedure
information to the gNB directly without the involvement of
AMF. Then, gNB stops the measurement reporting to the
blockchain platform.
C. Suspension procedure
The suspension procedure of blockchain based
measurement reporting is similar to the deactivation
procedure. In the signalling-based suspension procedure,
OAM initiates the suspension configuration and sends the
suspension configuration information to the AMF. The
suspension configuration information may include the
blockchain session ID, UE ID, etc. Then, AMF triggers the
suspension by sending the suspension configuration
information to the gNB. This step can be achieved by reusing
legacy messages, or constructing a new message. After
receiving the suspension configuration information, gNB
suspends the measurement reporting to the blockchain
platform. In the management-based suspension procedure,
OAM initiates the suspension configuration and sends the
suspension configuration information to the gNB directly
without the involvement of AMF. Then, gNB suspends
measurement reporting to the blockchain platform.
D. Resumption procedure
The resumption procedure of blockchain based
measurement reporting is similar to the activation procedure.
In the signalling-based resumption procedure, OAM initiates
the resumption configuration and sends the resumption
configuration information to the AMF. The resumption
configuration information may include the the blockchain
server IP address, blockchain measurement contents (e.g.,
cell load information per PLMN, cell spectrum usage, and
UE behavior information), blockchain encryption algorithm
configuration information, measurement type (event
measurement or periodic measurement), measurement type
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based reporting configuration, data format, block size
information, blockchain session ID, UE ID, etc. Then, AMF
triggers the resumption by sending the resumption
configuration information to the gNB. This step can be
achieved by reusing the legacy messages, or constructing a
new message. After internal processing, the gNB sends the
measurement configuration information to the UE, and
reports the received UE measurement to the blockchain
platform. The gNB can also report the collected
measurement to the blockchain platform directly without
interacting with the UE. In the management-based
resumption procedure, if gNB receives the user authorization
information from AMF, it stores this information. OAM
initiates the resumption configuration and sends the
resumption configuration information to the gNB directly
without the involvement of AMF. The remaining steps are
the same as the signalling-based resumption procedure.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, applications for blockchain enabled 5G
advanced are introduced. Furthermore, this paper also
investigates the solutions to support bolckchain based on 5G
RAN architecture, including the blockchain enabled service
flow, and the blockchain based measurement reporting
procedures. The activation, deactivation, suspension and
resumption procedures can be achieved through the
exchange of the blockchain configuration information
between the OAM, AMF, base station, and UE. The
procedures of blockchain based measurement reporting can
be divided into two types, including signalling-based and
management-based solutions. The signalling-based solution
is configured by the OAM and triggered by the AMF, while
the management-based solution is configured and triggered
by the OAM. Given the above investigation, a more rapid
 standardization development of applying blockchain in 5G
advanced can be achieved.
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