CellularBlockB5G: A Blockchain-based Multi Operator Spectrum Sharing Simulator for 5G and Beyond Networks

Abstract

The advancement of Fifth-generation networks has enabled service-specific resource provisioning through Network slicing. Moving forward, Beyond 5G (B5G) is the key enabling factor for the next generation of computing networks catering to the needs of seamless connectivity with ultra-reliable performance and security. But the deployment of such systems to provide various services through dynamic network slicing needs network densification, leading to increased operational cost. This requirement has bid to enable infrastructure sharing between multiple operators and HetNets through Blockchain as a promising solution with secure and distributed ledger-based operations. This work presents a comprehensive simulation environment providing blockchain integration with B5G networks. In particular, this work identifies key challenges to creating such a simulation environment and handles several operational details, including spectrum sharing, network slicing and dealing with orphan blocks. In the end, we have presented the evaluation of the simulator on 5G blockchain-based spectrum sharing. Furthermore, this work can facilitate further research on blockchain in B5G networks and help in providing a common framework for operators in analyzing such operations on a large scale.