Blockchain-Based Secure Spectrum Trading for Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle-Assisted Cellular Networks: An Operator's Perspective

• Published in: IEEE internet of things journal Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 451 - 466
• Main Authors: Qiu, Junfei, Grace, David, Ding, Guoru, Yao, Junnan, Wu, Qihui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.01.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bandwidth; Base stations; Blockchain; Cellular communication; cellular network; Cellular networks; Communications systems; Cryptography; Game theory; Leases; Operators (mathematics); Pricing; Privacy; Security; security and privacy; spectrum trading; Stackelberg game; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); Unmanned aerial vehicles; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 2327-4662; 2327-4662
• DOI: 10.1109/JIOT.2019.2944213

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are envisioned to be widely deployed as an integral component in the next generation cellular networks, where spectrum sharing between the aerial and terrestrial communication systems will play an important role. However, there exist significant security and privacy challenges due to the untrusted broadcast features and wireless transmission of the UAV networks. This article endeavors to resolve the security issues through proposing a novel privacy-preserving secure spectrum trading and sharing scheme based on blockchain technology. Specifically, from the operator's perspective, a pricing-based incentive mechanism is first introduced, in which a primary mobile network operator (MNO) leases its owned spectrum to a secondary UAV network in exchange for some revenue from the UAV operators. To address the potential security issues, a spectrum blockchain framework is then proposed to illustrate detailed operations of how the blockchain helps to improve the spectrum trading environment. Under this framework, a Stackelberg game is formulated to jointly maximize the profits of the MNO and the UAV operators considering uniform and nonuniform pricing schemes. Security assessment and numerical results confirm the security and efficiency of our schemes for spectrum sharing in UAV-assisted cellular networks.