Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
  • Publication
    A Novel Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) Platform for Local 5G Operators
    5G is a promising technology that has the potential to support verticals and applications such as Industrial Internet of Things IoT (IIoT), smart cities, autonomous vehicles, remote surgeries, virtual and augmented realities, and so on. These verticals have a diverse set of network connectivity requirements, and it is challenging to deliver customized services for each by using a common 5G infrastructure. Thus, the operation of Local 5G operator (L5GO) networks or private 5G networks are a viable option to tackle this challenge. A L5GO network is a localized small cell network which can offer tailored service delivery. The adaptation of network softwarization in 5G allows vertical owners to deploy and operate L5GO networks. However, the deployment of L5GOs raises various issues related to management of subscribers, roaming users, spectrum, security, and also the infrastructure. This paper proposes a blockchain-based platform to address these issues. The paper introduces a set of blockchain-based modularized functions such as service rating systems, bidding techniques, and selection functions, which can be used to deploy different services for L5GOs. Exploitation of blockchain technology ensures availability, non-reliance on trusted third parties, secure transfer payments, and stands to gain many more advantages. The performance and the viability of the proposed platform are analyzed by using simulations and a prototype implementation.
    Scopus© Citations 29  238
  • Publication
    Blockchain-based Roaming and Offload Service Platform for Local 5G Operators
    Local 5G Operator (L5GO) concept is one of the most prominent versatile applications of the 5G in the near future. The popularity of L5GOs will trigger a greater number of roaming and offloading events between mobile operators. However, existing static and the operator-assisted roaming and offloading procedures are inefficient for L5GO ecosystem due to poor service quality, data privacy issues, data transferring delays, excessive costs for intermediary parties and existence of roaming fraud. To address these challenges, we propose a blockchain / Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based service platform for L5GOs to facilitate efficient roaming and offload services. As the key contribution, blockchain-based smart contract scheme is proposed to establish dynamic and automated agreements between operators. By using smart contracts, we introduce several novel features such as universal wallet for subscribers, service quality based L5GO rating system, user-initiated roaming process and the roaming fraud prevention system to improve the operational quality of a L5GO. A prototype of the proposed platform is emulated with the Ethereum blockchain platform and Rinkeby Testnet to evaluate the performance and justify the feasibility of the proposal. Upon an extensive evaluation on the prototype, it was observed that the proposed platform offered benefits such as cost effective, more secure and reliable experience.
      396Scopus© Citations 7
  • Publication
    6G Security Challenges and Potential Solutions
    Although the fifth generation wireless networks are yet to be fully investigated, the vision and key elements of the 6th generation (6G) ecosystem have already come into discussion. In order to contribute to these efforts and delineate the security and privacy aspects of 6G networks, we survey how security may impact the envisioned 6G wireless systems with the possible challenges and potential solutions. Especially, we discuss the security and privacy challenges that may emerge with the 6G requirements, novel network architecture, applications and enabling technologies including distributed ledger technologies, physical layer security, distributed artificial intelligence (AI)/ machine learning (ML), Visible Light Communication (VLC), THz bands, and quantum communication
    Scopus© Citations 63  20
  • Publication
    A Survey on Mobile Augmented Reality with 5G Mobile Edge Computing: Architectures, Applications and Technical Aspects
    The Augmented Reality (AR) technology enhances the human perception of the world by combining the real environment with the virtual space. With the explosive growth of powerful, less expensive mobile devices, and the emergence of sophisticated communication infrastructure, Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) applications are gaining increased popularity. MAR allows users to run AR applications on mobile devices with greater mobility and at a lower cost. The emerging 5G communication technologies act as critical enablers for future MAR applications to achieve ultra-low latency and extremely high data rates while Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) brings enhanced computational power closer to the users to complement MAR. This paper extensively discusses the landscape of MAR through the past and its future prospects with respect to the 5G systems and complementary technology MEC. The paper especially provides an informative analysis of the network formation of current and future MAR systems in terms of cloud, edge, localized, and hybrid architectural options. The paper discusses key application areas for MAR and their future with the advent of 5G technologies. The paper also discusses the requirements and limitations of MAR technical aspects such as communication, mobility management, energy management, service offloading and migration, security, and privacy and analyzes the role of 5G technologies.
      528Scopus© Citations 277
  • Publication
    Fog Computing and Blockchain based Security Service Architecture for 5G Industrial IoT enabled Cloud Manufacturing
    Recent evolution of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) empowers the classical manufacturing model with cloud computing integration for Industry 4.0. Cloud integration advances the capabilities of manufacturing systems with cloud-based controlling and real-time process monitoring which is renowned as Cloud Manufacturing(CM). However, cloud integration exposes the entire manufacturing ecosystem to a new set of security risks and increment in end-to-end latency. Moving security services towards the edge eradicates message routing latency towards the cloud and eliminates the central point of failure while leveraging the entire system performance. We propose a blockchain and fog computing enabled security service architecture that operates on fog nodes at the edge of manufacturing equipment clusters. The proposed service facilitates CM equipment authentication and Equipment-Cloud channel privacy protection while preserving anonymity and unlinkability over the blockchain. We implemented the proposed architecture with Hyperledger Fabric and compared the performance advantage over the state of art solutions.
      32Scopus© Citations 34
  • Publication
    Survey on blockchain based smart contracts: Applications, opportunities and challenges
    Blockchain is one of the disruptive technical innovation in the recent computing paradigm. Many applications already notoriously hard and complex are fortunate to ameliorate the service with the blessings of blockchain and smart contracts. The decentralized and autonomous execution with in-built transparency of blockchain based smart contracts revolutionize most of the applications with optimum and effective functionality. The paper explores the significant applications which already benefited from the smart contracts. We also highlight the future potential of the blockchain based smart contracts in these applications perspective.
    Scopus© Citations 230  3453
  • Publication
    The role of 5G for digital healthcare against COVID-19 pandemic: Opportunities and challenges
    COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive impact on healthcare, social life, and economies on a global scale. Apparently, technology has a vital role to enable ubiquitous and accessible digital health services in pandemic conditions as well as against “re-emergence” of COVID-19 disease in a post-pandemic era. Accordingly, 5G systems and 5G-enabled e-health solutions are paramount. This paper highlights methodologies to effectively utilize 5G for e-health use cases and its role to enable relevant digital services. It also provides a comprehensive discussion of the implementation issues, possible remedies and future research directions for 5G to alleviate the health challenges related to COVID-19.
    Scopus© Citations 100  1025
  • Publication
    The Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic with 5G Technologies
    COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world in an unexpected manner. The human race is battling against the pandemic while schools, universities, industries, hospitals and governments are seeking new methods and technologies to seamlessly continue their usual operations. In response, this paper presents how 5G and IoT (Internet of Things) related technologies can be efficiently utilized and developed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Several use-cases on how 5G and IoT can be enablers to provide innovative solutions in the areas of telehealth, contact tracing, education, retail and supply chains, e-government/ remote office/ information sharing, smart manufacturing and factory automation, e-tourism and entertainment are presented along with their technical requirements and challenges. It is envisaged that the proposed solutions will be instrumental to facilitate the usual lifestyle, work and other day-to-day activities of humans in the post-pandemic world.
    Scopus© Citations 121  256
  • Publication
    Survey on Blockchain based Smart Contracts: Technical Aspects and Future Research
    Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that makes people’s lives smart by conquering a plethora of diverse application and service areas. In near future, the fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks provide the connectivity for this IoT ecosystem. It has been carefully designed to facilitate the exponential growth in the IoT field. Network slicing is one of the key technologies in the 5G architecture that has the ability to divide the physical network into multiple logical networks (i.e. slices) with different network characteristics. Therefore, network slicing is also a key enabler of realisation of IoT in 5G. Network slicing can satisfy the various networking demands by heterogeneous IoT applications via dedicated slices. In this survey, we present a comprehensive analysis of the exploitation of network slicing in IoT realisation. We discuss network slicing utilisation in different IoT application scenarios, along with the technical challenges that can be solved via network slicing. Furthermore, integration challenges and open research problems related to the network slicing in the IoT realisation are also discussed in this paper. Finally, we discuss the role of other emerging technologies and concepts, such as blockchain and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning(AI/ML) in network slicing and IoT integration
    Scopus© Citations 59  562
  • Publication
    The Roadmap to 6G Security and Privacy
    Although the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks are yet to be fully investigated, the visionaries of the 6th generation (6G) echo systems have already come into the discussion. Therefore, in order to consolidate and solidify the security and privacy in 6G networks, we survey how security may impact the envisioned 6G wireless systems, possible challenges with different 6G technologies, and the potential solutions. We provide our vision on 6G security and security key performance indicators (KPIs) with the tentative threat landscape based on the foreseen 6G network architecture. Moreover, we discuss the security and privacy challenges that may encounter with the available 6G requirements and potential 6G applications. We also give the reader some insights into the standardization efforts and research-level projects relevant to 6G security. In particular, we discuss the security considerations with 6G enabling technologies such as distributed ledger technology (DLT), physical layer security, distributed AI/ML, visible light communication (VLC), THz, and quantum computing. All in all, this work intends to provide enlightening guidance for the subsequent research of 6G security and privacy at this initial phase of vision towards reality.
    Scopus© Citations 143  367