2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Research on Federated Local 5G Networks based on Innovative SIM Issuance Using BlockChain
Project/Area Number |
21K11843
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Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
Principal Investigator |
杜 平 東京大学, 大学院情報学環・学際情報学府, 特任准教授 (10462912)
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Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
中尾 彰宏 東京大学, 大学院工学系研究科(工学部), 教授 (60401238)
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Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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Keywords | Local 5G / Blockchain / Federation |
Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The research achievements in the first fiscal year could be summarized as follows. First, we focus on developing the Local 5G system, where gNB and 5GC are implemented in a general-purpose server that runs on Linux OS. Comparing to public 5G, Local 5G is more secure since all data transmission can be done locally. Different from a traditional Public 5G that is closed and cannot be modified , we can do application-specific customization to add new network functions to a Local 5G network. For example, we have worked on creating Narrow-band BPF with 3D printer and also did video streaming in a customized Local 5G network with more uplink time slots. Second, we have federated our Local 5G network with Docomo's public LTE, where a UE with a single SIM can connect to the local 5G network in lab area while connecting to public docomo LTE network outside our lab. We have also successfully did some preliminary experiments about the federation of our two Local 5G networks in lab environment. Third, we have also built a private Ethereum blockchain network. A PKI public / private key pair is generate in the Java applet installed in the SIM. The private key is managed in the SIM and the public key is managed in BlockChain. When communicating with an IoT device, the private key in the SIM is used is signed the data sent from the device and the data is verified by the public key registered in blockchain. The authenticity of the correspondence between the UE device and SIM is ensured by collating the IMEI registered in advance with the IMSI.
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Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We have done more development work and more publication than listed in our proposal. Our work has been highly evaluated by industry and academics. In industry, we have already established a startup FLARE SYSTEMS to commercialize our developed Local5G system. The cost price of our software based Local 5G base station is only 10% that of a hardware Local 5G base station. Moreover, we can achieve 293Mbps uplink throughput at a distance of 100 meter, which is several times higher than that of state-of-art commercial hardware gNB base station. We have deployed our commercial gNB base stations and Local 5G services to multiple companies and local governments. We have also participated in multiple Local 5G National Project organized by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), such as remote monitoring in the Fujisan DX Project in 2021. In academic research, we have published 2 journal papers, 2 international conference papers, and 5 technical reports in this fiscal year. The published papers cover not only the customization of Local 5G systems but also applications of Local 5G system. For the development of blockchain, although there is no published paper about it yet, we have already summarized the research results in a master thesis and we will summarize and publish papers very soon.
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Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the second fiscal year, we will continue the development and evaluation and do more publication as in the proposal. The detailed research plan is as follows. First, we will keep improving our Local 5G system. So far we are using sub6Hz bands, we plan to use high-frequency such as mmWave for more bandwidth. Moreover, we will keep developing more Local 5G applications such as surveillance system with Local5G network. Second, we will develop Local 5G authentication system on the Ethereum blockchain. So far we have deployed a private Ethereum blockchain and confirmed that we can we pub/sub data to/from the blockchain. We will implement the subscriber database with the Ethereum blockchain and implement the authentication in Ethereum blockchain. Third, we plan to do federation experiments of two Local 5G networks in Fujisan area. In the field test, we will use satellite link as backbone and federate multiple Local 5G networks to provide reasonable coverage.
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Causes of Carryover |
In the first fiscal year, our first-stage development have shared equipments (IoT devices, eNB and EPC) with other projects. Moreover, the international conference we attended was online so we can save our budget of the first fiscal year. In the second fiscal year, we need to buy more equipments dedicated to this project. Moreover, we plan to go aboard to attend international conferences. So the budget of this year will be increased comparing to that of the first fiscal year.
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Research Products
(11 results)