LightMAN: A Lightweight Microchained Fabric for Assurance- and Resilience-Oriented Urban Air Mobility Networks

Abstract

Rapid advancements in the fifth generation (5G) communication technology and mobile edge computing (MEC) paradigm have led to the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in urban air mobility (UAM) networks, which provide intelligent services for diversified smart city scenarios. Meanwhile, the widely deployed Internet of drones (IoD) in smart cities has also brought up new concerns regarding performance, security, and privacy. The centralized framework adopted by conventional UAM networks is not adequate to handle high mobility and dynamicity. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure device authentication, data integrity, and privacy preservation in UAM networks. Thanks to its characteristics of decentralization, traceability, and unalterability, blockchain is recognized as a promising technology to enhance security and privacy for UAM networks. In this paper, we introduce LightMAN, a lightweight microchained fabric for data assurance and resilience-oriented UAM networks. LightMAN is tailored for small-scale permissioned UAV networks, in which a microchain acts as a lightweight distributed ledger for security guarantees. Thus, participants are enabled to authenticate drones and verify the genuineness of data that are sent to/from drones without relying on a third-party agency. In addition, a hybrid on-chain and off-chain storage strategy is adopted that not only improves performance (e.g., latency and throughput) but also ensures privacy preservation for sensitive information in UAM networks. A proof-of-concept prototype is implemented and tested on a micro-air–vehicle link (MAVLink) simulator. The experimental evaluation validates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed LightMAN solution.

The Microverse: A Task-Oriented Edge-Scale Metaverse

“…As the underlying technology of cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin [40], blockchain has been recognized as a critical technology to guarantee the assurance, security, and resilience of networked systems [41]. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that utilizes cryptographic mechanisms, consensus protocols, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to ensure verifiable and auditable transition data storage.…”

“…By combining a round-robin scheduling algorithm with consensus protocol, MultiChain has been implemented on a fog network to guarantee secure communication management for the Internet of Smart Things (IoST) [48]. As a lightweight blockchain architecture for general IoT systems, microchain [49] has been applied to diverse IoT applications, like federated learning atop hierarchical IoT networks [50] and urban air mobility (UAM) systems [41]. By dividing a blockchain into multiple vital components that can integrate with a lightweight consensus protocol and network model and optimize storage, microchain promises to handle the dynamicity and heterogeneity of the microverse.…”

“…Microchained IoT networks are an innovative paradigm within the Internet of Things (IoT) connections, which introduces a novel age characterized by enhanced efficiency, security, and scalability [41,49]. In contrast to conventional IoT topologies, which frequently depend on centralized servers for data processing and management, microchained networks spread these functionalities over a decentralized network of microcontrollers or microprocessors integrated into IoT devices.…”

A Survey on Reputation Systems for UAV Networks

“…In the past decades, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), often called drones, have become very popular and useful in various sectors, not just in the military alone [1]. UAV technology has changed how we collect information and interact with our surroundings in various applications, ranging from military [2], public safety [3], delivery [4], agriculture [5], healthcare [6], security [7], to disaster responses [8]. One important thing about UAVs is the ability to work independently without being controlled by humans or pilots.…”

“…At the core of UAV systems' effectiveness lies the seamless communication infrastructure that facilitates connectivity between UAVs, ground control stations, and, in some special situations, satellites [8], as shown in Figure 1. This data link is essential for timely communication and pivotal for delaysensitive tasks.…”