5G networks promise extremely fast mobile data speeds. Cisco is developing a blockchain-based system to provide authentication and payment mechanisms within 5G networks.
Telecommunications giant Cisco was granted a patent this week describing a system that 5G networks could use to authenticate users and process payments for network services. Issued on Tuesday, November 26, the patent explains how mobile devices could carry blockchain authentication data that permits network access. The technology could be applied across telecommunications networks, including next-generation 5G infrastructures that offer significantly higher data rates.
The patent outlines a “native blockchain platform” that performs blockchain operations as additional, alternative, or complementary registration and session-management processes within a mobile network.
In the patent’s wording: “The blockchain authentication data includes blockchain credentials associated with the [device].” With such a system, users could transfer credits to the blockchain network in exchange for network services. The blockchain framework would also interconnect service providers that leverage it, enabling them to exchange messages such as policy requests, network usage information, and “legitimate queries.”
This service-oriented architecture supports network slices that use an isolated set of programmable resources, allowing individual network functions and/or application services to be implemented by software within each network slice without affecting other functions and services on coexisting network slices.
The patent suggests blockchain’s benefits include enabling transparent, verifiable, and secure digital-asset transactions with proof of rights and ownership. Major carriers have been rolling out 5G gradually this year. In the United States, Sprint launched 5G in nine cities, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Cisco joins a long list of information-technology companies exploring blockchain integration with the Internet of Things (IoT). Companies such as Bosch, BNY Mellon, Chronicled, and Filament have used platforms like Hyperledger, Ethereum, and Quorum to build or enhance products and services.
In September, Cisco announced a collaboration with a provider of artificial-intelligence services, SingularityNET, aiming to decentralize AI systems and prevent a single source from centralizing learning capabilities by using blockchain technologies. Cisco has also pursued other blockchain initiatives, including a patent application filed in March 2018 for technology designed to create a more secure environment for group chats within a network.
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