Analysis of Blockchain Use Cases in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Spectrum Sharing Concept

The Blockchain (BC) technology has received religious attention in the financial and internet domains, and recently interest has spread to adjacent sectors like communications. This paper seeks to identify the impact of the BC technology in novel spectrum sharing concepts using the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) concept as an example. The results indicate that the BC core characteristics can be utilized in several use cases addressing current CBRS implementation considerations. The CBRS concept could particularly benefit of BCs in building trust, consensus and lowering the transaction cost. In BC deployments, confidentiality should be taken into consideration through hybrid and private BC options. Furthermore, the cognitive radio spectrum sharing - BC combination paves the way for new business models and distributed services.