Green Consensus Mechanisms for Energy-Efficient Decentralized Systems
Participants
Summary
Blockchain technology has revolutionized digital transactions and data security, but its high energy consumption remains a major concern. This research focuses on developing and analyzing green blockchain solutions, emphasizing energy-efficient consensus mechanisms to reduce the environmental impact of decentralized systems. Traditional methods, such as Proof of Work (PoW), require vast computational power, leading to excessive carbon footprints. This study explores alternative consensus protocols, including Proof of Stake (PoS), Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), Proof of Authority (PoA), and hybrid models, which significantly lower energy consumption while maintaining security and decentralization. Additionally, the project investigates the integration of renewable energy sources, carbon offset strategies, and hardware optimization to enhance blockchain sustainability. By addressing the balance between efficiency, security, and environmental responsibility, this research aims to pave the way for eco-friendly blockchain applications, benefiting industries such as finance, supply chain management, and smart cities.
Funding
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Partners
Publications
[1] Alharbi, O., Shaikh, R. A., & Asif, R. (2025). Data-Aided Intrusion Detection Systems: Leveraging AI, Blockchain and Digital Twin Technology. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData) (pp. 8214-8215). (Proceedings - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, BigData 2024). The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). https://doi.org/10.1109/BigData62323.2024.10825899
[2] Asif, R., Hassan, S. R., & Parr, G. (2023). Integrating a blockchain-based governance framework for responsible AI. Future Internet, 15(3), Article 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15030097
Private 5G mobile network setup and encrypted data analysis
Participants
Summary
We build a 4G private network testbed, in which free5GC (developed by NCTU) acts as a core network, and the 4G cell station is provided by Gemtek Technology. Free5GC enables rapid and flexible employment of 5G private networks, supporting a variety of applications. Key Capabilities:
Support free 4G mobile network service. Every user in UEA registers a SIM card and then can get free network service within the range of core network, which means users do not need to pay text and call fees to operators.
Real-world Network traffic data gathering. With the test bed, we can get a volume of users’ traffic data from the real world, which can be fed into an AI/ML model for data analysis. For instance, the network operators can gather encrypted network traffic data of different applications on real testbed and train the model for application classification by fingerprint technology.
For security system. Current research already analyzes the DDoS attack on authentication protocol based on the free5GC testbed. Besides, other attacks like modifying and replying to core network traffic are also analyzed in free5GC.
Other experiments like network traffic offloading are supported on the testbed.
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Funding
Publications
[1] Xiong, R., Tong, K.-L., Ren, Y., Ren, W., & Parr, G. (2023). Demo: From 5G to 6G: It is time to sniff the communications between a base station and core networks. In ACM MobiCom '23.
Optimised UAVs for Comprehensive Environmental Mapping
Participants
Summary
The rise of 6G and trends in Robotics for industry and agriculture creates demand for better understanding of the environments they inhabit, examples include drone delivery, crop growth mapping and disaster response. In order to better manage robotics systems, a more complete view of the environment is needed, including spatial, comma signal, atmosphere conditions and device localisation. This work seeks to optimise mapping of these measures with drone systems and deep learning, generating optimised paths and behaviours to make better use of limited resources while still building consistent representations of real world conditions.
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Funding