Blockchain of Frequencies - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

This innovation was developed in order to help to prevent interferences, providing a solution for booking frequencies in the general authorization bands.
The main innovation is that this solution is based on the blockchain technology, and open to everybody. This way, our solution guarantees the integrity, the immutability, the transparency, the traceability, the audibility of the reservations of frequencies.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

With the fast growing development of new digital services and the explosion of connected objects, frequencies are becoming a crucial asset in the new economy. The spectrum being finite, frequencies are a scarce resource. The performance of their mode of management is therefore essential to guarantee both their availability and their quality. In this regard, dynamic spectrum management appears as a good candidate to address both issues. Nevertheless, achieving dynamic spectrum allocation requires completing different steps. First we need to acquire an accurate knowledge of the radio electric environment and radio embedded services. Then we have to design, develop and implement a method to dynamically manage frequencies while avoiding interference between users and equipment.

To avoid signal interference, most frequencies are assigned individually to users. Nevertheless some of them can be used freely, that is to say, without prior authorization. These are, for example Wifi frequencies, frequencies used by wireless microphones during major special events and more generally frequencies that fall under the so-called general authorization frequency bands.

Due to the proliferation of IoT devices and to growing demand for radiofrequencies in general authorization frequency bands, the risk that systems may collide and that QoS may collapse is dramatically growing. Frequency jamming is nowadays becoming a real trouble.

To avoid the tragedy of commons, ANFR has developed, on a Blockchain, a solution for booking frequencies in the general authorization bands and in particular, in the PMSE bands. This solution aims at preventing signal interference between the numerous wireless microphones that are likely to use the same frequencies during major special events, such as sport, cultural or political events (Roland-Garros, Ryder Cup, …) .

The solution had, indeed, to satisfy several features:
- being secured
- being transparent
- being agile enough to adapt to a central organization management as well as a decentralized self-organized governance, according to the frequency band considered.
- being automated
- guaranteeing a high availability
- respecting the sovereignty of each countries, and facilitating collaboration

The Blockchain technology clearly appeared as the relevant answer to these issues.

Because it is based on a Blockchain, our solution guarantees the integrity, the immutability, the transparency, the traceability, the audibility of the reservations of frequencies.

It also addresses sovereignty issues by implementing nodes in countries that desire to use the blockchain (consortium). Spectrum organization is transparent where it needs to, allowing each actor to see which organization has booked a frequency.

This well-known use case should pave to way for a future extension of the solution designed to manage
- cross-borders events, involving the participation of several national spectrum regulation authorities.
- non PMSE spectrum assignment issues so as to promote a real dynamic frequency sharing strategy across the spectrum range.

Through this solution, frequencies sharing among countries that raise sovereignty issues could also be addressed by creating a consortium and providing nodes. Each country of the consortium could therefore have the same accesses and share the same data, on servers based within their own organization.

We are also developing a Software Designed Radio based spectrum organization to complement the solution and allow connected objects to dynamically organize their spectrum occupation through the blockchain.

For the frequency project, we are working with a start-up (Blockchain Partner), and we are using the Ethereum Blockchain. Blockchain Partner provides us with their expertise, and set-up the infrastructure, codes the smart contracts and the webapp. We provide our professional expertise in term of frequency management. The blockchain application was developed using the Agile Method.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

Our solution presents two major innovations.
From a technological point of view, it is the first use of a distributed ledger technology in the field of radio spectrum management where centralized databases are the general rule.
From an organizational point of view, it empowers a brand new collaborative self-management of frequencies by the users themselves, without relying to a trusted third party, in the general authorization bands where freedom of exploitation prevails.
By the way, the solution offers a low cost alternative to a full cognitive radio spectrum management and paves the way for more efficient frequencies bands sharing methods across the full range of the radio-electric spectrum.
As it is based on a technology that is totally compatible with connected devices, the solution is ready to quickly expand, scale, collaborate, and address the huge frequencies management challenges which will happen in a few years.

What is the current status of your innovation?

The project was kicked off in March 2018.
The project has been managed in an agile mode through six development sprints before the final delivery in September.
A first release has been delivered end of September 2018 and tested on several events. We are currently implementing the solution.
A second version of the solution, that will include new features for an improved user experience, will be delivered by the end of this year. This version will be tested, in particular, to evaluate the contribution of the solution for optimizing Wifi availability and QoS in places where the concentration of users and important.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

The solution (front-end, blockchain and smart contract underlying the service) has been developed by the start-up Blockchain Partner that provided technical expertise in the blockchain field.
For alpha-testing, we used a publically open meet-up.
Several actors involved in special events frequency managements, events organizers (Roland Garros, France Galop…), site managers (FrenchTech central at Station F), frequency applicants (France TV) contributed to drafting, designing and testing .

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

The project is aimed to be open to every user and citizen. The solution has also been designed to be used by professional and governmental organizations, providing then the level of safety, reliability and shared sovereignty that is needed.

The first version benefits to events organizers, broadcasters, participants operating in the general authorization frequency bands. Nevertheless the future evolution of the project will cover a much larger scope as it will address all users of frequencies.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The go-live of the solution is too recent to assess its business impacts, outcomes and results. Nevertheless this very first initiative to use blockchain technology for frequency management is already being followed with a high interest by several national administrations and European frequency agencies.

Challenges and Failures

Technology understanding: Blockchain is a very different way of thinking. We needed to study it well in order to grab all the implications, make sure that it was fitting our requirements, and adopt a way of thinking our mission that would fit its requirements.
Process understanding and simplification: we needed to precisely understand the way we were working, in order to retranscribe it properly in an app. Thinking about it, we have simplified some of these processes.
Failures: we met a lot of design failures during the testing phases. The Agile method, with iterations and a lot of testing, allowed use to fix them before releasing the first version.

Conditions for Success

The success of the solution will be its adoption by users. The key factor of success of our project is the user-friendliness of the frequency booking interface and its ability to mask the complexity of the underlying BC technology.
We also opted for a simple architecture including a private blockchain, implemented on Ethereum and associated with a consensus protocol by proof of authority.
There were three reasons for this:
• Avoiding mining and the complexity of the miners' mode of payment
• Favoring a simple and energetically sober consensus process
• Ensuring the future portability of our solution on a public blockchain, the BC Ethereum.

We also think that full transparency, experience and sharing as well as a step-by-step approach is a condition for international adoption. We bet that the experience and the benefits that we will get from this project will be tomorrow our best assets to convince the administrations with which we work on a daily basis to extend, the use cases.

Replication

A solution relying on a blockchain technology is, by nature, intended to be open, widely deployed and strengthened through nodes replication.

It's important to understand that blockchain technology can be used in all sectors of activity. Even though this technology is not mature yet it is essential to take an interest today in the possibilities it offers to companies so that business decision-makers can appropriate it as quickly as possible.

Spectrum management blockchain is a precursor on the application of this technology in the field of the administration. This approach could naturally be replicated in the broad domain of the allocation and management of administrative rights (licenses, certificates, agreements, authorizations, ...) so that to guaranty transparency, immutability, authenticity, traceability, auditability, security.

We are eager to share our experience and feed-back with all the administrations and economic actors interested in the blockchain potential.

Lessons Learned

First of all, we earnt that it is essential to precisely understand and define the process before starting designing the solution (listening to people working on field is thus central).
It is also important to work with all the stakeholders, to plan and think about all the implications and consequences of the solution.
Simplifying as much as possible the ecosystem impacted by the project is necessary to favour time-to-market, so far as searching a prior consensus within a complicated ecosystem may be very time-consuming.
Addressing a MVP on a limited scope, and developing it through quick iterations, is a good option.
The collective imaginary often associates BlockChain and productivity gains, thus giving meaning is essential along the project cycle. To gain full meaning and impetus, the Blockchain approach should be part of the digital transformation of the administration. The ANFR is engaged, since many years, in a digital transformation plan (including request dematerialization, opendata, opensource, digital straighthrough processing of business activities) within which the BC project has a rightful place.

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