BCTrustFrame: Enhancing trust management via blockchain and IPFS in 6G era

Beginning in 2030, sixth generation (6G) mobile communication is expected to play a key role by collecting billions of things, humans, and robots, resulting in zettabytes of digital information. The key features of 6G include inherent connected intelligence in the telecommunication networks with devices from different vendors. Hence, trust should be enforced among devices, sub-networks, and applications, especially for mission-critical services. Currently, trust-based intrusion detection can measure an entity's trustworthiness by collecting statistics or sending consultation messages, while it may become inefficient in the era of 6G due to the overloaded traffic and potential latency. In this article, we discuss the challenges of deploying trust-based intrusion detection in 6G, and design BCTrustFrame, a framework of blockchain-based trust management with IPFS, which aims to enhance the effectiveness of trust evaluation via the collaboration of blockchain and IPFS technology. We also perform a case study to demonstrate the viability and performance. Copyright © 2022 IEEE.