A DLT Framework for Service-Aware Link Adaptation in Quasi-Stationary Wireless Systems

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a promising enabler for programmable and auditable service management in future wireless networks. This paper proposes a DLT-enabled framework for service-aware link adaptation (SALA) in downlink wireless backhaul links under quasi-stationary channels. In the proposed approach, a user equipment (UE) purchases a link adaptation service through a smart contract, where each service is associated with a target bit error rate (BER) and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)--modulation and coding scheme (MCS) look-up table (LUT). The LUTs are previously generated by a service-aware contextual bandit (CB) algorithm to maximize goodput while satisfying service-dependent BER constraints. After the on-chain transaction is validated, the base station (BS) and UE automatically activate the corresponding LUT. A private Ethereum-compatible DLT network implemented with Ganache, Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces (REST APIs), and a software-defined radio (SDR)-based radio access network (RAN) is used to validate the framework. Results show that smart contracts can operate as a trusted service-acquisition mechanism for activating quality-aware link adaptation policies in quasi-stationary wireless backhaul scenarios.