Page 93 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2021

OPTIMIZING PACKET TRANSMISSION FOR LEDGER-BASED POINTS TRANSFER
SYSTEM IN LPWAN: SOLUTIONS, EVALUATION AND STANDARDIZATION

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Xin Qi ; Keping Yu ; Toshio Sato ; Kouichi Shibata ; Eric Brigham ; Takanori Tokutake ; Rikiya Eguchi ; Yusuke
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Maruyama ; Zheng Wen ; Kazuhiko Tamesue ; Yutaka Katsuyama ; Kazue Sako ; Takuro Sato 4
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Global Information and Telecommunication Institute, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
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Skeed Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
3 School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
4 Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
ABSTRACT distance coverage with very low power consumption while
sacrificing only a small amount of data rate. LPWAN is
Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) is a long-range not a new technology, and the prototype of low-power WAN
low-power wireless communication network. Its features, has already appeared as early as the late 1980s. In the 21st
such as wide network coverage and low power consumption century, with the market demand and industry participants
of terminals, make it suitable for large-scale deployment of driving this, so far, more than a dozen technologies have
IoT applications. The points transfer system, especially points been formed globally to compete, and can be divided into
transfer system in LPWAN, as a typical third-party payment two types of technologies based on unlicensed spectrum and
application, is being closely attended by both industry and licensed spectrum, the former including LoRa technology,
academia. Recent studies have shown that distributed Sigfox technology, Ingenu’s RPMA technology, etc.; the
ledger technology, because of its characteristics such as high latter includes NB- IoT, eMTC, EC-GSM technology, etc.
confidentiality, non-tampering, and decentralization, is a Meanwhile, with the rapid development of information
good solution to problems such as low-security performance technology and the rise of the Internet, the development
due to centralized storage for a points transfer system. of third-party payment platforms in the context of Internet
However, the distributed ledger will generate a large amount finance has penetrated deeply into many industries. Recently,
of data traffic in recording the transactions of network the points transfer system based on LPWAN has gradually
participants, which is a challenge for resource-constrained attracted the attention of academia and industry [3].
IoT devices. To address these issues, we propose an optimized
The traditional points transfer system is based on a centralized
packet transmission mechanism for a ledger-based points
architecture, and there are many problems in the application
transfer system in LPWAN. Simulation results show that our
[4]. (1) The traditional models are all centralized business
proposed mechanism can well reduce the packet transmission
models, which naturally lack credibility and lead to a very
of the whole system and meet the requirements of LPWAN.
slow construction of the points ecosystem. (2) Under the
Moreover, we update the reader with information about
traditional centralized technology architecture, the operation
distributed ledger and standardization-related activities in
platform is extremely complicated. It is very difficult to
this paper.
realize a "real-time transaction of points" between a large
number of merchants. (3) In the traditional centralized
Keywords - Distributed ledger, LPWAN, points transfer
trading model, points are mainly circulated between users
system, standardization
and merchants, and merchants and the platform. It is
difficult to realize points trading and transferring between
1. INTRODUCTION
users, which leads to the efficiency of points circulation
being greatly limited. To solve these problems, a
According to data given by GSMA, the number of global
distributed ledger can be applied to the points transfer system
IoT connections reached 7.5 billion by the end of 2017,
based on decentralization, traceability and tamper-evident
and this number is expected to reach 25.1 billion in 2025
characteristics. As a "decentralized" system, the distributed
[1]. Tens of billions of IoT devices cannot be connected
ledger accesses the unified points and forms a database
by short-range communication and cellular networks alone,
without intermediaries, where each node is a consumer and a
and a large number of demands cannot be met by existing
merchant, and everyone knows each other and supervises each
technologies, such as monitoring and management of meters,
other. This ensures that both sides of the points transaction
streetlights, manhole covers, garbage sites, etc. These require
can trust each other [5].
new network connection technologies, and Low-Power Wide
Area Networks (LPWANs) are born [2]. LPWAN is a A distributed ledger-based points transfer system has many
technology that can meet the requirements of coverage and potential advantages over traditional centralized systems.
battery life at the same time. It can provide the longest However, the existing distributed ledger technology is heavily
978-92-61-33881-7/CFP2168P @ ITU 2021 – 31 – Kaleidoscope