LAUSR

With the boom of new technologies and applications, e.g., Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, a deluge of devices are being connected to the network, thus generating a large amount of data [1]. Data collection, processing and analysis are essentials to help people gain valuable information, make sensible decisions, and also make devices intelligent. The underlying communication network is thus facing unprecedented challenges. Along with the increase in devices, managing these devices in the existing centralized model will bring significant challenges to the infrastructure construction, maintenance, and management of the communication network. In addition, the current technology/protocol in communication networks cannot adequately ensure the security and privacy of user data, and the use of collected data is beyond the control of the user. Internet users and companies, therefore, are concerned for the privacy of their data, unwilling to provide valuable data for processing and analysis. Blockchain enables transparent interactions of different parties in a more secure and reliable network [2–7]. It is a promising technology that can simplify the management of safe information over communication networks. Given that the blockchain is trustworthy, secure, and cannot be tampered with, more data are likely to be provided over the communication network. The traceability of blockchain allows data to be retained on the blockchain from every step of collection and transaction, improve the quality of the data, and ensure the correctness of data analysis and mining. The decentralization of blockchain also provides a way for device management in the communication network, which can help devices understand one another (knowing the relationships between different devices). However, employing blockchain mechanisms in communication networks still has some technical challenges and limitations. This special issue is devoted to the most recent developments and research outcomes addressing the related theoretical and practical aspects of blockchain and communication networks and aims at presenting fresh innovative ideas targeted at the corresponding major challenges, from either a methodological or an application perspective. Considering the significance, originality, novelty and presentation of submitted articles, we selected four articles to be included in this Special Issue.