{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,11]],"date-time":"2026-03-11T01:45:26Z","timestamp":1773193526764,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,13]],"date-time":"2022-09-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1663027200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JSAN"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The opportunistic fog radio access network (OF-RAN) expands its offloading computation capacity on-demand by establishing virtual fog access points (v-FAPs), comprising user devices with idle resources recruited opportunistically to execute the offloaded tasks in a distributed manner. OF-RAN is attractive for providing computation offloading services to resource-limited Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices from vertical industrial applications such as smart transportation, tourism, mobile healthcare, and public safety. However, the current OF-RAN design is lacking a trusted and distributed mechanism for automating its processes such as v-FAP formation and service execution. Motivated by the recent emergence of blockchain, with smart contracts as an enabler of trusted and distributed systems, we propose an automated mechanism for OF-RAN processes using smart contracts. To demonstrate how our smart-contract-based automation for OF-RAN could apply in real life, a federated deep learning (DL) use-case where a resource-limited client offloads the resource-intensive training of its DL model to a v-FAP is implemented and evaluated. The results validate the DL and blockchain performances of the proposed smart-contract-enabled OF-RAN. The appropriate setting of process parameters to meet the often competing requirements is also demonstrated.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jsan11030053","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,13]],"date-time":"2022-09-13T22:37:28Z","timestamp":1663108648000},"page":"53","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Smart-Contract-Based Automation for OF-RAN Processes: A Federated Learning Use-Case"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2551-1718","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jofina","family":"Jijin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9511-7521","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Boon-Chong","family":"Seet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5375-8961","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter Han Joo","family":"Chong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"70371","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2919657","article-title":"A comprehensive survey of RAN architectures toward 5G mobile communication system","volume":"7","author":"Habibi","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"46","DOI":"10.1109\/MNET.2016.7513863","article-title":"Fog computing-based radio access networks: Issues and challenges","volume":"30","author":"Peng","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Netw. 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