Blockchain-Enabled Communication Infrastructures: A Review of Trust, Security, and Resource Orchestration in IoT, Edge, Vehicular, and 6G Networks
Main article
Abstract
Blockchain has moved from a cryptocurrency infrastructure to a coordination technology for modern communication systems. This review examines how blockchain is being embedded into next-generation communication environments, with particular attention to Internet of Things deployments, edge-cloud collaboration, cyber-physical infrastructures, security and privacy management, smart grids, vehicular networking, and emerging 5G/6G ecosystems. Following the logic of recent survey work on blockchain-enabled communications, the article synthesizes representative peer-reviewed studies, clarifies the blockchain mechanisms that matter for communication engineering, and organizes the literature around application layers rather than isolated protocols. The review shows that blockchain creates value when communication systems require shared trust, auditable automation, decentralized identity, incentive-compatible coordination, or tamper-resistant data exchange across organizational boundaries. At the same time, real deployment remains constrained by throughput, latency, storage overhead, interoperability, privacy leakage, governance complexity, and uneven energy efficiency across consensus designs. Building on both communication-network research and information-systems scholarship, the article develops an integrated analytical view of when blockchain genuinely improves communication architectures and when lighter coordination mechanisms are preferable. The paper concludes by identifying future directions around lightweight consensus, AI-native blockchain orchestration, cross-chain communication fabrics, privacy-preserving verification, and programmable trust for 6G and autonomous infrastructures.
