FOAM <> Verizon:
The exploration into the Future of 5G and Blockchain
The FOAM team is excited to share that we recently participated in Newlab’s 5G Studio, a collaboration between Newlab and Verizon to support next-generation industry applications of 5G technology. By leveraging Verizon’s Ultra Wideband 5G network and Multi-Access Edge Computing(MEC) capabilities installed at Newlab, we have been able to experiment and build powerful decentralized applications.
Companies in the 5G Studio explored use cases from autonomous robots, drone data collection, industrial automation, location services, and an array of sensors. 5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology that provides near real time speed, massive capacity, and ultra low latency. Verizon’s approach to 5G includes the use of the millimeter-wave(mmWave) spectrum, which can carry massive amounts of data at very high speeds, with minimal latency. Additional elements that make Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband stand out are key elements like small-cell deployments and the use of MEC for local computational support.
This post is an exploration into the future of 5G and blockchain technology as well as learnings and developments from the studio. FOAM provides secure location services independent of GPS with cryptographic location proofs to unlock new markets of value and automation. Getting access to Verizon 5G has advanced the development of FOAM Location and led to novel blockchain architectures making scaling the network easier for users and customers.
Zone Anchor Backhaul
FOAM Location is made up of Zone Anchors, low power radios with custom hardware specialized for localization. Zone Anchors form a Zone of coverage to provide location services while operating a blockchain to maintain consensus on what occurred in the Zone. To run the blockchain Zone Anchors requires an internet connection, which could be by ethernet, Wi-Fi or a 4G LTE hotspot. Currently, the Zone installed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Zone Anchors are equipped with Verizon 4G LTE hotspots, more information on Zone Anchors can be found in the link below.
One of the first paths explored in this studio was to upgrade Zone Anchors to include a Verizon 5G MiFi M1000 Hotspot. This will unlock the low latency of 5G enhancing the operations of a Zone's blockchain in terms of reliability and speed of the chain converging on consensus. As 5G coverage continues to be readily available we will be able to further authenticate the locations of various objects, vehicles, and individuals.
MEC and Scalable Blockchain Architecture
The key component to Verizon's approach to 5G is MEC. This is a fundamental shift where servers are less centralized, and the computing resources are brought closer to users.
“Edge computing is a network architectural model that brings technology resources, including compute and related infrastructure, closer to the end user or to where the data is generated. Rather than housing these critical resources in a big data center that could be hundreds — or even thousands — of miles away from where the data will ultimately be delivered, this new architecture puts it closer to the end user, all right at the edge of the network.” — Verizon
This trend is greatly aligned with the direction of blockchain scalability. Data locality, distributed computational and storage resources open powerful opportunities for decentralized networks and bring infrastructure closer to users.
For most, the only feasible way to run the full Ethereum archive nodes is by geographically centralizing them to major cloud providers’ data centers. MEC enables further geo-distribution of chain data by spreading the locations of full nodes anywhere a MEC can be placed. Verizon has already introduced blockchain based systems for Machine State Integrity of MEC to detect and validate the true state of all machines.
As part of the studio, we demonstrated FOAM Lite that also builds a foundation for blockchain based applications and MEC.
FOAM Lite
Industrial Automation was a major focus area of this studio and we took this opportunity to utilize FOAM hardware to offer additional services to location. Smart contracts enable the next industrial revolution, to make smart factories a reality, redefine production, and dramatically change supply chains through security and automation.
We developed FOAM Lite, an on-the-ground Ethereum transaction relay network for IoT devices. This allows low powered sensors to send transactions via radio in absence of an internet connection and trigger a transaction and smart contract on Ethereum.
In the initial demo, a barcode scanner in a factory setting is equipped with a LoRa radio. As it scans packages a transaction is sent over radio to the FOAM Lite node and relayed to the Ethereum blockchain. Authenticated cryptographic signatures secure the transaction, FOAM token is used for payment and an NFT is minted on chain containing the data from the sensor device on the Ethereum main net.
This is one of many powerful IoT use cases that include data authentication and automation on the blockchain. Further FOAM Lite is a critical infrastructure for all of Ethereum to accelerate use cases in IoT. FOAM Lite hardware is accessible with low cost off the shelf component and the framework is flexible to use any configuration of tokens and smart contract applications.
A follow up blog post will be posted highlighting FOAM Lite, the Github respositoy and how you can get started building today!
FOAM 5G Location Services
As 5G continues to roll out new directions for applications are beginning to emerge as the newest standards lay the groundwork for new services that have never been addressed by cellular before. Most exciting to FOAM are new location services. As with GPS and the current Zone Anchors, in past generations of cellular multiple radios are required for measuring the round-trip distance of a signal to determine the location.
The nature of 5G’s UWB radio signals makes it well suited for localization independent of GPS without the need for multiple nodes for triangulation. The signals are designed to facilitate MIMO/beamforming which requires the base station to calculate a precise location for each user.
We have been exploring running FOAM Location software on 5G without FOAM hardware. This would allow location based Presence Claims and blockchain based applications to quickly expand into existing and ongoing network deployments.
Conclusion
It has been an exciting past few months getting to explore and build on the future of 5G networks, blockchain technology, and FOAM. We are looking forward to continuing to see how 5G will play a role in the launch of FOAM Location and the release of FOAM Lite. Sign up below for updates and thank you for reading!
