Decentralized Identity-Based Authentication for 6G Devices and Networks

6G System (6GS) offers numerous benefits for Consumer Electronics (CE) Devices through low latency, massive connectivity, and high bandwidth, consequently leading to higher security and throughput requirements. Amid diverse demands and emerging scenarios, authentication methods provide the foundation for identity verification, secure network access, and communication. However, the current centralized authentication framework suffers from inherent vulnerabilities and structural limitations, facing several security issues such as single point of failure, cross-domain trust establishment challenges, and privacy risks, which make it unable to adapt to security and performance requirements of 6G services. Blockchain technology, noted for its immutability, tamper-resistance, and security, has proven to be a compelling solution for establishing trusted authentication process among telecom networks and CE devices. This paper presents a new blockchain-based authentication framework based on the characteristics of the core network, Radio Access Network (RAN), and User Equipment (UE) access scenarios. Towards building a resilient 6GS, the proposed framework enables decentralized identifier-based UE authentication and decentralized public key infrastructure based RAN and core network function authentication. Furthermore, we establish corresponding experimental platforms to analyze the performance and security of the proposed solutions.