Blockchain-Based Settlement for Indoor Neutral-Host Offloading

Indoor users served by outdoor macro base stations often experience degraded radio performance due to penetration loss, which leads to inefficient spectrum utilization. In a neutral-host deployment, an MNO subscriber entering an indoor venue should be able to offload seamlessly onto the neutral-host infrastructure and return to macro service upon leaving. However, this requires automated procedures for subscriber authentication across operator boundaries, session-level authorization that governs which subscribers may use the neutral-host radio resources, and a settlement mechanism that accounts for the volume and quality of service consumed during the offloading period. In practice, such inter-operator procedures remain largely ad hoc, which limits the adoption of neutral-host models despite their benefits. Settlement between MNOs and neutral-host operators is typically governed by fixed monthly fees, flat-rate infrastructure access charges, or coarse traffic-volume accounting that does not differentiate between high-throughput and degraded service. While such arrangements may account for the volume of data consumed, they do not reflect the radio-layer quality actually experienced by offloaded users. A neutral-host operator (NHO) that delivers consistently high throughput is compensated identically to one whose indoor coverage is impaired by cross-tier interference or contention, weakening the incentive to maintain service quality and making it difficult to resolve disputes when performance falls short of expectations. This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled settlement framework for indoor neutral-host Open RAN deployments that explicitly links radio-layer quality of service (QoS) to economic charging. The framework enables an MNO subscriber to temporarily offload onto a neutral-host network with smart contracts automating and enforcing agreements between participating entities (e.g., MNOs and the neutral host) to ensure secure and controlled use of third-party infrastructure. Throughput gains achieved via neutral-host service are quantified through off-chain radio performance evaluation and translated into reward–penalty pricing adjustments, while settlement is enforced on-chain to provide transparency and auditability. By coupling radio performance with economic settlement, the proposed approach introduces accountability into neutral-host operation and aligns financial incentives with spectrum utilization efficiency. The framework is evaluated on Ethereum using the Sepolia test network.