Jijin, JofinaSeet, Boon-ChongChong, Peter Han Joo2026-05-202026-05-202022-09-13Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, ISSN: 2224-2708 (Print); 2224-2708 (Online), MDPI AG, 11(3). doi: 10.3390/jsan110300532224-27082224-2708http://hdl.handle.net/10292/21156The 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.© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/automationblockchaincomputation offloadingfederated deep learningindustrial Internet-of-Thingsopportunistic fog radio access networksmart contract4605 Data Management and Data Science4606 Distributed Computing and Systems Software46 Information and Computing SciencesMachine Learning and Artificial Intelligence0805 Distributed Computing0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering1005 Communications Technologies4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardwareJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3390/jsan11030053