SkyTrust: Blockchain-Enhanced UAV Security for NTNs with Dynamic Trust and Energy-Aware Consensus

Abstract: Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as base stations are extremely susceptible to security attacks due to their distributed and dynamic nature, which makes them vulnerable to rogue nodes. In this paper, a new Dynamic Trust Score Adjustment Mechanism with Energy-Aware Consensus (DTSAM-EAC) is proposed to enhance security in UAV-based NTNs. The proposed framework integrates a permissioned Hyperledger Fabric blockchain with Federated Learning (FL) to support privacy-preserving trust evaluation. Trust ratings are updated continuously through weighted aggregation of past trust, present behavior, and energy contribution, thus making the system adaptive to changing network conditions. An energy-aware consensus mechanism prioritizes UAVs with greater available energy for block validation, ensuring efficient use of resources under resource-constrained environments. FL aggregation with trust-weighting further increases the resilience of the global trust model. Simulation results verify the designed framework achieves 94\% trust score prediction accuracy and 96\% rogue UAV detection rate while outperforming centralized and static baselines of trust-based solutions on privacy, energy efficiency, and reliability. It complies with 6G requirements in terms of distributed intelligence and sustainability and is an energy-efficient and scalable solution to secure NTNs.