The deployment of optical network infrastructure and development of new network services are growing rapidly for beyond 5/6G networks. However, optical networks are vulnerable to several types of security threats, such as single-point failure, wormhole attacks, and Sybil attacks. Since the uptake of e-commerce and e-services has seen an unprecedented surge in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the security of these transactions is essential. Blockchain is one of the most promising solutions because of its decentralized and distributed ledger technology, and has been employed to protect these transactions against such attacks. However, the security of blockchain relies on the computational complexity of certain mathematical functions, and because of the evolution of quantum computers, its security may be breached in real-time in the near future. Therefore, researchers are focusing on combining quantum key distribution (QKD) with blockchain to enhance blockchain network security. This new technology is known as quantum-secured blockchain. This article describes different attacks in optical networks and provides a solution to protect networks against security attacks by employing quantum-secured blockchain in optical networks. It provides a brief overview of blockchain technology with its security loopholes, and focuses on QKD, which makes blockchain technology more robust against quantum attacks. Next, the article provides a broad view of quantum-secured blockchain technology. It presents the network architecture for the future research and development of secure and trusted optical networks using quantum-secured blockchain. The article also highlights some research challenges and opportunities.

Center for Basic and Applied Research Faculty of Informatics and Management University of Hradec Kralove 500 03 Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Department of Information and Communication Engineering Yeungnam University Gyeongsan 38541 Republic of Korea

Institute of Technology and Business in Ceske Budejovice 370 01 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology University Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 54100 Malaysia

Photonics Laboratory Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering Institute of Engineering and Technology Devi Ahilya University Indore 452017 India

Signals and Software Group Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Indore Indore 453552 India

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