DCSCY: DRL-Based Cross-Shard Smart Contract Yanking in a Blockchain Sharding Framework

Wang, Y; Zhang, Z; Yin, H; Yu, G; Wang, X; Sun, C; Ni, W; Liu, RP; Cheng, Z

DCSCY: DRL-Based Cross-Shard Smart Contract Yanking in a Blockchain Sharding Framework

Wang, Y Zhang, Z Yin, H Yu, G

Wang, X

Sun, C Ni, W Liu, RP Cheng, Z

Permalink

Publisher:: MDPI
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Electronics Switzerland, 2025, 14, (16)
Issue Date:: 2025-08-01

Open Access

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Open Access

This item is open access.

Adobe PDF

Download Published versionAdobe PDF (1.21 MB)

View on publisher's site

View statistics

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Wang, Y
dc.contributor.author	Zhang, Z
dc.contributor.author	Yin, H
dc.contributor.author	Yu, G https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6111-1607
dc.contributor.author	Wang, X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9439-6437
dc.contributor.author	Sun, C
dc.contributor.author	Ni, W
dc.contributor.author	Liu, RP
dc.contributor.author	Cheng, Z
dc.date.accessioned	2026-01-06T05:09:12Z
dc.date.available	2026-01-06T05:09:12Z
dc.date.issued	2025-08-01
dc.identifier.citation	Electronics Switzerland, 2025, 14, (16)
dc.identifier.issn	2079-9292
dc.identifier.issn	2079-9292
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/191335
dc.description.abstract	Blockchain sharding has emerged as a promising solution to address scalability and performance challenges in distributed ledger systems. In the sharded blockchain, yanking can reduce the communication overhead of smart contracts between shards. However, the existing smart contract yanking methods are inefficient, increasing the latency and reducing the throughput. In this paper, we propose a novel DRL-Based Cross-Shard Smart Contract Yanking (DCSCY) framework which intelligently balances three critical factors: the number of smart contracts processed, node waiting time, and yanking costs. The proposed framework dynamically optimizes the relocation trajectory of smart contracts across shards. This reduces the communication overhead and enables adaptive, function-level migrations to enhance the execution efficiency. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces the cross-shard transaction latency and enhances smart contract utilization. Compared to random-based and order-based methods, the DCSCY approach achieves a performance improvement of more than 95%.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	MDPI
dc.relation.ispartof	Electronics Switzerland
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.3390/electronics14163254
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
dc.subject.classification	4009 Electronics, sensors and digital hardware
dc.title	DCSCY: DRL-Based Cross-Shard Smart Contract Yanking in a Blockchain Sharding Framework
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	14
utslib.for	0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Electrical and Data Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/Global Big Data Technologies Centre (GBDTC)
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/UTS Groups/Cyber Digital Centre (CDC)
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.rights.license	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.date.updated	2026-01-06T05:09:11Z
pubs.issue	16
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	14
utslib.citation.issue	16

Abstract:

Blockchain sharding has emerged as a promising solution to address scalability and performance challenges in distributed ledger systems. In the sharded blockchain, yanking can reduce the communication overhead of smart contracts between shards. However, the existing smart contract yanking methods are inefficient, increasing the latency and reducing the throughput. In this paper, we propose a novel DRL-Based Cross-Shard Smart Contract Yanking (DCSCY) framework which intelligently balances three critical factors: the number of smart contracts processed, node waiting time, and yanking costs. The proposed framework dynamically optimizes the relocation trajectory of smart contracts across shards. This reduces the communication overhead and enables adaptive, function-level migrations to enhance the execution efficiency. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces the cross-shard transaction latency and enhances smart contract utilization. Compared to random-based and order-based methods, the DCSCY approach achieves a performance improvement of more than 95%.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/191335