Novel NFV entities managing scheme for telecom providers using Proof of Concept Blockchain

Traditionally for providing communication service in the new region, Communication Service Providers (CSP) have to deploy new hardware appliances like Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Home Location Register (HLR) etc. This results in huge capital expenses (CAPEX) and operational expenses (OPEX) for telecom providers. So in order to reduce hardware costs, generic hardware with high capacity storage, memory and compute power can be virtualized to multiple virtual network functions (VNF) which will perform functions like routing, switching etc. This virtualization concept is called Network Function Virtualization (NFV). As NFV based telecom service involves different operators, it requires Multi-domain Orchestration (Md-O). To overcome trust issues, management of NFV entities needs to be done in a distributed manner by involving all organizations, who involved in NFV environment. As blockchain technology is distributed ledger technology, blockchain based decentralized applications seem to be effective in managing NFV entities. In this paper schema for managing multi-domain orchestrated NFV entities using blockchain was proposed. For performing identity management of NFV entities, Proof of Concept blockchain was proposed with Hyperledger Indy. Also for performing life cycle management of VNFs, blockchain was designed with Hyperledger fabric.