Abstract
Virtual Network Functions allow the effective separation between hardware and network functionality, a strong paradigm shift from previously tightly integrated monolithic, vendor, and technology dependent deployments. In this virtualized paradigm, all aspects of network operations can be made to deploy on demand, dynamically scale, as well as be shared and interworked in ways that mirror behaviors of general cloud computing. To date, although seeing rising demand, distributed ledger technology remains largely incompatible in such elastic deployments, by its nature as functioning as an immutable record store. This work focuses on the structural incompatibility of current blockchain designs and proposes a novel, temporal blockchain design built atop federated byzantine agreement, which has the ability to dynamically scale and be packaged as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) for the 5G Core.
Highlights
Unlike alternative distributed ledger structures, such as Block Lattice [1], Directed AcyclicGraph [2], and Distributed Hash Tables [3], which gain flexibility through modification or fragmentation of the underlying hashed-linked storage; blockchain allows little manipulation of its base structure outside of consensus model and block size
Bespoke wireless network-specific forks of Ethereum have been deployed to handle coordination of mesh infrastructure and last mile connectivity [8,9]. Underneath each of these is a limitation that is imposed by using a linear forward-hashed blockchain system that includes currency operations; they cannot be fragmented, since, by nature, currency transactions rely on the preceding balance recorded in perpetuity
In states where acknowledgment is received from all peers, the block is committed to the local chain and a final commit message is issued to peers (Figure 5), who commit the block in their local chain and propagate the commit forward toward edge nodes
Summary
Unlike alternative distributed ledger structures, such as Block Lattice [1], Directed Acyclic. Removing the guarantee of fault tolerance has the added benefit of allowing the consensus model to be used permissionless, but, because Stellar includes a native currency, its ledger is monolithic and cannot be made temporal, so long as any participant carries a balance or need to transact on a previous history In each of these systems, a work around for perpetual storage, and to assign a lifecycle terminus, is to use the systems in private deployment. This research diverges from currency and contract focused research in two important ways; first, a deliberate focus is placed on blockchain use solely as secure, decentralized storage, rather than a mechanism of direct policy and incentive control; second, cellular design was given priority, with the goal of packaging blockchain to accommodate cellular operations rather than the inverse This second goal, meaning to package blockchain as a standard virtual network function, one that can be scaled up, down, deploy, and to retire-allowing orchestration and lifecycle management, fitting 3GPP 5G. A conclusion is provided as a closing to the research, declaring potential improvements identified and planned future research directions
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