Abstract
The certificate management complexity and cost increase when PKI technology is leveraged into Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), a significant enabling technology for 5G networks. The expected security of PKI cannot be met due to the unavailability of the certificate revocation inquiry in the telecommunication operator’s core network. This paper analyses the issues and challenges during the NFV implementation and proposes a blockchain-based decentralized NFV certificate management mechanism. During instantiation, the Virtual Network Functions (VNF) instance generates certificates according to the certificate profile provided in the VNF package. The certificate management unit is responsible for the certificate enrolment, renewal, and revocation. The certificates submitted to the decentralized certificate management system by the instance will be recorded into the ledger after validation and consensus. The experiment and analysis show the transaction throughput, and the transaction delay is noncritical in practice, which could be fulfilled by the proposed mechanism. The certificate inquiry performance is critical, which can be facilitated by the decentralized deployment of inquiry nodes.
Highlights
Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), featured as decoupling software from hardware, flexible network function deployment, and dynamic operation, is a significant enabling technology for 5G networks
In NFV, network functions are implemented by vendors in software components known as Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), which are deployed on cloud infrastructure or massively distributed servers instead of dedicated hardware [1]
The operation, deployment, and execution of network services and VNFs in NFV infrastructure are controlled by an orchestration and management system, whose performance is steered by NFV descriptors
Summary
Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), featured as decoupling software from hardware, flexible network function deployment, and dynamic operation, is a significant enabling technology for 5G networks. In NFV, network functions are implemented by vendors in software components known as Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), which are deployed on cloud infrastructure or massively distributed servers instead of dedicated hardware [1]. It enabled the execution and deployment of VNF on NFV infrastructure comprising a pool of network, storage, and computing resources. The NFV infrastructure is usually a decentralized cloud infrastructure in which servers are distributed over various locations. The operation, deployment, and execution of network services and VNFs in NFV infrastructure are controlled by an orchestration and management system, whose performance is steered by NFV descriptors
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