Blockchain-Based Slice Orchestration for Enabling Cross-Slice Communication at the Network Edge
Konstantinos Papadakis-Vlachopapadopoulos, Ioannis Dimolitsas, Dimitrios Dechouniotis, Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, Ioanna G. Roussaki, Symeon Papavassiliou · 2020
The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, with a grand variety of devices in large numbers, commonly combined with resource and power limitations dictates new challenges and constraints. The emerging Edge Computing paradigm arises promises to address these issues by placing cloud-type resources, closer to IoT devices. In this context, network slicing is common practice at the network edge. A network slice groups logically isolated computing and network resources. Under the 5G and Edge Computing umbrella, multi-administrative domain services have emerged as operational challenges but also giving economic incentives to the providers and the users. This study introduces a Blockchain-based solution, aligned with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Network Function Virtualization (NFV) standard, for automated orchestration, enabling cross slice communication between different domains. The main focus is placed on enabling trust between untrusted parties, minimizing resource consumption, management and development overheads, as well as providing security and crash-fault tolerance.