Practical Implementation of a Blockchain-Enabled SDN for Large-Scale Infrastructure Networks

Abstract

The network function virtualization (NFV) feature lies at the core of modern networking, and it allows on-demand real-time integration of new network functions, which is a great benefit for large-scale infrastructure networks. In contrast to the functional benefits, NFV introduces software complexity and computational overhead through additional abstraction layers. The current article addresses the function validation problem in large-scale infrastructure networks of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and proposes the utilization of blockchain as a validation technology, as opposed to implementing a custom validation solution. The current work showcases a practical architecture implementation to address the service validation in service provider large-scale networks. The POX-based solution to control software-defined networks (SDN) for NFV is extended to offer additional blockchain capabilities. Thus, a blockchain node is integrated and executed in the POX SDN controller. Transaction experiments are performed between two endpoints located in remote locations on the Internet, and the detailed results are presented to validate the utilization of the blockchain technology used on SDNs’ control plane.

Keywords

• blockchain
• Mininet
• network function virtualization
• POX controller
• software-defined networking
• vISP