Instantiation of a telco blockchain in a NFV environment
View Patent ↗A system and method are provided for instantiating a blockchain in a telecommunications network. The method includes identifying a smart contract having S transactions; encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain; selecting K edge gate nodes of the telecommunications network from among N of the edge gate nodes according to an ant colony system algorithm, wherein each of the edge gate nodes operates at an edge of the telecommunications network, and wherein S≤K; and allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes.
1. A method for instantiating a blockchain in a telecommunications network, the method comprising:
identifying a smart contract having S transactions;
encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain;
selecting K edge gate nodes of the telecommunications network from among N of the edge gate nodes according to an ant colony system algorithm, wherein each of the edge gate nodes operates at an edge of the telecommunications network, and wherein S≤K; and
allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a blockchain forwarding graph for the sub-blockchain, comprising associating a respective pheromone value with each of the K edge gate nodes.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
generating a trail path for the sub-blockchain, comprising selecting one of the K edge gate nodes according to the pheromone values.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
validating the sub-blockchain according to the trail path for the sub-blockchain.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating K according to a K-means algorithm.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain comprises encoding the S transactions into a macro token; and
allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes comprises:
segmenting the macro token into at least one micro token, and
storing each micro token on one of the K edge gate nodes.
7. A system, comprising:
a hardware processor; and
a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the hardware processor to perform a method for instantiating a blockchain in a telecommunications network, the method comprising:
identifying a smart contract having S transactions;
encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain;
selecting K edge gate nodes of the telecommunications network from among N of the edge gate nodes according to an ant colony system algorithm, wherein each of the edge gate nodes operates at an edge of the telecommunications network, and wherein S≤K; and
allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes.
8. The system of claim 7 , the method further comprising:
generating a blockchain forwarding graph for the sub-blockchain, comprising associating a respective pheromone value with each of the K edge gate nodes.
9. The system of claim 8 , the method further comprising:
generating a trail path for the sub-blockchain, comprising selecting one of the K edge gate nodes according to the pheromone values.
10. The system of claim 9 , the method further comprising:
validating the sub-blockchain according to the trail path for the sub-blockchain.
11. The system of claim 7 , the method further comprising:
calculating K according to a K-means algorithm.
12. The system of claim 7 , wherein:
encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain comprises encoding the S transactions into a macro token; and
allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes comprises:
segmenting the macro token into at least one micro token, and
storing each micro token on one of the K edge gate nodes.
13. The system of claim 7 , the method further comprising:
allocating the sub-blockchain only when all of the virtual network functions may be allocated simultaneously.
14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a hardware processor of a computing component, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause the hardware processor to perform a method for instantiating a blockchain in a telecommunications network, the method comprising:
identifying a smart contract having S transactions;
encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain;
selecting K edge gate nodes of the telecommunications network from among N of the edge gate nodes according to an ant colony system algorithm, wherein each of the edge gate nodes operates at an edge of the telecommunications network, and wherein S≤K; and
allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes.
15. The medium of claim 14 , the method further comprising:
generating a blockchain forwarding graph for the sub-blockchain, comprising associating a respective pheromone value with each of the K edge gate nodes.
16. The medium of claim 15 , the method further comprising:
generating a trail path for the sub-blockchain, comprising selecting one of the K edge gate nodes according to the pheromone values.
17. The medium of claim 16 , the method further comprising:
validating the sub-blockchain according to the trail path for the sub-blockchain.
18. The medium of claim 14 , the method further comprising:
calculating K according to a K-means algorithm.
19. The medium of claim 14 , wherein:
encoding the S transactions into a sub-blockchain comprises encoding the S transactions into a macro token; and
allocating the sub-blockchain as one or more virtual network functions among the K edge gate nodes comprises:
segmenting the macro token into at least one micro token, and
storing each micro token on one of the K edge gate nodes.
20. The medium of claim 14 , the method further comprising:
allocating the sub-blockchain only when all of the virtual network functions may be allocated simultaneously.